Decided to abandon the plans to go to Goddard because of Wednesday’s forecast for west winds to 25 mph and seas to 24feet. For some reason heading over to Brent’s beach cabin seemed like a friendlier proposition. We loaded the skiff with what seemed like enough gear for 2 weeks and headed north through the channel. I opted for the bow seat, so I was wearing polypropylene pants and shirt, wool pants, a wind bloc pullover and jacket with rain pants and coat over all. Not to forget the life jacket, hat, and water proof gloves. I could barely move, but I was warm and dry. The swell was noticeably large the entire way from the north breakwater to the beach. Between Crow and Guide islands was particularly sloppy. I was happy to have my back to the seas and the view. Did see a number of Common murres and one pair of Marbled murrelets along the way to Kruzof. Because of the high tides and storms the water was full of logs, seaweed and misc. detritus. It might have been a bit of a nasty ride after passing Crow Island, but the beach landing was truly gnarly. In fact, we looked at it for quite awhile before deciding to make the attempt. The breaking waves were mostly in the 1 to 2ft range, but there was the occasional 3 to 3.5ft wave. Ian jumped out at the beach and I tossed him stuff as fast as I could, once Deirdre made it the bow, I jumped/slid onto the beach too and Deirdre tossed us both stuff. What the unloading crew didn’t see was the wave that went over the stern; we did see the debris floating to the beach though. The wave turned the skiff broadside, then stern to the beach. We had it unloaded; now we had to get it off the beach. It took all four of us to push it out just enough to barely get the prop in the water (and out of the sand). The rooster tail of water was substantial when Jeff got the outboard going. Fortunately getting the skiff tied up to the mooring buoy went a lot easier, the surf wasn’t too much for the little plastic kayak. The only damage was one prop blade was slightly bent in the sand.

It was near high tide when we arrived which was useful for moving the pile of supplies. The cabin was in good shape, but is rather dark inside compared to the cabins at Fred’s creek and Shelikof It took a bit of effort to get the fire going, the provided wood was a little wet, bringing kindling from home was quite useful. I forgot to bring an axe, but the Forest Service fortunately provided a good axe and splitting maul at the cabin. We spent the rest of the daylight hours getting the cabin in order and walking on the beach. Saw one varied thrush and a robin in alders north of the cabin. Seven Black turnstones were working the drift line near the high tide peninsula to the small island. That night it hailed, snowed and blew.

The next morning Jeff and Ian went hunting and Deirdre and I went north to see if we could find an easy way to the cave near Pt. Brown. We didn’t manage to find a suitable path. We were stopped by a chasm that was just a bit wide for us to jump. We wandered up slope to look for an easy way down. No luck. We ended up above the cave on a headland. Lots of deer sign, but no animals.
We decided to head for Kamenoi beach while the tide was low. The beach fringe path made this trip much more straightforward than our first morning walk. The name Kamenoi apparently means rocky, I can only believe that the point was named first. The beach is sandy, rather coarse, but still sand. There are a couple of large rocks in the middle of the beach, but I’m still thinking that the point was the origin of the name. I hadn’t been on this beach since Deirdre was a toddler. It used to be a great razor clam spot. What I really remember about this beach is one of my first “stupid parent” tricks. Managed to take everything on the excursion, but what was needed the most. Why would anyone take a toddler clam digging without bringing extra clothes? Fortunately she can take care of herself now.
The beach fringe forest was a classic example of what we used to call a Pisi/canu or Sitka spruce/ pacific reedgrass stand. Lobaria linita/oregana would be good name to add to this forest type. This spot was interesting in how far inland the grass understory layer continues inland. The area was also interesting because of the incisement or ridges semi-parallel to the beach. The height of the ridges seemed more extreme than what I would expect from uplift, maybe some of them are due to basalt flows in addition to uplift Should always carry a shovel so I can test these ideas. Also saw 4 (maybe 3) Shore pines in one spot on the edge of the forest. Not a common sight around here.
Deirdre found a couple of basalt cliffs to explore and I collected two mosses and one small orange filamentous alga from the cliffs. I’m pretty sure it is the same orange creature that I’ve found on the basalt cliffs near Pt. Brown. There were three or four sets of deer tracks on the beach, but no other animals. Found a small group of Pine siskins and a Song sparrow and at one winter wren about every 100 yards. The wrens are in the drift wood, I assume eating small arthropods. None of them were too worried about us, just briefly scolded and went back to food gathering. Didn’t find any interesting beach debris except 4 Big skate egg cases (each about 10 inches long). Saw Mew, Thayers and Glacuous-winged gulls, Surf and White-winged scoters, Pelagic cormorants, Pacific loons, Common mergansers, Harlequins, Barrow’s Goldeneyes, Buffleheads and 1 Horned grebe on the water side. There were at least 10 Double-crested cormorants on the rocks in front of the cabin.

After lunch, Deirdre was willing to follow her mother toward the muskegs west of the cabin while Jeff and Ian tried for deer north of the cabin. The forest was a little brushy, but there were so many deer and people trails that it was relatively easy to get to the muskegs. Some nice cedar along the way, found one with the plaited looking bark that I associate with the largest or oldest of the yellow cedars. The bryophyte mounds on the cedars were dominated by Herbertus , the smaller ones by Tortula tortuosa. Both mounds had Apometzgeria, Plagiochila and Radula growing with the dominant species. There were the usual flat sheets of Frullania mid trunk and Isothecium cardotti toward the base of the cedars. I should probably positively identify which species of the liverworts I’ve been collecting from the cedars.
The muskeg had just enough snow to make it difficult to do a proper search for juniper and probably quite noisy for hunting. Didn’t find any juniper, birds or deer sign. Unfortunately, I didn’t find the easiest path back to the beach either.
We stopped at one of the small beaches between Crab and Kamenoi pt to watch the birds. A group of seven Pacific loons (could actually see the dark necklaces) was in the cove.

Decided to take one more walk down the beach before the retreat to the cabin for the night. Was turning to head into the forest to go around a point found a different sparrow. It had white wing bars, a light breast with one central spot, and brown stripes on its head with one brown eye strip that tended downward. I was fairly certain that it was a White-crowned, but after looking at Sibley, decided that it was a Tree Sparrow.

While trying to follow the sparrow around the beach fringe, I noticed a large flat gray lichen on the lower trunk of a Sitka spruce. All I could tell in the dim light was that it was something I hadn’t seen previously. The white spots on the underside were indicative of a Pseudocyphellaria or a Sticta. It wasn’t the right color for the latter genus, nor for the more common species of the former. I had found one piece of P. anomala on the ground earlier in the day. Had to wait until I could look at the Macrolichens of the PNW before deciding the lichen was P. rainierensis. I’ve read about the lichen, but hadn’t found it previously. It is a rare lichen through out its range and is considered to be associated with old growth in the PNW. In the lichen inventory of the Tongass, this lichen was found on Spruce and Crab apple along salt water beaches, same habitat that this one was growing (is still, I only took a small sample).
The Black turnstones which had wandered off during the day were back in their spot at high tide.

That night saw my second live marten. I was sound asleep on the top bunk; this is only impressive if one has slept on a narrow plywood bunk, when I was woken by a very loud pounding. The wood in the cabin amplifies every sound, a person rustling in their sleeping bag is quite loud, so the rest of the family ignored the sound, thinking it was me accidentally flinging things out of my bunk (I did this repeatedly). With headlamp in hand, I looked through the front window of the cabin. Hanging on the door to the cooler was a marten. It had its front paws through the top of the screen and the lower ones on the bottom wooden ledge. It was shaking the daylights out of the door trying to get it open. The door was held closed by a hook and eye latch and I’m surprised that the marten wasn’t successful in wiggling it open. Its ears were laid back and it was making odd noise (not quite growling). There was a particularly smelly hunk of liverwurst in the cooler which was most likely the object of interest. It wasn’t too worried about the light or me, but eventually it stopped the shaking, shifted position to peer briefly through the window at me, then jumped on top of the cooler and disappeared. It came back at least one more time that night, but didn’t have any more luck.

The other noise that started in the night was the surf, it had calmed down considerably on Thursday, but at some point in the night the swell had built up again. There was a little snow on the ground in the morning.

Deirdre and I walked back to Kamenoi beach while Jeff and Ian tried hunting again. No deer tracks this morning, but one set of river otter tracks. The otter followed the drift log line to a creek, entered the creek and I didn’t follow it further. The surf was huge. The waves were breaking on the large rocks and splashing about 15ft high. It didn’t seem like conditions were going to be too good for loading the skiff.
We did decide to leave mostly because the forecast sounded like it was just going to get worse. This time we used the boat anchor to off the stern to keep the skiff from coming in too shallow. The shore line was long enough to slowly move the boat toward the beach without grounding it, but shallow enough to allow loading. It still required a lot of frantic flinging of gear so that Ian, Deirdre and I didn’t get wet. Managed to load the boat without further destroying the prop, Deirdre and I stayed dry but Ian got wet to the shins. I did enjoy it when Ian had to pick me up to get me in the skiff. Where I could reach the skiff without wading too deep, the rail was above my chest, no way I could get myself on. I did pull him in after me. The joys of having grown children.

Decided to take a brief peek at Port Krestof, brief because Ian (and it turned out Jeff) was wet.
Oystercatchers, Horned grebes, Canada geese (6), Brant (about 20), Buffleheads, Scaup, Barrow’s goldeneyes, Common and Pacific loons, mallards, Common mergansers, White-winged scoters and a lot of ducks in the river channel that I couldn’t identify.
The ride home was flat calm in comparison with the trip over on Wednesday. Saw 2 groups of sea otters near Crow island. Friday evenings paper had a report of a dead Green sea turtle found in Port Krestof on Thursday. What looked like the same hunters (or at least a similar boat) were on the beach by Pt. Brown maybe hoping for a deer to go with the turtle.

