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.

The worse cold that I've had in recent memory kept me in a fog for most of Wednesday. I did manage to identify the white Hygrophorus from Indian River. H. eburnis, I read somewhere that this is the type species of the genus, can't seem to relocate that source, but this species was described by Fries. An all white mushroom with thick waxy gills which are somewhat decurrent. There was a light veil on the young mushroom which was only vaguely evident on the stem as a layer of tissue. The ones I found weren't viscid on the stem, Arora calls this species H. piceus. Hesler and Smith briefly mentions the relationship between H. piceus and H. eburnis in the description of a different species, but no other mention of H. piceus. The mushroom is still white after 4 days of drying on the kitchen counter.

H. olivaceoalbus under the large spruce in the SJ quad. It wasn't as dark as the ones I had found along Indian river trail. The amount of light affecting pigmentation?

Also I'm fairly sure there were two species of Cortinarius under the spruce. One was identifiable to C. semisanguinarus. The cap and stem aren't viscid and the color of the mushroom doesn't change with moisture. The caps have a rounded umbo particularly as they mature. The gills had a wine-red color over or really underlaying the rusty color from the ripening spores. The clincher was the dark reaction of the cap to 3%KOH. Michael Kuo fortunately made reference to the KOH reaction in his page http://www.mushroomexpert.com/cortinarius_semisanguineus.html,. My other sources didn't have that detail.This species was growing in some fairly dense clumps. Alot of the Cortinarius in this subgenus are good sources of dyes, I didn't try any on fiber, but did notice some red stains on the paper the corts were drying on.
The other Cortinarius (if it really is a different species) doesn't have the red coloration to the gills, but still has a dark reaction to KOH. All of the other features that I looked at were similar to the semisanguinarius. I haven't been able to find out how common the dark reaction to KOH is.

On Thursday afternoon walked to Heart lake from Thimbleberry trail head. One Swan was still around, still in the sedges at the far side of the lake. Found Naematoloma capnoides & Aleuria aurantica on the trail to Heart lake from Thimbleberry.
The Aleuria was in the road on the gravel. The common name of Aleuria is the organge peel fungus. It should be the inside out orange peel fungus. The outside is white and fuzzy (with a hand lens) and the hymenial layer is bright orange. The spores of Aleuria are rather distinctive. Once dispersed from the ascus it is easy to see the bumps and knobs, while in the ascus, the spores have two. There are 8 spores per ascus, each with 2 oil droplets, once dipersed from the ascus, the bumpy surface of each spore is apparent. The ascus is supposed to have an operculum, but I couldn't make it out. The pigment of the hymenial layer seems to be mostly in the paraphyses amongst the asci. Michael Kuo has a page about this fungus.
http://www.mushroomexpert.com/aleuria_aurantia.html
The Naematoloma was on roots or buried wood beside the trail under a hemlock. This saprophyte has a yellowish-buff colored cap, a slender dark stem and lovely purple-black spores.

A group of finches, too large to be siskins flew over, but I wasn't fast enough with the binoculars to get a look at them. Heard a nuthatch or two on the road. I had to wait for brief quiet moments when there weren't cars to listen and try to follow them. I didn't last too long, the noise made it rather difficult and I was low on energy.

The commute has been rather quiet, the goldeneyes have moved away from the dock, the most abundant species I see in the morning are pelagic cormorants.

The trees are in their autumn beauty,
The woodland paths are dry,
Under the October twilight the water
mirrors a still sky;
Upon the brimming water among the stones
are nine-and-fifty Swans.
The nineteenth autumn has come upon me
since I first made my count;
I saw, before I had well finished,
all suddenly mount
and scatter wheeling in great broken rings
upon their clamorous wings.
I have looked upon those brilliant creatures,
and now my heart is sore.
All's changed since I, hearing at twilight,
the first time on this shore,
the bell-beat of their wings above my head,
Trod with a lighter tread.
Unwearied still, lover by lover,
They paddle in the cold
Companionable streams or climb the air;
Their hearts have not grown old;
Passion or conquest, wander where they will,
Attend upon them still.
But now they drift on the still water,
Mysterious, beautiful;
Among what rushes will they build,
By what lake's edge or pool
delight men's eyes when I awake some day
To find they have flown away?

I've been waiting patiently to use Yeats' poem since I heard it put to music in August at the Shakespeare festival in Ashland. Walked up to Thimbleberry lake in search of the swans Pat told me about this afternoon. She had seen two on Monday, but I only found one today. The one was almost lost in the sedges, so its partner may have been a bit further back in the vegetation.

