Life on the Outer Coast

Thursday, June 28th
More sun.
Started the day at 4:30, ran out to Whale park to count Marbled Murrelets at a hideously early hour in hopes of improving our count numbers. It was a lovely morning, but the early hour didn't help the numbers. There were 5 murrelets, 4 common murres and 3 rhinoceros auklets. There were alot of fish jumping and a few Mew gulls feeding. It might have been interesting to have a couple of days of continuous counts in the early mornings and evenings to see how variable this spot is. This crazed idea might take alot of volunteers and probably wouldn't give anymore information than ADFG is already gleaning from what data they are already getting. If my regular partners want to do this any earlier, I think I'll have to spend the night in town.

After an early morning nap, Jeff, Ian and I headed for Gavan Hill. Ian and Jeff planned on climbing up and across the ridge, my job was to pick them up at Harbor Mtn. I went up Gavan with them for about 25 minutes, then ran back down and drove up Harbor Mtn. Fortunately, I was at least able to get almost to the meadows that skirt the peak before I ran into them again. I was hoping to get far enough to talk Ian into going back to Gavan with me, but no such luck.
There were isolated patches of snow along the trail, I managed to crash through twice. Kind of cold being mid thigh in the snow in shorts. No sign of bear or deer, just humans and dogs.

In bloom in the Tsuga mertensiana forest at the beginning of the trail: Viola glabella, Vaccinium ovalifolium, V. alaskense, V. caespitosum, Coptis asplenifolia, and Streptopus roseus.
Along the ridge above tree line: Anemone narcissifolia, Cassiope mertensiana, Harrimanella stelleriana (?), Geum calthifolium, a few Dodecatheon jeffreyi, and one Phyllodoce empetriformis. I could see color in a few Castilleja along the ridge. Most of the Valerian only had a few leaves showing, but one was already in bud. The scent of the Dodecatheon was well worth getting down on my hands and knees for, it reminded me to watch for pollinators this year. Good thing that the high elevation ones are still blooming, since I forgot to look at the low elevation ones. Not even sure if I have missed them.
Jeff and Ian reported that the lupines were in bloom in the meadow, I'll have to try again next week with some guests.

Spent the rest of the day leisurely pulling weeds and watching the multitude of insects in the garden. It seemed like every flower on the red rhododendron and geraniums had a bumblebee. The Valerian was also popular. The other abundant creature insect was some sort of bluet, not sure if they are northern or boreal, I'll try to catch one tomorrow to look at the appendages. I think that it is time to arrange a summer entomology workshop, definitely feeling undertrained.