Sunday evening successfully retrieved Deirdre from the potentially endless Christmas travel loop. She didn't suffer, American Airlines put her up in a large hotel room with free wireless near O'Hare airport. In fact she seemed quite rested despite having a rather long day. Fortunately, a year away from island life hasn't caused any noticable loss of skiff skills. Maybe it will always be there for her. Since I didn't teach her how to ride a bicycle or drive a car, I guess it is good I taught her some other transportation skills.


Monday's high tide wasn't quite as high as Sundays. At 15 minutes before the tide, there wasn't a moat around the lot 4 house and the trail was still passable around the north end of the island. Went out to Starrigavan around 1:30 to look for Friday's swans. Probably should have looked on Friday. Lots of mallards, scaups, common mergansers, a few Buffleheads and a Northern flicker. The water from the high tide was still covering the lower places in the meadow and in the forest between the longer side trail into the meadow and the bridge. There was still snow on the boardwalk of the estuary trail and the muskeg trail. There was a flock of about 60 Pine siskins in the alders by the Old Sitka parking lot.

Collected a small mushroom from an alder. It is a light tan to brownish fungus with an short lateral stem. They can be shelving or seperate on the branches. It is the same fungus that I've seen many times in the winter, but never quite finished the job of identifying it. Finally got a good spore print (white), checked the spores for an amyloid reaction (positive) tasted it (mild), cross-sectioned the cap (had a gelatinous layer) and decided that it fits Panellus longinquus. The mushroom acquires a purple/rosy cast as it dries. It is most likely var pacifica decribed by Susan Libonati-Barnes (a former graduate student of Stuntz that I knew at University of Washington). Mycotaxon 20: 205-212 http://www.cybertruffle.org.uk/cyberliber/index.htm. The biggest ones I found are slightly larger than the range described in Arora, but I'm not too bothered by that discrepancy. This fungus fruited on and off through last winter. I mostly remember seeing it on alder, but I believe that it also occured on Mountain ash. I'll have to keep my eyes open.


The bird feeder has been more active the last two days or maybe I'm just around more to watch it. The song sparrows which used to stick to the ground below the feeder have decided that the deck and railing are good for foraging. The juncos have moved to the tube feeder (they didn't go near it before), perhaps because the sparrows are in their former territory. The chickadees remain faithful to their habit of picking up a seed then flying away. I really wonder where they hide it all. I can almost imagine sunflowers blooming out of crevices in the hemlocks around the garden.



Christmas noonish the family walked around the lake during a lull in the hail/rain/sleet. We did take refuge at one point on a porch during one hail event.

Did a Christmas bird species tally on the island and the surrounding water: Common & Pacific Loons, Red-necked grebe, Pelagic cormorants, Bufflehead, Barrow's goldeneyes, Common merganser, Mew, Glaucous-winged, and Thayer's gulls, Bald Eagle, Raven, Northwestern crow, Common murres, Song sparrows, Varied thrush, 4 Robins, Oregon juncos, Chestnut backed chickadees and a Winter wren. Also found 2 dead siskins on the porch where we hid from the hail.

Also collected a small pleurotoid fungus from a very large (old growth) Menziesia near the cabin. The largest ones had caps about 2cm across. The caps were white with enrolled margins and smooth edged gills. It also has white amyloid spores which makes it a Panellus. I haven't decided which one yet.


Seemed to spend much of the afternoon in the kitchen, getting the lamb ready (with a hammer) to bake and attempting my first Christmas pudding. Printed the recipe from the NPR web site after being intrigued by the story a few days ago. Had to make a few substitutions in the recipe, forgot to buy rum and couldn't find the right kind of figs. After brieflly cooking the figs and raisins in brandy and rum (had to substitute scotch ), one is supposed to burn off the remaining liquor. I must have cooked it too long because despite trying several times the liquid wouldn't ignite. The rest of the recipe went pretty smoothly, only substituted blueberries for cranberries and added some walnuts. Managed to get the bundt pan in the big stock pot and steamed the pudding for the required 2 hours. Getting the cake pan out of the pan was a bit of a trick. There isn't alot of room between the stock pot and the pan particularly when wearing oven gloves to avoid being burned by the steaming water. The true pyromaniac moment is just before eating the cake. Heated up 1/3 cup of brandy to almost steaming, poured it over the cake and applied a match. Great blue flame. I applied the match a little fast, because there was still brandy in the saucepan. It also ignited. It is quite fun to pour flaming brandy on a cake. Although the cake tasted just fine, the highlight was definitely the blue flames.

Got out to observe one of the higher
tides of the year this morning. The high was 12.5 ft at 11:22am. There were two 12.8 tides in November and a 12.6 in October, so this wasn't the largest tide. It was however helped along by a large low pressure system and accompanying gale. The photo is of the house on lot 4 which is on fill added to what I assume was an existing beach to expedite the removal of gravel from the quarry (now a lake). On the highest tides the house has a saltwater moat with small waves lapping at the porch. The water covers the trail in front of the house, but it is possible to wade through with rubber boots. I have seen the water deep enough in this spot to necessitate carrying small children. The other place on the trail that was submerged was on the west side of the dock approach. It was too deep to wade without getting wet and there isn't going around because the trail abutts a cliff. I suppose a dedicated person could get around, but I wasn't that motivated.
The tops of most of the dock pilings were about shoulder height for me. Found Parmelia ( probably sulcata) a Brachythecium and a small Vaccinium ovalifolium/alaskense growing on the tops. Impressive with all of the creosote around.
Saw Robins, a Varied thrush, song sparrows, winter wren, juncos, chickadees and golden crowned kinglets on the walk.
Briefly woke up this morning around 6am and saw the fullish looking moon and Mars through the westward facing window of Deirdre's room. The moon was nicely lined up with the window and filled the hallway with light. It was a nice view of Mars and the moon. There was another bright object that I briefly thought must be another planet, but couldn't find one that would fit. Must confess that I've had an underlying doubt about the date full moon. I thought I had checked the Sky in December section in Natural History magazine, but alas I had looked at the November issue . So the full moon is today.

Most of the snow disappeared on Thursday and Friday in the rain and wind of this lovely low pressure system we are enjoying. Crossing my fingers that the weather is adequate for traveling down to Goddard on the 26th. Also crossing my fingers that Deirdre makes it in today. She got out of Chicago where she was stuck yesterday and is hopefully on her way home now.

We have had about 6 inches of snow on the ground. Most of it fell Sunday night and Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday have been mostly clear and cold. Fortunately kept the water flowing from the lake this time, so can do laundry without worrying about running out of water.

Monday morning the mink tracks started at the far edge of the front porch and continued down the boardwalk. Another set of tracks went off toward the greenhouse. I didn't have time to look at the rest of the garden. The boardwalk set seemed to mostly favor one side of the boardwalk, occasionally cross the other side and continue. The mink would also periodically leave the boardwalk altogether, then return a few feet later. The one side pattern continued on the dock. The tracks stayed close to the edge of the approach and ramp, crossed the dock, went along the dock very close to the bullrail, crossed to the other side and continued. I'm not sure who eats mink in the neighborhood.
Most of the tracks are in groups of three, but tonight there were tracks in pairs. Tonight the boardwalk near the house is pretty much covered with human and mink tracks. Kind of looks like a mink highway. So far, they haven't found a way into the insulation (it is supposed to be covered with plywood). I'm crossing my fingers.
Both Tuesday and Wednesday late afternoon I walked up Indian river trail. The first day I started early enough to make it to the elevated boardwalk before the first bridge before dark, today just went to the cascades. The trail is pretty well traveled, but most people are gone by mid afternoon. The scarcity of other hikers is kind of pleasant when there is snow. The quiet is exceptionally nice. Mostly, I don't mind sharing the trail, but it is alot easier to listen for birds when alone. Not that there was alot of birds to hear. Each day I heard a winter wren or two, it was kind of late in the day though. Today just at the large notched tree up from the cross trail cut off, I heard a western screech owl. It was making some particularly odd sounds, I wasn't sure that it was a weso, the sounds were so strange. Then after a few series of notes (?), it sounded a bit more familiar. It was in a red alder between the trail and the river. It was impressively loud and close. It was my first owl this fall. I thought I might have heard one on Monday in the alders above the lake on the island, but it was faint and not repeated.
Neglected to mention how nice the moonlight was coming through the trees. I had my headlamp on, but only used it in the darkest part of the trail because of the light provided by the moon and reflected by the snow. The moon looked a bit bigger than half (it's full on Christmas eve) and was making irregular looking pools of yellowish light in the snow. The view of the moon from the first muskeg it was rather striking, it was just off directly over Arrowhead.
The few birds I've seen on the island in the morning have been a flock of siskins, a couple of juncos and winter wrens in the commons. The commute has been really quiet lately.

On Friday after a morning of meetings and waking up a new born for the pure pleasure of holding him, I decided to allow myself another simple pleasure. I took a walk up to the first bridge on Indian river. At least I intended to stop there, failed to stop and walked up to the first muskeg because I could just see bits of blue sky between the trees.

Didn't linger too long in the muskeg because it was a bit late in the afternoon. Wandered a little along the river to look at the extensive patches of Panellus serotinus (some quite large) on many alder, collect a piece of Polystichum and Conocephalum. Decided that I would be quite unlikely to confuse Conocephalum with Preissia no matter what the state of the collection. Also am convinced that the Polystichum in the valley bottom is braunii. Each pinnule definately narrows down to a short (very short) stalk. The species from the waterfall (P. setigerum) doesn't have a narrow base.

