I haven’t been very regular about posting for the last couple of weeks and this entry is a bit wordy and scattered as a result of that inconsistency. I'm taking advantage of the 2 hour wait on the tarmac in Sitka and an indefinite amount of time circling Juneau to write this entry. In the end, it took 3 hours between boarding in Sitka and landing in Juneau. The rest of the trip to Fairbanks went a bit smoother.

Sunday Feb. 24^th had the time and inclination to take the kayak out to search for birds. It was very calm, almost raining but not quite, at least not in the morning when I was out.

Used the plastic kayak as the yellow cedar one was in a spot not easily accessed by one person. It was windy enough last Monday that I thought the kayak could get blown off the dock so stowed it in the shop on the commons.

The plastic one isn’t anywhere near as light to paddle as the yellow cedar kayak, it is slower and takes more energy to move once in the water. The only advantage of it in general is that I don’t wince if I find ice or barnacles. Ice wasn’t a problem on Sunday.

I paddled around the lighthouse end of the island toward the cormorant rocks. The cormorants went on alert when I was not to far past the lighthouse. They are amazingly jumpy birds, it is hard to see them as prey for too many things, but my imagination must be inadequate. There was a large flock of mixed Pelagic and Double crested on the rocks and a few Harlequins, White winged and Surf scoters were in the area. There was an land otter or mink alarming when I paddles past, but I never did see the animal. Paddled west past the cormorant rocks toward Beardslee islands and Middle channel looking for alcids and shorebirds. Found the usual mew gulls, a couple of Marbled murrelets, and a Red-necked grebe in the channel by the rock across from the runway. Paddled back through Middle channel and along the town side of Breast and Morne island. Checked out the rocks and shore lines of the islands on the path, but didn’t find shorebirds. The rest of the usual commute birds were around; Glaucous winged gulls, Harlequins, Common mergansers, Barrows goldeneyes, Mallards, Buffleheads and Pacific loons. The trip seems a bit dull in the retelling, but it didn’t feel that way at the time, instead it was a rather pleasant way to spend the morning.

It was feeling a bit spring-like so figured it was time to check out the garden and look for signs of life. The witch hazel and the New Dawn viburnum were blooming, the latter has been blooming off and on through the winter. The witch hazel flowers are just starting to open. No sign of the early crocus yet.

The older deciduous shrubs and small trees (Vine Maple, Witch Hazel, Azaleas) in the garden have a number of lichens and mosses on the multiple trunks of the vine maple and branches. I haven’t done a species count yet from the garden, but I probably should. I suspect it is rather high. There are the typical array of Platismatias, Hypogymnia species and Hypotrachyna sinosa, with a lot of Ramalina and Ulota ssp. and Orthotrichum lyellii. This time one of the Ramalinas had apothecia, which was kind of exciting as it seemed like it would be easier to identify to species with that clue, especially since I didn’t want to collect the lichen to identify it. It was raining so I left the book in the house and traipsed back and forth with my hand lens. It was a bit silly, but I decided that I preferred the shrub lichens to stay living outside instead of ending up in boxes. The end point is that it is Ramalina dilacerata, a lichen associated with coastal exposure.

Also found on the vine maple another species that I associate with ocean exposure, Ulota phyllantha. It may have been growing there before, but it didn’t have obvious gemmae before, so I didn’t notice it. On the same branch was U. obstusicula, U. megalospora, and Orthotricum lyellii.

I didn’t get out much this week because I needed to get a lot done before leaving for Fairbanks and I managed to add a couple of events to an already busy week. Spending a morning at Baranof school sharing spinning and carding may not have been the best use of my time, but it was nice being around the kids and they seemed interested. I’ll have to remember to bring the mountain goat wool in the future (provided that I never learn to say no), since they see the Raven’s tail weaving at the park.