I ran into Pat on the Indian River trail on another "last" search for mushrooms. They seem to keep on coming despite the rapidly cooling temperatures. Alot of what I found was on the way out, but there are other species that seem like they are doing fine. Collected Hydnum repandum and umbilicatum, and Cantharellus cibarius to look for signs of lignin degrading enzymes. They are in the freezer awaiting DNA extraction. Collected Pleurocybella porrigens in hope of getting some spores to try cultivating the spores on cardboard. Found those fungi up where I had found Polystichum andersonii. Couldn't find it today, despite wandering around the Devils club petting the ends of fern fronds in hope of finding a vegetative bud. I vaguely remember that the old fronds were smaller than the typical braunii type, so I was probably spending too much time petting the easily seen larger fronds. Need to look for the smaller ones next time.
Collected a white Hygrophorus today with a veil similar in structure to the H. olivaceoalbus and a small Mycena (?) from a yellow cedar.

Found a few more western hemlocks with Lobaria, two small ones up on the top of the cantharelle ridge where the forest opens up. So much for the idea that the trees need to be older to allow the lichen adequate time to grow. One tree was a distance off the trail near the three large notched stumps closer to the cut-off to the Cross trail. It was a largish hemlock with a patch of the lichen roughly 10ft by 3ft, the yellow-green was rather striking. At least it is striking now that I'm looking for Lobaria. I didn't have time to look at the tree closely, so I could be off on area covered by the lichen.

Set up the cardboard culture of the Panellus serotinus this morning in class. Didn't really have any rhizomorphs to work with, so we just used the stems and cap bases. Not sure if I should bury the container in a vegetable bed or keep it in a cool place indoors.

6 buffleheads in Galankin lake. 5 Goldeneyes, 2 pelagic cormorants on the way to town. Too dark this evening to see anything on the way home.

Glad I went for a walk yesterday morning, today was rather wet and cold. Built a fire as soon as I went home. Might be the farewell to mushroom season.

This morning I was surprised to not find spores from any of the three caps of the Panellus serotinus that I set up last night. So much for trying the spore culture, decided to try the stem culture method instead. Tore up a cardboard box at the high school and left it to soak overnight so the class can help with the project. One of the students told me that they wanted to learn something besies PCR, maybe mushroom culture will be a good change of pace.

Managed to identify the two Hygrophorus. The dark one is H. olivaceoalbus, the pink one H. pudorinus. I'm sure that I've probably ignored the former species in past years. It is a rather attractive mushroom and shouldn't have been dismissed so careflessly. The dark lower stem could be likened to a thigh high sock, with a halibut belly white upper leg showing below the cap. No where to go with this analogy to describe the slimy veil, cap and stem. The fibrous veil is a little hard to see under the thick slime layer of the second veil. It is reported to be mycorrhizal with Sitka spruce, I would suspect it may form an association with western hemlock as well.
Michael Kuo has a page on this fungus. I thought it interesting that he mentioned a Cortinarius as a possible look alike. I wouldn't think that a rusty spored cort would be very similar to a Hygrophorus, but I guess that anything is possible.
http://www.mushroomexpert.com/hygrophorus_olivaceoalbus.html

H. pudorinus var. pudorinus is the best fit for the mushroom I found in the muskeg. I had to use Hesler and Smiths 1963 monograph to feel confident about this species. The microscopic characteristics were helpful. The large size, pink color and relative dryness of the fungus were pretty good indicators. Found a hopelessly gushy love letter in the book (guess it had been untouched for awhile) that made me laugh. Not many people could combine love and species identifications... The photos I've found of this mushroom didn't really do it justice.

5 Goldeneyes, 2 common mergansers and a pelagic cormorant on the way to town. One common loon, a surf scoter, 3 pelagic cormorants on the return this afternoon.
Counted approximately 80 long tails in the channel around 2:30 this afternoon.

Sunny!
Managed to squish in a walk to the first bridge on the Indian river trail before the Whalefest lectures started at 1pm. I thought about kayaking instead, but assumed that the weather would soon preclude most mushroom growth and I should take advantage of the opportunity.
I forgot to set the clock back last night, so felt simulataneously virtuous for getting out of bed at 7:30am and rested because my body thought it had slept in. The feeder had a steady stream of chickadees moving sunflower seed to caches. One chickadee was bringing them up to the eaves above the front windows. Not sure that this is a good thing, but since the roof already leaks, it probably is fine. Maybe the seeds will absorb the water and grow next spring. Nice image, but not a likely one. Only two juncos this morning.
The goldeneyes were at the dock, a few still fly off when I pound down the ramp, but most just paddle a bit further away. Along the path to town found 3 pelagic cormorants, 7 mergansers, one common loon, mew, glaucous-winged and at least one Thayers/Herring gull. Yesterday's fork-tailed petrels were not to be seen.