On the way down the trail on the boardwalk section (near the large spruce that fell over the river) were three or four pieces of bark. I was curious how many types of epiphyte lichens occured on each. So far I've identified 4 crustose lichens and a pin lichen; Mycoblastus sanguinarius, M. affinus, Pertussaria spp, what is probably a Biatora and Stenocybe (clavata?). The Biatora is very tentative. It is one that I've found before, but haven't been terribly satisfied with its identification. The thallus is green and seems to consist of balls of algae. The apothecia are unrimmed, pinkish brown with ellipsoid spores in spherical asci. No reaction to KOH or bleach. The species covered in Brodo aren't a very good fit, but neither is anything else I can find in the book.

I didn't see the Stenocybe until I had the bark under the dissecting scope. It is a very small ca. 1/4 inch tall black "pin" growing out of the bark. It isn't obviously lichenized, but they are generally treated with the lichens. Lichenized thallus? This genus is very host specific, the best I could do was S. clavata which occurs on western Hemlock. There have been a couple of collections from southeastern Alaska and British Columbia. The one I found has spores that are regularly 3 septate instead of 4 to 7 septate. I'll continue my search. For a more satisfactory answer.

Sunday was the Christmas Bird count for the Sitka area. The forecast wasn't promising, but the day turned out to be a rather nice one. My plans kept changing for the day, but I settled on doing the Herring cove to Beaver Lake to Theobroma route in the morning and skiff around Japonski in the afternoon with Scott Harris and Andrew Thoms. I was curious to see Andrew's paths through the area and thought that there was at least the possibility of a surprise type of bird. No such luck on the surprise bird. In fact we didn't see or hear a bird in the woods until a flock of siskins flew over us in the muskeg. No, I did forget a winter wren by the creek above the falls. Did get to catch up on local politics and stories on the way and went on a slightly different path than I had been on previously to the lake. Another place with alot of area to explore.

It started snowing as soon as we entered the forest, which was much more enjoyable than the promised rain.

Nothing in the frozen lake, nothing in river, or the campground. Did start finding birds when we were above the clarifying tanks at the mill. About 10 ravens, a crow and a junco...we were on a roll for a few minutes. Stopped to admire the bears in their tank. They seemed to enjoy their brussels sprouts. Was tempted to count the domestic geese and the chickens at the farm, but decided that we would do better on the water route.

Scott's boat wouldn't start, deadish battery for a 115 horse. The charger connected to the kicker wasn't going to do the job in the time we had available, so I drove the lee shore skiff.

The birding improved rather noticably on the water. Traveled from Crescent Harbor through Middle channel around Makhnati and Signal island, inside of Battery and back through the channel to Crescent. The greatest diversity of birds was in between the runway and Makhnati and the channel. The water was rough enough around Signal to make it rather difficult to focus on much of anything. Kind of like birding in a washing machine with better light. This was only a bit frustrating because there was an interesting group of shorebirds on the shore of Signal that I wasn't quite convinced of the identity. They just seemed a bit light to be the usual surfbirds. Andrew was convinced that it was a mix of surfbirds and black turnstones. Not unlikely, but they didn't look quite right.

Did see Bald eagles, Ravens, crows, Pacific and Common loons, Common murres, Marbled murrelets, Harlequins, Common mergansers, Pelagic and Double crested cormorants, Black, White-winged, and Surf Scoters, Common and Barrows Goldeneyes, Scaups, Long-tailed ducks, Mew, Glaucous winged, and Thayers gulls, Surfbirds, Black turnstones.

I think it was a bit late when I was writing last night's post. A 9,000 years before present carbon layer wasn't likely to come from pine forest fires as Pine was mostly displaced by that point in time by Spruce and alders. Should probably think abit more about what I'm writing now and then. Sitka spruce isn't a tree that I associate much with fires. I suspect it would have germinated well in the exposed mineral soil that might have been the result of the fires, but it is hard to imagine that species too happy in a dry climate. Maybe the climate was similar to that of the southern coast of British Columbia.

I did talk to Tom Ager about the carbon layer. He hadn't heard specifically about the charcoal layer that Jim Baichtal talked about last night, but said that it did fit in well with the evidence suggesting a warm dry early Holocene climate along the coast of British Columbia through the Gulf of Alaska. The dry, warm period seems to have lasted for a couple of thousand years. The few charcoal layers that Tom has radiocarbon dated came from the same period. He has not looked for charcoal specifically, but found some exposed peat located in road cuts and quarrys.

Managed to bump into Jim Baichtal this morning while searching for coffee. Fortunately for me, he was quite happy to answer my questions about last nights talk. I confirmed that it was the slightly more liquid lower crust that was being displaced. He also said that the thinner, denser oceanic crust was more flexible than the continental crust, bulges more readily? He said he would send a few of the powerpoint slides that pertained to Sitka and a protocol he had developed for sampling in marine clays.

I've included the photo collage that John Hudson sent of the root wad we found in the west valley last week. It was a small tree for the stand, but is a nice start for looking at root wad colonization. I should probably return and measure the size and record a little information about the area.

Looked at the channel on my way back in the building this afternoon, the 85 common mergansers caught my eye. Seems like a greater number than I typically see.

This evening went to a talk given by Jim Baichtal on the changing shorelines of southeastern Alaska. He is an engaging speaker and did a nice job of pulling most of the pieces of the story together. Alot of the ideas he presented I had heard piecemeal previously, it was very good to hear them knitted together.
I'll see if I can summarize the broader picture of the late glacial history of southeast and his talk. The two peaks of major glacial event of the Wisconsin were around 72,00 and 20,000 years before present. The maps on Tim Heaton's website http://www.usd.edu/esci/alaska/ show the furtherest extent of the ice from the previous ice age (135,000 years before present) covering most of southeast. The maximum extent of glaciers during the Wisconsin glaciation was a bit less and there were significant areas on the outer coast that werent' glaciated. What was interesting about tonight's presentation was how the fore bulge in the earth's crust was used as an explanation for the extent of the refugia. The idea of the fore bulge is that the crust is displaced by the weight of the ice and pushed outward in areas that weren't carrying an ice load. So not just that the ocean depth was shallower because of water being held as ice, but displacement of the crust raising the land. (I really liked his waterbed analogy). One question I'll have to ask him or someone is about the crust, itself, is it the continental crust (thicker but less dense) or the oceanic crust (denser, but thinner) that is being displaced. I'm assuming that it is the lower less solid crust that is actually being displaced and pushing up the upper layers, but I could be wrong and the surface crust is what is being moved sideways and up.
The extent of the bulge would have been quite local, It sounded like it was dependent on the load of nearby ice and perhaps on the thickness of the crust at a given spot. The bulge was much smaller off southern southeast. He had pretty interesting maps of the outer coast of southeast which had the presumed refugia or ice free land. The inside channels were a bit muddier for me. If I'm remembering correctly that shoreline must have been higher than currently. The On Your Knees cave is currently at 490 ft above sea level and ca .6 miles from the shore and has ring seals, arctic fox fossils . I guess that fox could have carried their food up the hill, but it seems likely that the cave was significantly closer to the sea.
He seemed very certain that the bulge around Sitka was huge compared to the bulge on the outside of Prince of Wales island. If I remember right, most of the evidence for the extent of the bulge is the freshwater lake diatoms and pollen that were found in cores taken in Sitka Sound. If the sea level was about 70 fathoms lower and adding in the possible effect from the bulge, the 100 fathom curve might be a good approximation of where the shoreline was. The 100 fathom curve is between 10 and 15 miles off shore. Added to this freshwater evidence and ocean depths, is that the local contractors haven't encountered any marine clays/shells when excavating. Makes alot of sense if the shoreline was way off shore. The marine clays are quite distinct colorwise, even if there weren't clams, the material would be recognizable.
What wasn't clear was if the Queen Charlotte fault was a cliff? Would the bulge affect the crust on the other side of the fault the same way as on the landward side?
Tom Ager had told me about the freshwate diatoms and pollen from Sitka Sound on his visit this summer, so it wasn't a new idea, but seeing the map made it a bit more tangible. We were talking about this last summer while looking our across Sitka sound and I was envisoning walking from Mary's on Harris island to my house on Galankin. I like the image of walking through open Pine and fern forests to town. I'm hoping that Tom comes in April to tell us about the glacial history of Sitka sound. It is sounding more probable.

One thing that was especially intriguing was the carbon layer that Baichtal talked about finding in the 9,000 years present layers. I wasn't sure if that was something that he had only found on the southern islands or if it is more extensive. He was suggesting that the source of the carbon could have been forest fires. That was a new idea for me. Admittedly it isn't a hard leap to make with a pine forest and a carbon layer. I'll have to talk to Tom about it.

Seem to have gotten sidetracked on my glacial history. As the glaciers receeded the weight was lifted, the sea level rose and the fore bulge disappeared. One of the ideas he presented was that the movement of the crust was involved in the volcanic activity that occured near the time period (11,000 years before present for Mt. Edgecumbe), something near Ketchikan (?) and Addington near Noyes Island.
By 8,500 years before present the shoreline seems to be very similar to what it is currently allowing for uplift. He started his talk with a discussion of ancient marine clays and clam shells that he had been finding in various elevations and distances from the ocean in southeast.
The biota of glacial age is pretty intriguing as well. He started his talk with a discussion of ancient marine clays and clam shells that he had been finding in various elevations and distances from the ocean in southeast. It was a good way to introduce how the areas in southeast varied in affects of rebound and forebulge influence. I'm inspired to look for creek clams on my trips out of Sitka sound. I'm also inspired to look for odd plants down in Sandy and Whale Bays. There really isn't enough botany in the stories at this point in time.
The pieces of the corroborating evidence that story that are interesting are the subspecies of small mammals including Flying Squirrels that occur on Prince of Wales and the mice on Coronation. Again it would be interesting to find the plant stories that could support the story as well. What I have heard so far about the vegetation (in a general way) is that the pine forests were most abundant around 12,000 years ago, then displaced by spruce (10,000 years ago) and eventually western hemlock.
Had breakfast with Jim, Scott and Natalie in the morning, but mostly talked about elk. Heard some horror stories about how the elk are destroying the alpine on Etolin. Not sure why the hunt isn't more extensive nor why it isn't legal to hunt elk any time of the year if they aren't on Etolin or Zarembo islands. I think he avoided tonight's topic because he wanted to make sure that we all attended the talk. He did say that he planned on speaking at the Paths across the Pacific conference this summer. Tom Ager is as well, so it should be a good one.
The rest of the week: walked around the lake Sunday afternoon. The sun had come out and I had graded papers for about as long as I could stand.
Not alot of variety of birds, but it was nice to go outside. Found 29 Barrow's goldeneyes, 12 Common mergansers, 2 Harlequin, 1 Glaucous-winged gull, and 4 Buffleheads by dock.
In the alders around the lake and in the garden several Golden crowned kinglets, 3 Winter wrens, 3 Song sparrows, 5 Juncos, 8 Cchickadees, about 37 crows. The crows were raiding the feeder or at least trying to. They have a hard time with the hanging feeder, but they are tenacious.