Between tasks this week spent some time looking at Tetraphis versus Aulacomium. They aren’t two mosses that I thought could be confused, but I hadn’t noticed that the old gemmae of Tetraphis elongate over the winter. The synopsis of the mostly macroscopic differences is as follows.

Habitat is a bit different, Tetraphis seems to prefer decomposing wood in shady spots and Aulacomium the same substratum, but in sunny locations.

The gemmae are generally fairly distinct, those of Tetraphis are in leafy cup-like structures and the Aulacomium look a lot like lollipops. The elongated stalks still have the leafy cups, the stalks are just a lot longer.

Up close the leaf cells of Aulacomium are papillose, I haven’t checked to see if this was visible with a hand lens.

Size; Aulacomium is typically much smaller than the average Tetraphis.

If the capsules are available, the four teeth of Tetraphis are quite distinctive.

Gemmae are a handy thing, both for the bryophyte that doesn’t need to go through the process of getting gametes together in order to produce and for the poor botanist trying to identify the creature. One recent example was Grimmia torquata. The specimen I had was without capsules, so lacked a lot of the features that were being discussed in keys and descriptions. Luckily I found gemmae in the upper leaf axils, without this structure I would have been stuck at a few likely species. Fortunately, the section descriptions of Grimmia in the BFNA clearly state whether or not the species have gemmae, so I could eliminate a lot of contenders. Apparently, this moss is rather common in southeast, I’ve just managed to overlook or ignore it until recently.

Also got to look at a small ascomycete this week, Pseudoplectania nigrella. It is a small member of the Sarcosomataceae. It is a stalkless, 2-3 cm broad cup shaped fungus that grows on wood. Both the hymenium and outer surface are black, but the flesh was white. The outer surface is hairy with a lot of short hyphae. After soaking in a bit of water, the outer surface became rather gelatinous. I was able to get a decent cross section of the apothecia, at least clear enough to see the spores, the ascus and the paraphyses. I really need a camera, the structures are quite appealing and it would be nice to have a photo of both the macro and micro features. Anyway, the spores were globose and the ascus did not react with iodine.

Thursday morning heard a winter wren singing on my way to the island dock. It sounded a bit tentative compared to the full-bodied singing that I typically hear. The sound was softer and the song a bit disorganized.

Counted the channel birds on Thursday during a particularly rainy moment. The notebook with all of the numbers is not with me, but I do recall the species (I hope):

266 Longtails, Common mergansers, Scaup (greater), Barrow’s goldeneyes, crows, Pelagic cormorant, Thayers, Glaucous-winged, Herring, and Mew gulls.

The commute birds included: Pelagic cormorants, Surf scoters, Harlequins, Common mergansers, Marbled murrelets, Glaucous-winged gulls, Mew gulls, Common loon.

The great backyard bird count occupied much of my time Friday, February 15 through Monday February 18th. It was quite enjoyable to spend that much time chasing birds, hope to do it again some time relatively soon.
Friday morning I counted the channel birds, looked at the Path of Hope, the turnaround off of HPR and walked over to Alice Island.

Saturday walked up Indian River not too far past the first bridge and went out to Starrigavan and walked around the estuary loop.

Sunday tried to paddle around the island but turned around not too far past the Lighthouse because it was quite rough. Went on the town side of Morne island and around the Twins and back to the island.

Monday walked the Cross trail from Baranof street almost to the quarry road and back. Also briefly looked at John Browns beach.

I tallied all of the species I saw for the 4 days and came up with 47 comfortably identified species. Missed some species that I saw within the prior week e.g. Varied thrush, Northern Flicker and Western screech owl.