I stopped at the muskeg to search for the pink Hygrophorus. Only found a few tattered and frozen remains of 3 individuals. There was a bit of ice on the ponds and the moss was a bit on the crunchy side. The view of the Sisters with snow was quite compelling.
Back on the trail, collected 2 nice sized Hydnum repandum and one Golden Chanterelle. They are probably the last of the season. The Hydnum (Hydni?) were much lighter colored than typical, but they tasted just fine. I did recollect the dark capped Hygrophorus from the trail side. It has some distinctive features, including a partial veil and a viscid cap and stem. I managed to get a spore print (white) last time and did one cap section (vaguely divergent tramal hyphae), but the mushroom didn't hold up well. In fact it turned into a rather gooey mess. I'll have to be a bit more decisive and speedy with my identification this time.
Lactarius rufus was still fruiting and their were a few Russula along the way, but I let them be in the hope I'd focus on the Hygrophori.
I was trying to pay a bit more attention to my surrounding on this trip, I was trying to look at polypores on snags to get more of an idea how often trees are visibly infected with multiple fungi. Still mostly saw Fomitopsis pinicola, with occasional Laetiporus conifericola. On two snags I saw a reddish brown polypore that had multiple fruiting bodies clumped together. The size was somewhat variable in each clump, but overall similar to the Fomitopsis. Unfortunately both clumps were well out of reach, so I'm not certain what fungus they were or even if the two clumps were the same fungus.
At one stop, I heard an amazing amount of bird sound that I thought was coming from some red alders across the river. It sounded like several birds, but the river was loud enough that I couldn't quite tell what I was hearing. Didn't see anything from the trail, so went down to the river edge, it was a dipper. The variety of sounds and volume still sounded alot like multiple birds, but there was just one. It stood on a rock about 1/3 the way across the river. I listened for at least 5 minutes while it sang. It only briefly stopped twice. I thought that there must have been another bird in the area, but I couldn't find it. I did find a brown creeper. It flew across the river and worked a few trees for insects. The dipper was still singing when I left, but I was getting cold and running out of time. On the way back to the trail, found my first clump of Lobaria linita on a smallish Western Hemlock. For some reason (obliviousness?) I had only noticed this lichen on Spruce and Cottonwood.
I was tempted to go further than the bridge, I thought to look for the Polystichum andersonii I found in June or look in the next muskeg for pink Hygrophori, but it was time to turn around. On the way back, I found several small patches of Lobaria linita on Western hemlock and one rather noticable clump on a largish Mountain hemlock across from the path to the muskeg bench.
Several of the red alder snags were sprouting clumps of Panellus serotinus (late oyster). It forms shelving clumps of caps with short lateral stems. A few lacked stems. The caps varied from green to grey and the gills were somewhat yellowish. The largest I collected had caps 8cm wide. (I was inspired by this summer's great head circumference contest to use centimeters to elevate all activities to a more science-like level.) Arora lists them as a mediocre edible, the description doesn't tempt me. I am tempted to germinating some of the spores by the broth & soaked cardboard method that Stamets described in Mycelium Running. I'll probably put some on media as well.

Thursday Michelle Kissling from the USFWS ( Juneau) came over to talk about the research she has been doing on Kittlitiz's murrelets. USFWS is funding the research because this bird is in serious decline and is a candidate species. If I remember right the numbers have been declining in the order of 84%.
This murrelet is another of the deviant seabirds, in that it doesn't nest in colonies. Unlike the marbled murrelet, this one nests on the ground. According to Michelle the current estimate for the two species divergence is around 1 million years.
The population that is the focus of Michelle's research lives in Icy Bay. It sounds like the gap in population estimates for the murrelets is the area between Glacier Bay and Prince William Sound. If I remember correctly she and her field crew spends most of June through August in Icy Bay.
They captured birds for radio tagging using a spot light and a dip net. This of course happens at night in the early summer. From what she said it took them a couple of seasons to find out where the birds congregated at night and how to capture them effectively. The first year they captured one bird (I wish that the Edgecumbe students had heard that bit of reality), 14 in 2006 and I believe 38 2007. Two volunteers from Sitka spend a week in the bay to help with the capturing each year. Apparently, they are getting pretty good at it, sounds like 2 birds per dip wasn't unusual. Each bird was weighed, measured had blood drawn and feathers removed before being fitted with a raido transmitter. Sounds like the weso operation I witnessed last spring. They flew regular transects to locate the tagged birds in order to look at where they were feeding and in hope of locateding nests as only 25 nests had been found prior to this summer.