Found another downed tree by the cabin. I'm fairly certain that it went down last week. I hope that I can find a few more upturned stumps to document this year.

Monday found it necessary to wear my headlamp this morning on my way to town. Too dark for a morning commute bird count.Tuesday faired better without a headlamp, but went in a bit later. 3 buffleheads by the dock, 4 pelagic cormorants on the commute.
Very whippy ride home Tuesday night. Strong westerly chop in the squalls.

The Wednesday morning commute was a bit on the dark side and the ice was thick between the islands. It was gone between Morne island and Crescent Harbor. No ducks by the Galankin dock, about 8 Common mergansers by the Wades.

Took a walk on Swan Lake in the afternoon. The few ducks (mallards) that we saw were by the outlet which was still liquid. Wish that I had brought my skates to town, I'll have to hope for another opportunity during the next high pressure event. Only a bit of slushy ice on the way home.

Thursday morning after the Mt.Edgecumbe class, Scott Harris, John Hudson and I went looking for dragonfly habitat in the Indian river valley. It was mostly sunny and somewhere between cool and cold when we started. Maybe cold is more personally accurate, I had to keep walking for awhile to keep warm.

We crossed the first bridge and went to the long muskegs on the west side of the second bridge. The vegetation was covered with frost and all of the ponds were frozen, got in a little sliding on the biggest of the ponds. The large pond had some interesting patterns of frozen bubbles and what kind of looked like capillary tubes through the ice. I assume that the bubbles and tubes are from carbon dioxide and methane production.

Where the muskegs steer to the west, decided to go east to see what was on the other side of the bit of scrubby forest. We didn't really find out, we crashed around for awhile through the brush until it seemed that we had found a ravine. At least the terrain was sloping down a bit more than we had time or interest to investigate on a short day. It might be worth a look on a longer day, but it looks like a brushy slog. There wasn't anything at the scale of the topo map.
John thought that we might find several species of dragons in the muskeg, so we'll plan on coming back in May. I forgot to ask if there is any pattern of years spent as larvae and habitat. Longer as larvae in less nutrient rich habitats or shorter?
Turned back and continued through a bit more muskeg and then into the scrubby forest to cross the west fork. I would have liked to see if I could have found the tree on my own from this direction, but Scott took the lead, so I'll have to find out some other time. We had lunch by the hemlock. I'm beginning to think I should leave small pieces of cookies or pie as a sign of respect or acknowledgement. Not sure I could stop eating a chocolate chip cookie in time to leave any behind. Peanut butter and jelly should be just as good?

Went west to find the waterfalls that I managed to miss on my last visit. It seemed a little silly to miss a noisy waterfall, so I wanted to redeem myself. There are alot of steep and noisy creeks coming down the slope, but still. Went west and followed the dry channel to the falls. Now I know what I did wrong last time, walked too far up the valley before turning west to the hillslope. The falls were frozen at the surface, the ice was thick enough to walk on at the foot of the falls. The side slopes and covering bryophytes and ferns were encased in ice. The plants must have great abilities to pump water outside the cell membranes to survive such conditions. I know that they do quite well dessicated, but couldn't find any information about bryophyte survival in ice. Obviously they must be able to withstand it since the falls freeze every winter and there seems to be plenty of bryophyte cover. Just wonder exactly how. I wonder if the abundance/survival of the mosses in the falls is different depending on whether the moss remains in the liquid water of the falls or ends up in the ice layer. I haven't really looked at amount of moss in different water flow in any waterfallI'm guessing that the plants that end up in the ice layer tend to get broken off more often, fragmentation dispersal?

Was finally able to make a decision about the thallose liverwort from the falls. It is/was Preissia quadrata. The hexagonal pattern of the cells, with a complex pore structure and and the stalked receptacles seem to be good field marks. I could see the cross shaped opening in the pore with the dissecting scope and lamp, didn't try to see it with the hand lens and head lamp. It occured to me that a small piece of Conocephalum could look somewhat similar, but it doesn't have the same pore structure. Preissia is supposed to have a peppery taste even when dry, this one wasn't terribly pungent, but did have a bit of a peppery taste to it.

Noticed on my last visit to the falls that the Polystichum at the falls look very different than those in the valley bottom. I'm still trying to convince myself that all the Polystichum that I used to call braunii are now P. setigerum. Looking at FNA, P. braunii is twice pinnate with each pinnule on a short stalk. P. setigerum is pinnate and then divided again, but the pinnules aren't completely seperate and aren't stalked. The Polystichum by the falls are mostly P. setigerum, these look very different from the Polystichum in the valley bottom in the degree of division. Collected a frond from the falls, easily a P. setigerum, but neglected to look closely at the valley holly ferns. Not sure if the ones in the valley are different enough to be braunii or if setigerum is just variable. Next time.

On the way back to town we followed the dry channel of the west fork until the water re-surfaced. The channel has a large amount of woody debris and rock which seems interesting for a dry channel. How often do the flood events occur that deposit so much debris? The depth to bedrock and the amount of rock/debris must keep the water below the surface? The cut banks were of mixed cobbles and sediment, with lines of needle ice along lines of different soil texture? Along the base of the channel were mounds of needle ice. As we moved down the channel we found small puddles of liquid water, then a pool about 6ft by 10ft with an obvious small inflow. The next one down was much more active. I'm assuming that the surface flow relates more to bedrock depth. Soon after we had to abandon the channel for the terrace.

There were small circles of frost and ice crystals around the small holes under trees. It almost looked as if there should be a small animal (troll) in the hole breathing to produce the warm air. Alas, don't need to invoke mythological creatures to come up with a probable explanation. It must be a trap of warmer moist air that equalizes over the winter. Some of the ice crystals formed very delicate and small rectangles (open book shaped) with herringbone pattern.

Tried to show off the Schistostega on the upturned stumps, but found that the plants don't glow in the ice or don't stand out enough to be seen amongst the ice. John was definately not impressed. Did find a brand new upturned tree to monitor near one of the dry channels coming down from the hillslope. At least it looked new, all the needles were present. Got John to take a photo for me, hopefully he won't delete the truely odd photo of the bottom of a small tree root wad.

Felt a few snowflakes late in the day. Saw one Sapsucker on a tree right next to the trail, managed to get out a couple of inarticulate sounds and point so that John and Scott could see it. We were chattering too much to see many other birds, but I could hear chickadees and kinglets in the area.

So , what did I learn about dragonflies? That the eyes on dragons touch in the middle and those of damselflies are seperate on each side (at least in Alaska). Not sure why this escaped me, it was definately a "duh" kind of moment. Learned why ballistic defecation is useful for a dragonfly (stealth for odor, but I would think that the movement of the water would be a bit telling), that we have no dragons adapted for the slower parts of streams (yes, I should read the book I bought) and it wasn't just my ineptness, bluets don't slow down well even with prolonged refrigeration. That sperm packets are produced in the stern of the male dragon fly, but as the penis of the dragon fly is close the thorax, the packets must be moved prior to sex. Serious planning. Lastly, happy not to be a female dragonfly, grabbed by the neck and not released until you agree to sex, doesn't sound all that great. Not to mention the removal of any previously deposited sperm packets...can't be good.

Back to rain, unfortunately froze on the pavement. Slide nicely to a stop before entering traffic. Went to Starrigavan Friday afternoon to look for birds and show John a few more of our trails. No swans, but did find Buffleheads, Barrows Goldeneyes, Mallards, one Hooded merganser, a Pacific loon, Pelagic cormorants, Common Mergansers, kingfishers and herons.



Seriously losing track of the commute birds; Saturday there were 8 Barrows Goldeneyes, 2 Harlegquins, 18 Common Mergansers, 1 Heron, 1 glaucuous-winged gull, 6 Buffleheads, 1 double crested and 4 pelagic cormorants.

The weather has been sunny and cold, windy Saturday through Monday, but calm on Tuesday.
The pan ice in Crescent harbor on Saturday disappeared as the wind picked up and the temperature dropped. The dry weather Saturday through Monday was pleasant as the window didn't need scraping and the skiff lines were pliable. This morning the frost was back.

The wind felled two trees over the trail on Sunday between going to town around 11:30 and returning around 5pm. Glad I picked up that penny on the street. They fell right over the trail, one is resting at a height just above my knees, the other at my shoulder. One was roughly 8 inches in diameter the other 11 inches. Fortunately there is just enough room to easily climb over one tree and under the other when traveling back and forth to the dock. Both trees were leaning a little from a previous wind storm, but not so much that I was nervous. So much for my tree knowledge. There were several small branches on the trail, none with that fatal sort of look though. I always have been more intimidated by traveling through the forest during a wind storm than traveling by skiff to town. I'm not sure in a wind storm if a person could hear the tree start to fall in time to move out of the way. I have run down the the trail before, thinking that the raindrop rule should apply to trees. During one huge storm with winds in the upper 70s, two trees fell in the garden, pretty close to the house. Whatever sound the tree made falling was completely lost in the wind.