Common Loon – 1
Pacific Loon -3
Horned Grebe – 1 (Starrigavan)
Pelagic Cormorant - 53
Double-crested Cormorant – 34
Great Blue Heron – 4
Trumpeter Swan - 2 (Starrigavan)
Mallard - 35
American Wigeon - 1 (Starrigavan)
Northern Shoveler – 1 (Starrigavan)
Greater Scaup – 52
Harlequin Duck 25
Long-tailed Duck - 121
Black Scoter – 2
Surf Scoter – 1
White-winged Scoter - 9
Common Goldeneye - 1
Barrow's Goldeneye – 20
Bufflehead – 13
Common Merganser 46
Red-breasted Merganser 8
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1
Bald Eagle – 16
Black Turnstone - 47
Surfbird – 16
Rock Sandpiper – 6
Thayer's Gull 125
Mew Gull - 16
Glaucous-winged Gull – 90
Thick-billed Murre – 1
Marbled Murrelet - 1
Rock Dove (I didn't count)
Red-breasted Sapsucker - 1
Northwestern Crow 29
Common Raven 51
Chestnut-backed Chickadee – 7
Winter Wren – 1
American Dipper – 2
Golden crowned kinglet 2
American Robin - 2
European Starling 34
Bohemian Waxwing – 7
Song Sparrow – 4
American Tree Sparrow 3
Dark-eyed Junco 12
Golden crowned kinglet 2
Common Redpoll - 44
Pine Siskin – 127

I'm sure I undercounted the redpolls and siskins. When I was leaving Indian River trail, a huge flock of birds flew over too fast to get a good count.
The bulk of the variety and numbers of birds were found in the channel and Starrigavan, next highest diversity was found on Alice island and the skiff/kayak trips. The Cross trail was very quiet, except for ravens and dogs (and me swearing).
The trip up Indian river was quite nice, the snow was still very deep off the trail, but the river was low enough that I walked up to the Pine Grosbeak tree in the river. There was a small hemlock on the bank mostly covered with Lobaria. Found a coho in a small pool, at least from the brief look I got, it seemed like one. It was a good time to review the stream mosses, the differences between Scouleria and Codriophorus acicularis was especially noticable for the slightly blind. Fontinalis was looking especially hair-like, kind of reminiscent of Ophelia in the stream. Didn't find the Hairy woodpecker on its tree, but the dippers were in the same reaches of the river. The bird in the upper (if I'm remembering correctly) was singing.

Ian and I both started out in the kayaks on Sunday morning. He was planning on towing Jeanne and Brians kayak back to Bamboroshni. Quite happy that he came along, especially since I couldn't pull my spray skirt over the rim. Not sure if it was because it was cold and inflexible or if I'm just a wimp. I'm thinking the latter, as it took alot of effort for Ian to accomplish the task.
I went around the lighthouse first, hoping to get as far as Bamdoroshni, but turned around before the cormorant island because of the washing machine -like conditions. I turned Ian back by the lighthouse, I'm glad that in a few things he still trusts my judgement. Maybe he just knows that since I'll push things far enough, that if I don't like the conditions, he wouldn't either.

Paddled around Morne island and the Twins, it was windy, but not too bad, certainly not on the agitation cycle of the western exposures. Found a group of surfbirds, black turnstones and rock sandpipers on an exposed rock before the turn around the Twins. In the flock were 3 or 4 much smaller sandpiper like birds, that looked alot like breeding spotted sandpipers. They had yellowish legs and bills, with spots along the chest and sides of the belly. They were much more delicate looking than the other birds. As it is very early for such a bird to be around, I wasn't comfortable reporting the birds, particularly without any evidence. I'll just have to keep my eyes open.

Looked for the western screech owl every night of the count, but no luck. It of course turned up in the commons on Tuesday night.

I've seen one or two marbled murrelets each morning this week on the trip to town, along with the usual pelagic cormorants, mergansers, and harlequins. Thursday morning there were 8 surf scoters and a pair of longtails as well.

Hear a song sparrow singing at Crescent harbor on Wednesday morning, way too early to think about spring.

Found this photo strip on Deirdre's bulletin board last night and decided that this adequately captured motherhood for me. I think that Deirdre was 3 in the photos.

