Life on the Outer Coast

April 8th

Had a different sort of experience in a familiar place. Marty Johnson asked me to help transport his Marine Biology class over to the Port Krestof to Pt. Brown beach. There were 3 skiffs , 18 kids and three adults on this adventure. Josh Arnold was the other driver. We met around 7:45am at the work float, at least that was when I arrived, the rest slowly trickled in. The forecast didn't sound that great, but the morning was sunny, calm and rather cool. I took 5 students, two of whom fit in the cabin, the other three sat outside.
Because it was calm, we went the short way through the Apple Islands to Chaichei to Gagarin and on to Kruzof. It was nice just following along instead of thinking, but looking at the chart the path through seems pretty straight forward. Stopped to watch a large group of sea lions, two humpbacks, mixed scoters and Harlequins between Chaichei and Middle island. There were roughly 30 Harlequins which seems like more than I usually see in one spot.
Tried following Marty in closer to the middle of the beach, but decided against it. It was obvious that a larger boat was going to ground out before the water depth was comfortable for boot height. Did see a large number of frosted nudibranches and herring eggs on the eel grass on the way back out. Both Josh and I anchored near where the Allen Marine boats usually drop us off. The steep beach is alot more comfortable for a larger skiff or boat.
The sunny weather didn't last too long, it started snowing mid morning and didn't stop for too long the rest of the day.
The water was murky with eggs and the spawn was thick on the seaweed and rocks. There weren't windrows of herring eggs on the beach, but I suspect that there will be on my next visit. I've been visiting this beach every spring for the last 8 years and this is the second time that I've seen heavy spawn. The eggs were pretty fresh tasting off the rocks. The best to my mind were on the green algae, the brown kelps were a bit too chewy.
It was a more structured visit than I'm accustomed to at this beach. We had several specific tasks to complete, mostly looking at specific habitats and the creatures living in them. I'd rather just wander, but I can see the utility in being more organized.
Noticed several juncos, 2 Varied thrush and a Savannah sparrow while helping the splash zone crew with their survey. They were feeling a bit cheated because of the lack of diverse invertebrates in their zone. Found the Hermit thrush nest in the Aruncus on the cliff. It looked pretty tidy which makes me wonder if it is maintained year to year. The sparrow nests that I've found never look quite that smooth and neat.

Pretty much followed the same ritual as most trips, that is we eventually worked our way around to the caves. One of the large rocks near the cave had a bread crumb sponge about 2-3 ft across. Not sure why I hadn't noticed it on other trips.
Found most of the usual invertebrates including moon snail egg cases and a good variety of sea stars. We did find a creature in the sand that I don't remember finding on this beach previously, a sand lance. Alas, for the sand lance, the shovel that found it, also accidently murdered it.
The herring that we found in the intertidal were some of the largest that I've seen. I didn't measure them, but it seemed that they were approaching 9 -12 inches long. One of the giant herring was being eaten by a sunstar.
Other birds along the beach: one oyster catcher, 20-25 Buffleheads, around 40+ Barrow's goldeneyes, Golden-crowned kinglets (in the spruces) and song sparrows in the intertidal. There were large flocks of gulls by Brent's beach and in Hayward Straits, but it was too snowy and too far to get a good sense of which gulls were in the mixture.
The Cow parsnip was coming up and the Early blueberry blooming, but the rest of the flowering plant world was not visibly responding to spring.
It was snowy and cold enough that the kids lost alot of enthusiasm after lunch, so after they finished their last inventory, we packed up for home. We took the skiffs over to Port Krestof before heading back. Did see a couple of Canada geese, Common mergansers, Surf Scoters and the Buffleheads and Goldeneyes. There was one deer on the beach.
The wind had come with the snow, so the ride back was not as pleasant as the ride out. We went behind Guide Island and around Middle Island and had to slow down considerably. I was very happy not to be driving a lund, I have alot of memories of driving open skiffs in harsh weather that I'd just as soon not refresh. Marty's boat didn't catch up until we stopped on the lee side of Middle island. The weather just got worse for awhile, at one point the snow was heavy enough that I couldn't see where I was going. A compass is a nice thing to have. I did see a Pigeon guillemot near Kasiana in the midst of the snow squall. It was a cold ride back, my toes and fingers were on the numb side. Seemed like it took a couple of hours to completely stop shivering. It took roughly 12 gallons of fuel to make the trip.
Longtails at the north end of the channel both coming and going.