Both Galankin and Swan lake are frozen, Ian told me that the latter was frozen yesterday afternoon. There hasn't been any sea ice because of the wind the last couple of days, but tonight I broke ice most of the way home. Is was fairly thin and slushy in the channel between town and Morne Island, it didn't slow me down, but I could hear it against the hull. Between Morne island and the dock, the ice was thick enough to slow me down involuntarily. Even with a metal boat I'm not too thrilled about going full speed in the dark into the ice. So I slowed down and enjoyed Mars and the stars. I expect to smash ice all the way to town in the morning.

The birds have been scarce on the commute. I was surprised that more haven't been taking shelter in the cove by the island dock. Saturday commute birds: by dock: 7 buffleheads, 4 mallards, 2 common mergansers, 2 Harlequin, 1 glaucous-winged gulls, ca. ten goldeneyes. Sunday and Monday there were few birds visible through my scarf... Tuesday 13 common mergansers by the Wade's dock. This weekend found 3 Song sparrows, j4 uncos, 1 winter wren and 8 chickadees in the shrubs below and at the feeder.

Cleaning out my email found these quotes posted on a recent the plant of the day (?) that I will try to take to heart.
"Botanical latin is essentially a written laguage, but the scientific names of plants oftern occur in speech. How they are pronounced really matters little provided they sound pleasant and are understood by all concerned" Stearn Botanical Latin 4th edition. (Pinus is good example of this idea).

"When someone presumes to correct your pronunciation, a knowing smile is an appropriate response" Jepson's Manual Flora of California

I guess I owe an apology to a few people that I have corrected.

Sunny and cool (30-39F)
Heavy frost on docks, boardwalks, windows of skiff and car in the morning. The frost was still on the dock when Ian and I came home around 3:30.

Too sunny to be indoors all day, so walked to Alice Island and around the loop road. Don't really have to look at the channel to know that the Longtails are present. Their wonderful chatter is quite audible from the front porch of UAS. They were joined by a large flock of scaups (maybe moved over from Swan lake?), a few mergansers and pelagic cormorants. Found a Savannah sparrow in one of the willows along the road. Continued on to Alice island via the maintenace buildings. One song sparrow in the rocks just past one of the buildings. Also saw a Robin in one of the spruces in Millerville. Hadn't previously noticed that there is a chain and a no trespassing sign at the entrance . I'll assume that the sign only refers to cars.

Mermaid cove: Harlequins, Buffleheads, one merganser, 2 Pelagic cormorants, one Double-crested cormorant drying wings in the sun. 5 loons were foraging together in the cove. Still searching for clues on how to identify loons at a distance. They didn't seem quite as large as some loons I've seen, but it was a bit hard to tell when there wasn't another bird close by for comparison. Too far away to see any potential necklace or white eyebrow. I'm hoping that the gregarious behavior could be a useful character. The birds of Washington state web site describes Pacific loons as the most gregarious of the loons. They site describes Common loons are typically solitary. Does that mean that most of the groups of loons I see are Pacific loons? Is this one of those too good (easy) to be true sort of ideas?

There was a small flock of Black turnstones on the intertidal rocks. At least, they seemed like Black Turnstones by their sound. They were a bit far away to see well, the bright sunlight behind them didn't really help either. I listened to the recorded sounds on the Cornell site, the sounds I heard were much more like that of turnstones than the surfbird.

Probably because I was walking this time, noticed how many of the small roadside Sitka alders have green leaves. The leaves of most larger trees along the road are brown or shed. Effect of the heat absorbing pavement? Also found a Sitka Willow with many green leaves.

Commute birds: the morning was beyond quiet (2 pelagic cormorants), afternoon was a bit more active: 2 longtails, 1 common merganser, 1 Barrow's Goldeneye, 1 marbled murrelet and 3 pelagic cormorants.

In my usual unsettled state before a seminar, paranoid about everything, questions like "will the speaker show up? were running through my head. One useful thing came out of my pointless nervousnes. I was searching for material for an introduction just in case John Straley didn't show up to do the honors and I found this T.S. Eliot poem that Nels used to end a piece on the Harriman expedition.

" We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time"

I was going to use it, even if it had nothing to do with the talk, because it had alot to do with why the seminar series exists. Fortunately, my fears were unfounded, Nels showed up 10 minutes before 7pm and John had 5 minutes to spare. I did find myself loading a slide try and fussing with the projector until 7:01,but it was much better than pacing.
Nels is a good speaker, really a good story teller. He is so animated and enthusiastic that it doesn't much matter what the subject, it is engaging. Maybe it is just the joy he expresses. The other very admirable habit he has, is to frequently say that he isn't judging, but observing. He actively tries not to alienate, but to bridge gaps.
It is much more difficult to sum up a talk that really is trying to convey ideas instead of facts. None of the facts were new to me, but I liked how he put them together. One of the ideas I hadn't thought about before was the dependence of agriculture in many states on the control of deer populations by hunting. The example he used was his home state of Wisconsin. He heard the same story from a farmer and a game manager, if hunting were to stop, agriculture would cease in 3 to 5 years because of the exploding deer population. The point was that all of us depend on hunting to support our life styles. Most of the foods that are raised in farms depend on hunting to control the herbivores that would chew away if unchecked.
The other good point was that animal rights activists were very interested in the individual animal, whereas wildlife biologists and many conservationists were interested in the population of animals. Not rocket science, but very nicely said.

Bird and other observations: On Tuesday I stopped briefly at Moller park and at Swan lake: Found fox and song sparrows and juncos at Moller. The usual suspects at the lake and the 4 coots and a (the) double crested cormorant.

Wednesday: Dock One heron on piling, one glaucous-winged gull. pelagic cormorants. I drove out to Starrigavan to see the oystercatchers reported on Sitkabirds. Met Lucy and Laura on the bridge. There were 7 on a small island mudflat not far from the bridge on the main road. They had a very interesting, but for me difficult to describe call. Watched them foraging for awhile. They flew off toward Old Sitka, not sure what sent them off, we had turned our attention to loons.
Also tried to refine long distance loon recoginition techniques. Lucy suggested that in addition to size of the bird the width of the white at along the throat and breast might be useful. The book she was using the Pacific loon had a much larger area of white. Can't really see that difference in either book that I have. I think I'll stick with the size and the dark necklace in Pacific or the white in the Common. Many loons will probably go unidentified.
Also saw a mergansers madly chasing fish, a Horned grebe, a kingfisher and two marbled murrelets. Lucy had 3 rather large Hydnum repandums that seemed to be in rather good shape for the end of November.

That evening left UAS for Ballet class about 7pm on Wednesday, it was cold and clear. Above the mountains could see a very bright red-orange Mars. On the way home around 9pm, saw some of my favorite winter stars for the first time this fall. Orion, Taurus (the celestial "V") and the Pleiades in the Southeast. Just past Morne island was somewhat annoyed at the brightness of what I thought was a dock light at one of the newer island homes. It was quite blinding with the frosty windshield. Well, it was the Mooon, duh. It was not far above the horizon south of Arrowhead, so I couldn't see it from town.

Thursday: frost on the dock at Galankin. The island lake had a layer of ice on the surface. Very quiet commute, just a handful of glaucous-winged gulls and 2 pelagic cormorants. Desperatedly in need of a scraper for the skiff, it was a little cold sticking my face around the outside of the cabin so I could see.

Dropped Ian off at school this morning, so saw that Swan lake was mostly iced over. The four coots were in the clear area and most of the gulls were gone.
Sunny, so I went out to Starrigavan to eat lunch and take a brief look before dutifully returning to my cave to grade exams. The grasses and other herbaceious vegetation were still covered with frost. The cow parsnip's structure was especially pronounced. Didn't find the oystercatchers, but did see a pair of Hooded mergansers, a teal and a robin. The robin found a sunny patch of pavement in the parking lot at Old Sitka to look for food.

Hoping that practice will eventually improve the quality of the photographs, but for now this will serve to remind me of this rather yellow Panellus serotinus. Looked in a variety of sources, but can't find another species that fits this particular fungus. It was a bit brighter yellow when fresh than it is today. It is almost like it has a different allele for color than the regular form. Kind of like the yellow Chocolate lily I found once in Tenakee Inlet.

Didn't come to a real decision about the orange Hygrocybe that I collected from the muskeg near the National Cemetary. I guess I did decide it was a Hygrocybe, both by color and by the structure of the gill trama (interwoven). I am overly fond of the microscope. The orange color and decurrent gills are distinct, but aren't leading me to a satisfying place. It might be helpful if I could remember for certain if the mushroom was viscid. I don't think tha it was, but can't be sure. There are a few species that I'm considering, but I'm not really happy with any of them at this point. Fortunately it dried nicely, so I can look at it again later.

The Cortinarius collected from a Mtn. Ash in the lawn of my former office at the Magnetic observatory will remain a Cortinarius sp. It did nicely turn red then black with KOH, but nothing else was very distinctive. It also dried well, so I can send it to Joe Ammirati, if he is willing to look at it.

Looked at a couple of the bryophytes I collected from cedars yesterday (both with and without a dissecting scope even abandoned the glasses). Now that the Apometzgeria has dried, it has a soft white cast to it. The color makes it look fuzzy without any tools. Of course it is unlikely to be dry outside, but it could be a useful character at times.

The other bryophyte I looked at was a Tortella tortuosa. It forms largish yellow-green clumps on the trunks. The leaves are twisted when dry, undulate looking when wet. There are abundant reddish brown rhizoids on the stems. The leaves are also distinctive under the scope because of the "M" shaped pattern of hyaline cells. Just for clarity, the area under the M is where the clear rectanular cells are located, above the M, the cells are green and smaller. It is supposed to be a calciphile that also likes yellow cedar. Definately need to learn more about the chemistry of the bark.