In honor of her 20th birthday, I have to turn to Shakespeare, since that is common lground. There is alot that isn't suitable. My child isn't ungrateful, treacherous or unloved, so King Lear is thankfully out.
In stead I turned to Hamlet, not exactly a happy play, but Polonius, who was never my favorite character, still gave some reasonable advice.

So here is the whole speech that Polonius gives to his departing son, Laertes

There,-my blessing with you!
And these few precepts in thy memory See thou character. -Give thy thoughts no tongue, nor any unproportioned thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel; but do not dull thy palm with entertainment
of each new-hatched, unfledged comrade. Beware of entrance to a quarrel; but being in, bear't that the opposed may beware of thee. Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice: Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, but not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy: For the apparel oft proclaims the man.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be, for loan oft loses both itself and friend, and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day,Thou canst not then be false to any man.

There was a winter storm warning for Saturday which materialized late Friday night. Light snow, but winds steady in the 20s. The visibility was very poor, most of the morning could see the ocean below the house, but Bamdoroshni island was not visible until early afternoon. The front windows were partially covered by snow, not because the wind was southerly, but the house must have been giving the the snow a swirl that landed it on the windows.

The birds spent most of the day down in the shrubbery below the deck and under the house, with a few forays up to the feeder. The species richness increased by one with the arrival of a sapsucker at the feeder tree.
Walked around the lake and to the cedar point in the early afternoon. In several places on the trail the wind had sculpted snow "dunes". The dunes were about 2 ft above the rest of the snow and had the typical curve and slip face form I've seen in sand dunes. The size was on the minature side, but the form was familiar. The wind was intense enough in these spots that the foot prints I'd made with my snow shoes were erased by the time I had returned (much less than hour). On the windward side of the island the weather still favored a face down sort of walk. Few bird tracks and none at all of mink. The leeward side of the island was more pleasant for walking, but just as quiet for songbirds. There were a few ducks in the cove by the dock (Mallards, Common mergansers, and Barrow's goldeneyes).
Decided to visit the Cedar pt on the west side of the island as I was curious if there were any lurking sea birds in the lee of the island or any mink tracks in the woods. Usually there are mink and/or otters there in the spring and summer, so I thought that they might be around. The walk was nice, the snow was deep enough to cover alot of the debris, but also quiet in terms of animals. Guess I was the only one silly enough to be out and about in such lovely weather. Several mew gulls on the west side playing (?) in the waves and wind. The low temperature was 17 and it made it to 35 before midnight.

Sunday was impressively different. Warmer and rainy and not so windy. The snow load on the roof started sliding off the roof and hitting the deck with enough weight to shake the entire house. The change in the weather is probably a useful thing at the moment. The water tank is only 1/3 full and last night the intake line to the septic tank froze...It's always interesting when you wash the dishes and find the water overflowing the laundry room sink and pouring onto the basement floor. Could have been much worse. The water line from the lake has been excavated and the water has made it half way up the hill to the house. Maybe tomorrow I can do laundry. Life is full of little pleasures.

Stayed on the island from Saturday through Friday morning with a minor case of the flu. Minor in the symptoms, but nothing I really wanted to share. Still a little light headed, but almost back to normal. It wasn't a bad week to sit by the window and watch the feeder and enjoy the view of the ocean. I should have paid more attention to the weeks weather, the imprecise summary is that it has been cold and snowy or cold and sunny. The wind has periodically been fierce, generally been steady. The coldest temperature recorded at the house was 14F, the high might have made it all the way to slightly above freezing. Although the the snow seems to be about 2ft deep, it probably isn't except where the snow has blown it into drifts or where the snowplows and backhoes have piled it. The depth is probably closer to 14 or 15 inches.

