Life on the Outer Coast

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.