Collected a small piece of Fissidens adianthoides from the rocks along one of the small creeks we crossed yesterday. I suspect that the size, about 1.25 to 1.5 inches, and bright green color would be enough to seperate this species from other Fissidens. I'm still a little compulsive about collecting this species.

One interesting thing I noticed yesterday on the slope was that much of the regularly pinnate bryophytes on the ground were Lepidozia reptans instead of the mosses I expected. I have thought of this liverwort as an epiphyte, but on the slope it formed large mats.

Continued the Lobaria census yesterday. It was on many Hemlock trees of various sizes and even a Vaccinium on the slope. Maybe instead of a light meter, I can use a less expensive canopy cover measuring device to look at the effect of light on Lobaria distribution. It was interesting that it is more abundant on spruce in the valley bottom, but shifts hosts on the slopes. I don't believe that I saw it on cedar, so it isn't completely non-discriminating.

About 30 gulls, Mew, Glaucous-winged, and Thayers, and one Kingfisher by the island dock this morning. 3 pelagic cormorants and 2 harlequin on the way across.

The week started out with the following quote; "In love, war and thankless large projects, retreat is always the first option to consider"
I haven't had a daily quote since kayak building days, but Brad supplied this one on Monday in reference to a project we are pondering, which I guess I started working on. The quote was a good fit for the tasks that occupied me for most of this week; 501c forms, cleaning, cooking Thanksgiving dinner, species lists.

I've barely been outside most of the week. I did see 2 harbor porpoises swimming past the dock Monday morning. Jan told me that they are quite common this time of year, but I can't say that I've seen them very often. Mostly pelagic cormorants and mew gulls on the commute. I have seen one or two long-tails, about 5 common mergansers and a few glaucuous winged gulls. Both Friday and Saturday I saw two loons, neither well enough to feel confident about calling them Common or Pacific loons.

Very briefly stopped at Moller park on Monday afternoon. Just a few sparrows in the salmonberries. Most were song sparrows, but one looked alot like an immature white-crowned sparrow.

Saturday morning saw a Western Grebe just east of the end of Galankin Island.When I first saw it, I thought it was a rather strange looking loon. Binoculars really do help. The long, yellow bill , white breast and throat were rather distinctive. The only other time I remember seeing this grebe in Alaska was near the Stikene river.

On the way to town Saturday noon saw a bird that I can't quite identify. It was about the size of a skinny Hermit thrush. Brown back, head and tail, light uniformly colored breast. The head (front and back) had a distinct orange-gold cast to it. The bill wasn't different from what I'd expect on a thrush. It was turning over alder leaves in the trail in the commons. It tweeted a couple of times while foraging, it was a different sound than I've heard before. It tolerated my presence for awhile, but eventually flew off when I got close enough to see it clearly (what binoculars?). It had a solid brown tail, no other color was visible. Looked abit this morning, but no luck.

Had done enough grading that I felt free to spend most of Sunday outdoors. Thought I would just get a morning hike in before the weather fell apart, but was pleasantly surprised by a very nice day. Had decided to go up Indian river at least to the first bridge and beyond to look for Schistostega, ended up going a good deal further. Was encouraged to venture further by running into an old friend who was likewise out for a solitary wander. Discovered that we were headed the same general direction, so teamed up. Didn't cross the bridge but went up the old trail on the west side of the river. Soon found the upturned stump with an impressive growth of Schistostega. There was some good glowing gold under some roots that were hanging over one spot. On the way back down, I tried a headlamp survey and found alot more of the glowing protonema. I still wonder how long it takes for that moss to colonize a root wad. It seems that it can happen relatively quickly. This root was didn't have much else growing on it (not that I did a thorough survey). The hemlock didn't have any needles left in the branches, but the bark seemed to be well attached. I should have checked for amount of bryophytes growing on the upper side of the trunk, but didn't think of it when I was there. Didn't see any polypores to check orientation. Guess I need to find trees the year that they fall and take a series of photographs. Guess I'll have to get a camera and maybe even use it.

It was a very different view of the valley going up on the west side. Besides the view being the reverse of what I've usually seen, I wasn't racing for the trailhead for one reason or another. I still have the feeling that I could stay in the valley for several weeks and still have more to see. What I really noticed this trip was the amount of deer use. The vaccinium was heavily browsed in many places and there was alot of scat. Besides Vaccinium there is also alot of Cornus, Coptis and Rubus. Is there more of these upland plants in this valley are because of less disturbance than in larger river valleys or is my memory faulty about how much of these plants are in other valleys?

Was somewhat proud of myself when I found the big tree on my own. I wasn't sure that I could do it, especially given Paul's trouble. I just kept walking in what seemed the right direction. On one stop to look around, it just looked like the right place, without really being able to say why. Looked around another tree and there it was. Ate my pumpkin pie while doing homage to this giant. Still impressed by the size and the interesting architecture of the branches. I wonder what sort of forest this tree grew in. It seems that it must have been more open to maintain the lower branches.

Continued up the valley to explore some of the many creeks incising the slopes. Jay had been hunting further up the valley last weekend and wanted to see if he could find where he had shot his deer. A small voice was wondering about the wisdom of relocating a kill site and gut pile, but decided that further exploration was more compelling than over cautiousness. Went up along side one small creek then crossed over to another and another until we were across from the center of the middle Sister. The slope was home to an exceptionally nice stand of yellow cedar and hemlock. A number of the cedar were quite large and had luxurious growth of bryophytes. One patch of Isothecium cardottii covered about 10 ft of a large cedar and the mound that supported the tree. Collected a small piece of what seems to be Apometzgeria pubescens. It looked like a particularly robust Metzgeria, but in better light I could see that the hairs covered the entire surface of the liverwort. I had been looking for an east facing slope with yellow cedar for the epiphyte study. Definately found one.

The furthest point out we found an interesting dead tree. With a healthy imagination it looked like a turret. With a good stretch I could have climbed inside, but contented myself with leaning out the tower window. At 2pm decided that light was going to be at a premium, so started turning down valley, but stayed on the slope. For awhile I was wondering if this was a mistake. I was fairly sure that we were about to cliff ourselves. We still had options, the view over the falls looked alot like a cliff, but there was an alternative. We did manage to find a way into a ravine and out the other side without backtracking and found our way down a steep, but walkable slope.

On the way back stopped in two spots at the flats below dry channels with enough small debris to look like they had recently had been flooded. The rooted ferns looked a bit beat up and there were Polypodiums that had washed in. Maybe there is more disturbance here in the fall than I am aware of. Perhaps the abundant Adiantum and Polystichums are there because of the good drainage and the disturbance. I did notice again that the Polystichums in the steeper areas look like P. setigerum and the ones in the valley like P. braunii.

I'm surprised about the numbers of mushrooms I'm still seeing. Hydnum umbilicatum, Craterellus neotubaeformis, Hygrophorus (thigh-high stocking, okay I'm proud of this common name), Panellus serotinus, Pleurocybella porrigens and a new and quite bright yellow mushroom that looks alot like a Panellus serotinus growing on a very rotten red alder.

Returned to the trailhead just before 4pm, almost dark enough to require a headlamp in the denser canopy.

Started out rainy today and I thought I would be a good grown-up and clean the house for Thanksgiving. Now, I'll be thankful for nice weather, a good day outside and a messy house. Can't really imagine that my friends care what my house looks like, in fact if it is too clean, it will probably just make them nervous.

Walked around the island today. I'm trying to make it a weekly occurence. It fits well with my policy of generally not leaving the island on Sunday and I should have a better idea of how the island bird population changes over the course of the winter. At least I'll see how it varies week to week.

A dozen mallards have joined the Buffleheads in the lake. I didn't see the Ring-necked duck. I saw 3 juncos, 4 song and a golden crowned sparrow on the ground under the alders on the west side of the lake. One flock of pine siskins in the sitka alders, golden-crowned kinglets and chickadees in the conifers. 2 winter wrens were in a brush pile by the dock. There were 8 common mergansers and 3 Harlequins at the visible near the dock from the trail.

Once at the dock, decided to kayak out to the airport area. I was curious whether the alcids I was seeing last winter could be found out past the lighthouse and hadn't been out in a kayak for at least a month. Unfortunately, I didn't plan ahead, so didn't take the new kayak. When I put it in storage at the cabin, I removed the seat, air bags and paddles to the house so that they would stay dry. Too bad I was so uncharacteristicly tidy. Most of the parts of the red plastic kayak were at the dock and Ian was willing to met me half-way with the spray skirt.

Paddled past Rockwell island and across between Rose and Mitchell rocks to Mermaid cove. There was a mid size swell in Middle channel, just large enough to lose birds and push the kayak around, but not so big as to make me nervous. There were 5 White-winged scoters mid channel. I was close enought that the white mark around the eye and white secondaries were visisble without binoculars. Good thing, because the binoculars I brought with me weren't the greatest.

I saw four loons on my trip. Not feeling terribly confident about loon identification. I had settled on the presence or absence of white above the eye and a white collar on the neck to tell Pacific from Common loons, but am finding those features a little difficult to see at all times. I couldn't see a white partial collar on any neck, could see white eyebrows on two of the four. One may have been a yellow-billed loon. I was concentrating on the white area around the eyes, and finally glanced at the bill and noticed it was yellowish. Not really sure how variable the bill color is or how much the ambient light would affect the appearance of a light colored bill. Unfortunately, the loon dove as soon as I noticed the bill color and I couldn't find that individual again. So I could have seen one Common, one Yellow-billed and two Pacific, but I wouldn't swear to it.

Disturbed a flock of surfbirds (about 40) from one of the rocks near the runway. It occured to me that if there was an owl on the runway, I'd have a better chance of seeing it from a kayak than by walking around on Alice Island, so I paddled a bit closer to the runway than usual. Didn't see an owl, but the surfbirds were quite nice.