The feeder has been the busiest that I remember in recent history, probably a combination of the weather and the steady supply of food that is available because I was at home. Juncos have been dominating the feeder and the brush below the deck. One slate colored junco was in the mixture, the first I remember noticing out here. The best spot to watch the birds is out the basement windows. There is a mixture of oregon crab apple, salmonberry, elderberry and huckleberry growing on the steep slope just below the house. The birds perch in the brush, scratch the ground for seeds and I assume some invertebrates. There are a few pieces of scrap wood that get alot of attention. Not infrequently a junco will fly out from under the house. I wonder if the resident mink take advantage of the bird resource?
There has been 2 song sparrows and a varied thrush hanging out below the feeder. The thrush hasn't ventured up, but the song sparrows will come and sit on the deck rail by the feeder. They don't stand, they sit, very low almost like they are laying down and eat the seed.
The crows make a few ventures to the feeder during the day. There are about 18 of them that come around. They sit in the small spruce that is about 25ft from the feeder, watch for awhile then slowly move in closer, then land on the rail. It can take as long as 15 minutes for them to decide to land.
I did venture out as far as the dock a couple of times before I left. A few stalwart winter wrens, song sparrows, one fox sparrow and one varied thrush was the bulk of the song birds I saw on my walks. The fox sparrow was making use of the unused and open kayak shed. I first saw it in the alders, then it flew into the shed. It was pressed flat (as flat as a live sparrow can get) reaching with its beak under the stack of wood on the floor.

I did solve the mystery of the tail drag in the weasel tracks. Weasel? I should have said ermine...anyway. I saw several tracks similar to those I saw on the Indian river trail, that is small, weasel-like with tail drag. All of the tracks I've seen this week have a very tidy look to them. Two side by side tracks with the back feet registering in the front. Frequently with a tail drag. There are a few spots where the mink dove under the snow and other spots where there were slides. Haven't seen any sign of otter or deer this week, but I wasn't venturing too far off the trail.
This morning at the dock saw 7 mallards, 4 common mergansers, 3 Barrow's goldeneyes, a heron, and 2 buffleheads. Not much on the way across, but it was on the choppy side.
Stopped briefly at Starrigavan around 11am. Saw a couple of widgeons in the crowd of mallards and mergansers. There was an odd looking sparrowlike bird flying around the ducks and landing at the waters edge, but I never did get a good look at it. Marge and Tedin were just leaving as I got there, hopefully they got a look at it.
It was kind of difficult doing the channel count today. The snow berm was high enough that I had trouble seeing above it, had to wander up and down the edge to find the best view. I didn't feel like wading through it today, although I'm sure I would have if I had been with my class.
72 Scaup, 63 Long-tails, 2 Bufflehead, 14 Common mergansers, 56 Glaucous-winged gulls, 1 Mew gull, 7 Thayers gulls, 2 Pelagic cormorants, 1 raven and 1 crow.

The east wind made the ride home tonight a little on the wild side. It was the direction that the gusts don't hit the boat until almost Morne island and they are particularly strong around Gilmore islands. The wind was strong enough in the commons that it erased most signs of the mornings trail. No owl, but I didn't lift my head up too often, the wind favored looking at the ground (-9 wind chill). The snow was covered in small tracks that look right for sparrows.

Woke up to more snow, both on the ground and coming down. Based on the amount I had to shovel to the bird feeder, it snowed about 5 inches over night. The snow seems wetter than what we had Thursday night. It is sliding off the roof in huge slumps with 1.5ft long icicles curving toward the house. Swept the snow off the rhododendrons and other shrubs so that the snow won't break branches. It doesn't have much in the way of protective qualities for tall shrubs. I left it on the shorter plants, not sure if the juniper really likes the moisture though. The New Dawn Viburnum was still blooming under the snow. No sign of witch hazel flowers.
Spent most of the day indoors watching the feeder, writing descriptions and doing chores. The feeder had steady activity today, mostly the usual visitors with the additon of a Varied thrush.