Four nests were located, Michelle was noticably thrilled about this achievement. One nest was located below a hanging glacier on a cliff, presumbably in a crevice. A group of Swiss who were skiing on Mt. St. Elias donated the use of their helicopter to Michelle , so that she could try to find a spot to land and find the nest. They gave it a try, but the pilot couldn't find a spot to put down.
The second nest they found was on the Malaspina glacier on a layer of rock debris about 1.5ft thick. They tracked the parent to the nest with the plane several times, then the parent didn't return for 5 days. The hike to the nest site sounded rather challenging, but they found it, but the parent had abandoned the nest. The egg was there, but cold with condensation on the surface. Michelle was reluctant to recover the egg at that point, but did so at the end of the season. They did a necropsy in Anchorage and so far haven't found anything obviously amiss with the chick. With each nest site they do a habitat survey (I didn't hear what data they collect). When they investigated the site, they found several old nests within the habitat survey. There were pieces of egg shell, feathers, and in one remains of a chick all several years old. Michelle is hoping that this means that they can return and find another nest next season. Hopefully more successful.
The third nest found was a successful one. It was a recently (not sure how long) dusty looking small boulder field about 8 miles away from the fiord. Again, it was great to hear how thrilled Michelle was to find a nest with a bird on an egg. They packed in a video camera set-up with a 150ft coax cable so that they could record the comings and goings of the birds. The parents apparently split the job of egg sitting equally, switching places every 48 hours, generally between midnight and 2am. Michelle showed a video clip of a hand off. When the relief parent arrived they did a little preening of one another and then the relieved parent flew off.
The second video clip she showed was footage of the male parent bringing a capelin to the chick. Shortly after the chick hatched the male brought the capelin seemingly without previously seen the egg hatch. At least Michelle and crew couldn't see any sign on the video that he had seen the chick hatch before bringing the fish. They are still looking through the video to see if they missed something, but the camera only picked up a small area, so a fly through wouldn't have been seen. Also captured on the tape, but not shown was the 2 minutes that the male dangled the fish in front of the chick, presumably to get its digestive juices going. What we saw was an edited clip, we saw the male arrive and the female move off of the chick. It was quite impressive to see the chick quickly gulp down the capelin which seemed way too long to fit in the bird.

Shortly after this time the male died, I believe eaten by an eagle (might have been a peregrine). The female successfully reared the chick on her own. The last video clip we saw was of the chick beating its wings (for about 1-2 minutes) prior to fledging. Much energy was expended exercising the wing muscles and removing the down. Once the chick fledged, neither bird returned to the nest.

The fourth nest was located, but hadn't been successful. We didn't hear much about this nest, so I can't remember exactly what occured. The photo that was shown of the area looked like a very young forest, which doesn't fit with what I've read about Kittlitz nesting habits.
So far what seems to be the largest pressure on the population is predation, although they may not be terribly successful at nesting either. With a one egg per year, reproduction seems awfully slow. Predation is probably increasing because of vegetation changes associated with deglaciation in the areas where Kittlitz's congregate. It seems that nesting of peregrines and eagles in Icy bay has increased over the years. They did find a number of eyries and plucking posts with alot of Kittlitz parts. One photo was of a radio transmitter in an eagle nest with the murrelet-eating eaglet standing by. Apparently, the local peregrines really like the taste of a Kittlitz's. There is a large colony of Glaucous-winged gulls, Arctic and Aleutian terns in the bay, but the "fat little footballs" are the preferred food. She also mentioned that Caspian terns were showing up in the breeding colonies.
Michelle didn't sound terribly hopeful about the future of this bird. Short of shooting peregrines and eagles in Icy Bay, its a little problematic on how to improve the birds chances. I don't expect that this is an acceptable solution.
http://www.nps.gov/glba/naturescience/upload/Kissling_etal2007_KittlitzMurrelettsOuterCoast.pdf
http://www.wildlifenews.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=wildlife_news.view_article&articles_id=226&issue_id=40

My bird observations have been rather limited this week. I'm hoping that I won't be quite as busy in the next few weeks. The golden eyes at the dock, a few glaucous winged gulls and the odd kingfisher (also at the dock) were the typical birds. My morning commute on Thursday included a marbled murrelet. Saturday morning commute happened around 11am and included more birds. I saw 3 loons (too far to identify), 2 fork-tailed petrels, 3 pelagic cormorants, golden-eyes, thayers gulls and the glaucous-winged that lives on the dock piling.
On Wednesday I did watch a greater white-fronted goose land in the parking lot near the ramp at UAS. It let one car pass it slowly by, but the second one must have been too much and it flew off. I am still seeing flocks of geese fly over.