A couple of groups of mew gulls were in the cove and in middle channel. I enjoy their voices. The other gulls I noticed were Glaucous-winged. If were to judge the trip by the number of alcids, it wasn't terribly successful, found one common murre on the way back near Rockwell island. Fortunately, I'm not using that criteria.

Was fortunate enough to get a good look at a sharp-shin hawk near Galankin. It took off from a tree between Donahoe's and the Wade's houses and flew across the water to Kutkan Island. The size of the bird was right, the banding of the tail was a bit hard to make out, but it was long and narrow. The wings looked much broader (front to back) than the raptor I saw at the feeder on Moller St. The short periods of wing flapping alternating with gliding seems like it might be a good character to focus on when they are too far away to see well. According to what I read in "Hawks in Flight" accipters use the flap and glide flight, but falcons tend to use direct flight. I'm hoping that this pattern will help me a bit on my waffling with small raptors.

Saturday when walking down Sawmill Crk toward the park, I saw a much larger hawk with the same flight pattern and a longish tail. Judging by the size, tail and flight pattern I suspect it was a Goshawk.


When I moved the kayak from the trail, I found two clumps of youngish Armillaria ostyoe There were some older individuals which would have been rather difficult to recognize without the presence of the younger individuals. Also collected a few of the orange-brown Lactarius that I've been seeing around. They were growing under the alders in the mineral looking soil along the trail around the lake. The taste was mild, the latex white. The spore print isn't ready yet, but the other features led me to Lactarius alpinus var. mitis. Both the key in Arora and in the Pacific Northwest Key council led to the same spot and the description available on the PNW key site seems to fit. Found a handy link to Hesler and Smiths 1979 Lactarius monograph on the Mushroom Expert site. http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?type=boolean;subtype=bib;c=fung1tc;cc=fung1tc;sid=ff6eadf0005555880318a8b131e50d19;q1=aac3719;rgn1=citation;op2=And;rgn2=author;op3=And;rgn3=author;submit=Submit%20search;view=header;rgn=mainheader;idno=AAC3719.0001.001

The Lactarius that I saw under the spruce in the SJ quad also seems to fit this species.

Friday morning's commute was a splashy surfing sort of ride. It was one of those days when I feel the need to aim straight for Totem Park and wait until the waves are on my stern or quarter stern before turning for Crescent Harbor. Probably not totally necessary, but ride is more comfortable. Saw about 10 Mew gulls, 8 harlequin, 3 pelagic cormorants, and a surf scoter on my route.


Picked up Scott Harris and Richard Carstensen and drove out to Starrigavan to look at the thinning treatments as part of the Ground-truthing project. The 700 acre clear-cut in the valley bottom and lower slopes was logged between 1968 and 1974. The blocks were thinned and pruned in the winter of 1997-1998. It looks like the rectangular blocks are less than a 1/4 mile on the long side.

The thinning units consist of 5 different treatments which have a goals of wildlife habitat enhancement and/or maximizing wood production. The treatments vary in tree spacing, pruning of lower branches, retention of red alder and one treatment included small gaps and thickets. Why we were interested in the thinning project was to evaluate the thinning as a way to restore habitat values, particularly winter habitat. There were tagged trees in each block that the FSL is periodically measuring.

I had looked at the blocks from the road on three trips last summer with the forest silviculturist, but hadn't gone into the stands very far on previous trips. We walked the road to block E, then walked in. Block E is the wettest of the blocks and is the most difficult to see the effects of thinning. I'm fairly certain that it is the most difficult because tree regeneration wasn't as thick because of the wetness of the site. Basically it never went through a stem exclusion phase, so the understory was fairly diverse.

We traversed the side slope for a ways, then returned to the road and entered each block. Side sloping was a bit of a pain because of the slash, so we tended to walk up into a block, travel across it and then find an easy way back down to the road. In the better drained sites, including the blocks that were designed to encourage understory forbs and shrubs it is difficult to see much effect of thinning at this point. Unless the stands are thinned again, I doubt if the thinning will have any effect. Typically, what seems to happen is that if thinning occurs after the stem exclusion stage, thinning just allows the trees to quickly take advantage of the space and light. It doesn't seem to hurry the successional process in terms of understory plant establishment. Not sure if I've ever seen a productive timber stand thinned often enough to maintain an understory.

We were looking in the stands for the plants that have been considered important winter foods in southeast: Cornus, Coptis, Rubus pedatus and Vaccinium. We saw a few scattered individuals of each species. Most if not all of the Vaccinium was in juvennile form. The main understory plants we found in the closed canopies were Rhytidiadelphus loreus, Hylocomium splendens, Tiarella trifoliata and Dryopteris inexpansa. In wetter open spots we found Rubus spectabilis, some Oplopanax and small patches of Pleuroziopsis ruthenica.

The slope was frequently dissected by areas with red alder, maidenhair fern and Polystichum setigerum and P. braunii. In red alder dominated stringers it was easy to see how the sediment and rock had moved downslope and buried the stumps. In one spot a small creek looked like it was re-establishing its original bed by eroding through about 2ft of sediment.
We did wonder whether active alluvial areas with alot of colluvial flow ever had much value as deer winter range. Perhaps there never was alot of the Vaccinium or Coptis, Rubus or Cornus that we were seeking. Pretty tough to tell at this point. A question was also raised about the value of riparian areas as winter range because of the cold air that sits in low spots. Starrigavan may be more extreme than some areas because of the aspect of the valley. The south facing slopes seem like they would be alot warmer than the valley itself.

The only local valley I can compare it to is Indian river. There seems to be Vaccinium and the three forbs present and I certainly saw deer sign and deer (or maybe it was an elephant?) in the valley last winter. I wonder if the alluvial disturbance is a little less regular compared to other river valleys. If memory serves, the active areas are a little more extensive on other systems on Chichagof and Baranof. I might have to look at a few more riparian areas in the neighborhood.

I certain that the thinning units did not change Richard's mind about the lack of value of thinning riparian forest for restoring terrestrial wildlife habitat. He expressed more confidence in the potential value of thinning hemlock dominated sites on lower slopes. Another style of habitat restoration that Richard had seen in the Thorne Bay district seemed more promising. Apparently, the wildlife biologist is cutting gaps instead of thinning. Presumably the gaps would be large enough to encourage the winter value forbs and so hurry along succession? I'm not sure of the size of the gaps or why the forbs would be accessible in a snowy year. I should have asked a few more questions. Hopefully, Scott will give me a copy of the ground-truthing report from POW.

We talked a bit about second growth on karst. Because of the excellent tree growth, the understory may take longer to re-generate than on less productive ground. That might explain the second growth (wind throw) stands near Tenakee Springs. The trees were about 100 plus years old and there was a lush growth of mosses in the understory, but nothing else. Of course, that time line is not out of line with Paul Alabacks prediction of 400 or more years for an old growth structure to develop.

Saw several of the Hygrophorus olivaceoalbus or "thigh -high -stocking" . I think that it's new common name might be easier to remember than the species name. There were a few scattered Hydnum umbilicatum in Block E. Collected a striking Mycena. It was shaped somewhat like and "glowed" like a Coprinus micaceous. Which is what I thought it was until I had it in hand. It is still silver even now that it is dry.

Saw Buffleheads, mallards, Common Mergansers, Scaup, and a Heron in the estuary. Made a short stop at HPR, Harlequins and Surf Scoters were just offshore the breaking waves.

After I dropped off Scott and Richard, I stopped by Swan Lake to look at the Hooded Mergansers, no luck. I was somewhat surprised to see a breeding plumage male Pintail and a Green winged teal, along with the Ring-necked ducks, 2 coots, and the plentiful mallards and scaups.

I've been dragging myself out later and later each morning this week , somehow still making it vaguely on time to class. I'm reaching the point in the semester were a schedule is starting to wear me down.
Found 4 varied thrushes in the alders at the junction of the home trail and circum-lake trail. The water commute count was: 1 longtail, 8 mew gulls, 2 harlequins, 3 pelagic cormorants and 3 glaucous winged gulls.

Went to Moller park before yoga hoping to avoid the promised severe weather. It was windy, but dry. I walked up past the feeder house, but didn't see a single bird at the feeder so followed the trail to the lake overlook. All Mallards at the extreme north end of the lake, the wind was a bit cold so went back to watch the feeder and the salmonberry bushes. There were a number of juncos in the bushes, not as many as I saw there on previous days though and still nothing at the feeder. I stood and listened in the small parking spot(?) just east of the feeder. The juncos seemed rather calm about my presence, they were eating and not making too many chipping noises. They started what I would consider alarming rapidly after I had been there about 5 minutes. I assumed that someone was coming down the street (I couldn't see the street), but it was a small raptor. From the size, dark tail with white edge and very pointed swept back wings I decided that it was a merlin. Could be wrong as I didn't really get to see it for very long. It flew low over the salmonberries, turned when it saw me and flew off between the houses. I stood still for a while, wondering when if it would return and wondering how long before the birds would return to the feeder. The raptor didn't return, at least not that I saw. The juncos didn't return to the feeder for about 20 minutes longer. I can only assume that they had abandoned the feeder after an earlier fly over by the same or another raptor.
Also wandered down the street to look for birds in other yards. Did see a Northern Flicker in Gracia's yard and watched a flock of siskins bounce over.
After yoga (I successfully balanced in a crow pose!) stopped by the lake on my way back to UAS. Found 2 of the 4 american coots, several ring-necked ducks, a large group of scaups, mallards, one widgeon, and 2 Hooded mergansers. The double-crested cormorant was flying back and forth over the lake. There were several Thayers gulls and at least one Herring gull present. Unless it was a Thayer's gull with a yellow eye. I didn't see the underwings as they were rather content to stand still.