I did leave the house to snowshoe around the lake in the early afternoon. Managed to put my shoes on the right feet today. The snowshoes seemed incredibly loud today. Didn't think that I'd see a single bird on my walk. I was wrong, but it took awhile after I left the house to find much. There were Winter wrens and Song sparrows along the trail, I was surprised not to find any siskins in the alders around the lake. There was a bit more variety down by the dock and in the commons. Buffleheads, Barrow's Goldeneyes, Pelagic cormorants, Harlequins, Common Mergansers and Glaucous winged gulls by the dock. Not a terribly impressive list, but better than along the lake. I did find 2 Bohemian waxwings in the commons. Their distinctive call was what alerted me to them. I got a brief look before they flitted off again. Decided to look at the Mountain ash trees by the A-frame to see if there was a bigger flock, no luck, but I was lucky enough to be looking in the right direction when a Northern Goshawk flew by. It flew from Galankin over to the forest on Gilmore Island. I didn't get a long look at it, but by the size, flight pattern and color it seems right for a dark juvenile.
Wandered back to the commons to do a bit more searching. Found a couple more song sparrows over by the house at the south end. Was turning to head back to the trail and saw another hawk. The most distinctive thing about it other than its size was the very red tail. It wasn't sunny, so I believe that the color was truely red. The bird was too large for a kestrel, so I'm not sure what else it would have been other than a Red-tailed hawk. This bird was also flying toward the Gilmore islands, but I lost sight of it, so I don't know if it landed or continued on.
The rest of the walk was rather quiet except for the noise from my snow shoes.

Finally Thursday morning, after what seemed like months of staring at slides of roots, I finished the last of the bioassay samples. 75 plants, 3 slides each = blindness. I didn't find any VA mycorrhizal infection (okay I found 1) in wheat planted in dilutions of either the swale or hummock soil. There were several endomycorrhizal spores germinating in the hummock soil dilutions, but only one achieved some infection. The dark septate fungi were infected the wheat, down to the 5th dilution. I may redo the experiment with spring gathered soil and leave out the 6th and 7th dilutions and let the plants grow longer before breaking it down. It might also be useful to use a second host plant. The plants innoculated with the fungi from the root isolates look good above ground, hopefully something is happening in the root zone.

Went skating again and visited the feeder, siskins, both Slate and Oregon juncos and a few redpolls. Did verify that snow covered cracks are difficult to see and that gravity is working just fine. No new bruises.

On Friday woke up to snow. It snowed until about noon. Based on the depth at the island dock, there was about 8 inches accumulation. Saw two Tree sparrows in the salmonberries down in the commons. 4 Pelagic cormorants, 2 Harlequins, 3 Surf scoters, 6 Common mergansers and 2 Mallards on the way to town.

Helped the Mt. Edgecumbe students get their research papers finished and sent in to Fairbanks for the science symposium. The lab has accomplished alot since September. We have alot of lab work to do in the next three weeks before the conference, so that everyone has more complete data to present. I probably need to go back to the muskeg with an ice axe to get the dissolved oxygen measurement and the pH of the ponds. Not that it will be terribly representative of the growing season, but at least we can answer the question if asked. I'm looking forward to going north, hoping to see some northern lights and the UAF herbarium.

Celebrated the completion of the papers by heading up Indian river. The snow and the quest for sapsuckers was what drew me. I suppose there is the beauty of the forest in snow. One person and a dog had been as far as the Cross trail cut off, but the rest of the trail was untouched. Nice being the first person up there, the snow wasn't so deep that it was hard to walk through and the tracks were interesting Saw squirrel, mink and otter tracks. One of the sets of tracks were a little mysterious. One set looked most like squirrel, small feet, parallel fore feet, but there was a tail mark. It seemed reasonable that the tracks of a red squirrel would show a tail, but after looking at the track book I have, there isn't any mention of a tail mark in the snow. The only vaguely similar tracks with a tail are those of a weasel. There supposed to be around, but I have yet to see one. The tracks weren't clear enough to see the shape of the foot.

The snow was about 5 to 6 inches deep on the trail and very powdery. The depth of snow over the ice seemd to be adequate to mostly avoid slipping. Only minor skating on a few flat spots.

Saw one dipper downriver from the cascades below a long gravel bar. It wasn't singing, in fact it wasn't moving much at all. Found one mallard near by. Went as far as the 2nd bridge, went up the shore of the east fork aways then cut back to the west fork through the woods. I thought about following the west fork up, but wasn't prepared to do so and I did need to accomplish some work.

On the way back down was treated to a male Hairy woodpecker debarking a small dead spruce. I heard it working before I saw it. It would hit each section of the bark from different angles, turning its head to either side and striking. Looked like it was driving its beak underneath a bark section from either side until the bark popped off. After it successfully removed a section it must have picked up a few invertebrates, but I couldn't quite tell. The bird sometimes followed the fallen bark down the tree, poked at the bark a few times, then moved back up to the spot it was working. This particular bird had a very yellow patch of feather at the base of its beak.

It was snowing for most of my hike and I didn't see many other birds, I did hear Kinglets or Creepers, but couldn't locate them.



Saturday morning because of an unavoidable errand ended up being late enough to dance class that I decided to go up the river again. One doesn't go to Dance class late, I was happy for the excuse. Not that I don't like dance class, but it was rather nice outside. Happily, I brought my snow shoes to town as I had intended to take a short hike between dance and writing. Headed up river again around 10:30. Yesterday's tracks were almost covered by the evenings snow. There was one couple with dogs ahead of me, but didn't encounter anyone else until I was heading down. The dipper was in the same part of the river as yesterday, this time a mallard and two mergansers were with it.

Started up the west fork, not sure how far I went before turning back. Decided that I didn't know the terrain well enough to know how to avoid the major holes that were covered up by the snow. Seemed like some of them could be deep enough to swallow a short woman, especially hazardous for one traveling alone who didn't tell anyone where she was going. Most of the path was relatively open, but there were a few areas that seemed to be piles of debris. The debris didn't seem like a big deal when I could see what I was avoiding, but was a little daunting when less visible. I believe that I was approaching the large slide area, but as there could be another small one that I'm not aware of, I'm not sure. Did visit the Shistostega rootwad. It was looking lush.


Turned back and decided that I had enough time to visit the muskeg northwest of the 2nd bridge. Besides I had carried my snowshoes and wanted to use them. Slogged through the brushy area without the shoes, the snow was definately deep enough to bury me there, but I wasn't going to be turned back again. Definately not sure what I was walking on. I did make it to the muskeg, added the shoes and wandered around a bit. Discovered that it really feels quite odd to wear the snow shoes on the wrong feet. However, I was too lazy to fix it and carried on. There were at least two sets of deer tracks in the muskeg. They entered the muskeg near where I did, then traveled to several of the small clusters of pine trees. Under each clump of trees there were clusters of tracks and bits of needles, lichens and bark. Not sure if they were eating the lichens or part of the pine. Given the amount of snow I'm sure that the lichens are much more accessible food than the wintergreen forbs. I'd like to get into the big trees during the winter to look at deer use again, seems that the muskeg route might be easier for me.

On my way back down I saw the male Hairy woodpecker working the same tree. Still hammering and prying bark.

Saw another dipper downriver from the 1st bridge, just below the more island like bar. At first I assumed that it was the same dipper that I saw further down river, but the lower river dipper was still in place. Guess there are two birds. Both birds were active when I saw them today.
Also saw chickadees, a winter wren, ravens and juncos.

Saturday evening got a couple of interesting bird reports. The first was a hummingbird update. The two Anna's were seen on Saturday at the feeder. The second was about a ptarmigan seen at the golf course late Saturday afternoon. Sounds like it was working the ground near the trees on the northwest edge of the course. The barking dogs sent the bird running, then flying away from the course. Might be worth checking out the benchlands road in the next few days.