Went to a talk from Richard Carstensen about biogeography of southeast this evening. Right now what is sticking with me is one very side comment that he said about fossils from Admiralty. It couldn't have been a more minor point, but I liked how he emphasized that the deciduous tree fossils from the tertiary deposits on Admiralty had something to tell us about the southeast Alaska of the past, as opposed to the older marine fossils which tell us more about the south pacific. It was just a nice way to make that point. Not earth shattering, but good way to let people know about how things have changed on the earth. I also liked what he related about a naturalist being a generalist that specializes in a place. His place was rather large, but still a cohesive place. I suppose that a case could be made for any sized place, if a person had enough time and energy. Still it seems easier to have quiet moments for learning about or absorbing a place if that place is on a smaller scale than all of southeastern Alaska. I have been to most of the places that he talked about, except Dall and Long islands so I have a few questions for him tomorrow. I think that I'll enjoy spending the day with him. It will be nice to talk with someone who seems just as intense about this place and who has looked at some of the same places.
I have had a vague sense of panic about a liverwort that I identified from Kosciusko for him. It was Kurzia pauciflora, a really odd looking liverwort. It is long and lanky with scattered 3 or 4 lobes leaves that are only apparent with a dissecting scope or handlens. Before I looked at it closely, it looked like a moss I collected from above Herring cove in a dry creek. My unease doesn't involve the identification, but whether or not it has really been collected from here before. Schofield's guide lists it as a species that occurs in the area, but Worley's list for Alaska doesn't include it. Hong's paper on Western North American Lepidoziaceae just says Alaska and BC , but he didn't look at any specimens from here, so there isn't any locality data. The only two specimens I found in the UBC database from Alaska were from Attu Island. I'm only vaguely worried, wondering might be a better description.
I'll probably send the specimen to Judy Harpel or Norton Miller for verification. Judy told me that I should get myself down to POW and look for calciphile bryophtes. I guess she was right.

Tuesday & Wednesday

Commute to town: Tuesday:2 pelagic cormorants, 2 glaucous winged gulls, 1 long-tail, 2 common murres. On Wednesday: 8 Harlequins and 4 pelagic cormorants and 2 gulls on the way to town in the morning. One common murre on the way back to town from taking Ian home around 4pm.

On Tuesday heard the siren call of unusual birds so stopped by the Gavan St. feeder and Moller park. Continue to be impressed by the number of juncos at the feeders and in the salmonberries. Also saw a northern flicker and a flock of siskins while watching the juncos. Soon after I arrived I heard what sounded like the white-throated sparrow singing. It wasn't as "sam peabodyish" as the birds I heard in New York, but seemed very similar. I didn't see any of the sparrows I had seen yesterday, so I can't confirm what my ears heard.

I did have an interesting conversation with Al, the keeper of the feeders who isn't housebound. He confirmed that it is tree swallows that nest in the houses in the backyard. I'm not sure how many years that the houses have been in the yard, but the swallows nest their each year. Apparently the parents leave the nest around the 18th of July. The swallow nestling story happened a number of years ago. He also told me that his grandson brought the birds inside after the parents left and decided that they needed his tutelage to learn to fly. He would let the birds perch on his finger then he would move his hand up and down to get them to flap. It was during one of these lessons that one of the birds swooped its way out the open window. He added a chickadee nest box last spring (?) and had a pair of chickadees raise a family in the yard. Perhaps I should remember to put the bird houses up instead of keeping them in the woodshed.

Very briefly looked at the lake from the dentist's parking lot after dropping Ian at school on Wednesday. A double crested cormorant was perched on a rock at the lake edge. I've seen many of these birds on lakes elsewhere in the country, but don't remember seeing one on Swan Lake. I suspect that I have, just didn't pay attention.

Picked up the feathers from the trailside on the way to townWednesday morning. The rain made them a bit more difficult to pick-up, but they dried nicely.
I should have collected the feathers on Sunday. I either didn't look at them very carefully or perhaps the conditions made it difficult to see all of the detail. A few of the feathers were entirely grey, most were mixeds of white and grey, grey and brown or all three colors. Still not sure from which birds these feathers were plucked.

On the way to the dock this morning I found a pile of feathers near the junction of the trail to the house and the circum-lake trail. The flight feathers were solid gray and the plume feathers were grey with the apical 1/4 white. A junco? From the placement on the ground, it looks like the victim was plucked on the ground. The plucking site looked like what I was finding last fall from the western screech owl. I 've been looking on my walks home at night, but haven't seen an owl this fall.

On the way to town: 14 common mergansers, 3 pelagic and 1 double crested cormorant, 2 long-tails, one glaucuous winged gull.

Before lunch went over to Moller Park to give the sparrows another try. The dogs weren't out and the weather was much more user friendly. Watched the feeder in the yard across from the Path of Hope walk for quite some time. Long enough that I got to visit with the lady of the house on her return. She told me about the bird houses in the backyard and that they have so many feeders because one of their children sends a new feeder every year. It sounds like her husband might be house bound and enjoys the birds and his weather station. One interesting story she told me was about a set of parent birds (sounded like swallows) that left a nestful of unfledged birds. The grandson raised them in birdcages indoors, feeding them crickets from the pet store. Sounded like he let the birds experiment with flight indoors. During one flight training day, the window was open and one flew out and didn't return. The next day, all the fledglings were released.

Did see fox, golden crowned, white throated and song sparrows as well as an impressive number of juncos (both slate and Oregon) at the feeders and a winter wren in the salmonberries on the park side of the streeet. The white throated sparrow was not the boldly colored one photographed earlier and alas wasn't singing the "Sam Peabody" song I heard in New York last May, but was an interesting addition to the fall migration. I did a little searching for information about previous sightings of this bird. Found an article documenting the first record of this species in the state (1968). Also found out that a yard in Ketchikan has had white-throated sparrows annually for an unspecified number of years in the fall and early winter. So much for a Sitka first, I should have looked at Webster's paper...5 previous records, 2 of them not that long ago, 1991 and 1998.

When I first arrived at the park a large flock of pine siskins landed in a red alder closer to the access street. Just before I left the same one or another flock came chattering in and landed in the red alder across from the feeder yard. Another group of about 8 larger finch-like birds passed by, but I didn't get a good look at them.


Walked up to the Indian river muskeg late (3:30) in the afternoon to try to collect roots from Rubus chamaemorus. I knew that the leaves had died back, but hoped that the stem would be adequately intact to trace it to the roots. No such luck. The leaves were just laying on the muskeg, the stems were completely unattached to the plant bases and stems. I did collect one section of soil and roots from Empetrum for culturing.
Also had a chance to find the tree covered with Lobaria I saw last Tuesday. It was a hemlock and the Lobaria growth was lush. There was one small individual growing on a stump at ground level. The tree was easily accessible from the trail near the large notched tree. There were a couple of large root wads that looked like they might be Schistostega habitat, but it was getting too dark to see small moss.

Reading yesterday's post convinced me that the viral fog lasted longer than Wednesday: it seems to have continued through Saturday. I've found that alot of things that seemed significant slipped my mind when writing that post. Like the weather, a few loons and maybe even a few plants.
Saturday's weather was interesting, lots of intense showers of hail with some lightning. It made looking for sparows a rather difficult task, actually didn't do much for mushroom hunting either. I'm sure that soon, if it hasn't already happened, that I'll be known as the crazy lady who wanders around in all weather looking for strange things living in odd spots.

Coughed myself awake relatively early, so got up and monitored the bird feeder (it is the first weekend of feeder watch). Decided to walk around the island in the morning instead of the afternoon to see if timing had any effect on the number and variety of birds I see. Not a noticeable difference from the last few weeks. It was a rather quiet walk, but I did see 9 Buffleheads and a Ring-necked duck on the lake. The latter is a new species for me on Galankin Lake. There were common mergansers and goldeneyes by the dock and a few juncos, chickadees and golden crowned kinglets in the alders. Also collected two mushrooms which are hopefully cooperatively drooping their spores.

I decided that since I had the wool and alum, why not test the local C. semisanguinarius for dye. Miriam Rice's "Mushrooms for Color" lists this species as a good dye mushroom. Started chopping up the mushrooms and noticed that some had red flesh in the cap and others had yellowish-orange flesh. More evidence that I did collect two species from the SJ quad. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to pin a name on the species with orange flesh and rusty gills. I haven't given up hope .
I chopped up the 3 mushrooms with red flesh and rusty gills and simmered them in about 1.5 cups of water. After about an hour, I added about an ounce of wet wool and a small bit of alum. This mixture cooked for about 1 hour. I let the wool cool in the dye liquid. The dye color was a nice cherry red and the wool a good salmon red (the photo color seems true). The wool dried just slightly lighter.
While the wool was dyeing, I worked in the garden. It was as usual, somewhat neglected. I pulled some weeds, cut down alot of dead vegetation and buried the flats of seeds that I had planted with the native plants. They should get the cold and the moisture that they need to germinate outside, I'm afraid I would have neglected the watering if I left them in the greenhouse.
Also dug the remaining carrots, mostly purple ones were still in the bed. The purple is only skin deep. The slices of carrot have an orange core with a purple edge, looks interesting in a salad if one likes purple food. The taste was fine.
Cut down the hops that had reached the second story. Saved some of the flowers, they looks kind of like brown paper roses. I'm fairly certain that their are of no use at this point to a brewer, but I'm not sure.
Birding was interesting from the garden. Particularly because of the sounds of sea birds mixed with the chickadees. There were two common murres down on the water about half way to the Tsaritsa rock can calling away at each other. Not sure if it was a juvenile with a parent or if they had some other social arrangement. Saw a group of 7 pine grosbeaks fly over, later one landed in a nearby spruce. It didn't stay long, but long enough to get a good look.

Not as many juncos in the garden as there are in town. The most I saw at one time were 4, all Oregon. There were 45 crows, 8 chickadees, one song sparrow and one winter wren at the feeder or in the garden.