Sunrise from Galankin Island (upstairs deck). The sun came up over the mountains east of the Pyramids around 9:35am.

November 13, 2009
I got ambitious this evening. Maybe it was the snow that fueled the domestic fires or perhaps it was just another way to avoid work. At any rate, I managed to bake a pumpkin for Thanksgiving pies, started soda culture and at long last I started a batch of wine.
My most recent attempt at beverage fermentation did not go well. The late September batch of soda didn’t ferment at all. Not sure what happened, it seemed like the culture was fizzy and there was sugar in the berries, but the bottled soda was tasty, but without fizz. My best guess at the most likely cause is inadequate cooling of the berry mix before adding the bacterial culture. In other words, I killed the bacteria with very hot juice. Guess I can’t carry on a conversation while brewing, so much for multi-tasking.
Back to the wine; I used 4 lbs of frozen red huckleberries (Vaccinium parvifolium) and blueberries (V. ovalifolium [honest, it was a single species]). I didn’t keep track of the ratio of berry types, but it was mostly red hucks. I loosely followed the amounts called for in a recipe that Michelle Putz and Perry Edwards gave us at the wine workshop. Loosely, in that I used the called for amount of sugar, berries, yeast and water, but left out the yeast nutrient, Campden tablet and acid blend included in the recipe. The recipe was for a completely different huckleberry (Gaylussacia baccata), but maybe it will work well enough. I’m using yeast that Perry gave me; I don’t remember what sort of yeast it is. I mostly followed his guidelines for the yeast “mix in a coffee cup full of water with about ¼ cup sugar, let stand for about 5 hours, and then add to the berry mix. I didn’t quite let it sit that long, more like 4 hours.
I had a plastic bucket with lid (washed and sterilized with boiling water). I added the berries, poured on the boiling water, then added the sugar. Apparently I was supposed to add the sugar later. Whoops. Not doing well following directions, these days. I suspect that adding boiling water to the berries is supposed to help kill the biota on the surface of the berries. I don’t think that the sugar is going to interfere with that process. I decided that the kitchen counter is the best place to leave the bucket, if there is any hope of stirring the juice every day. The counter is getting a bit crowded, in addition to the large vat of pre-wine, there is a jar of soda culture, another of sour dough and a batch of yogurt going. Long live yeast and bacteria!
On the 27th of November, the somewhat fermented juice should be transferred to a glass jug.
Part II
It took me until the 28th of November to assemble the gear I needed for step 2. I thought that buying a gallon glass jar would be easy; proceed to Lakeside or Seamart and buy a gallon of apple or cranberry juice and haul it home (this was supposed to be the hard part). Alas, plastic jugs seem to be the article of choice these days. There was a gallon jar of Gallo wine available at the liquor store, but I couldn’t bring myself to buy it. It seemed a bit weird to buy wine that I had no intention of drinking (okay I’m a snob) and worse to dump it out, so I went home empty handed and stewed for an evening. Fortunately the next day I found a 5 gallon glass demijohn at Rain Country and was able to lug that home. Straining the berries was a bit of slow chore. I sterilized the colander with boiling water, and then ladled the juice into the demijohn via an unsuitably small funnel. The juice was a rich purple red color and I was feeling rather pleased and contented when I discovered the next minor issue. I had found my airlock, but forgot to check for a stopper. No such item lived in the house, but I did find a bit of kids modeling clay in the pantry. So I put the airlock in the demijohn and sealed the edge with clay. This looked pretty good, but I decided it might be better to order a stopper and a new airlock (mine was missing the inner cap). I wasn’t confident that that clay would prevent air from entering the demijohn. The stopper and new airlock arrived a couple of days later and I replaced the cobbled together unit.
Fermentation seems to be proceeding what I hope is a reasonable rate. There are both small and very large bubbles covering most of the surface of the wine. Bubbles of gas (I presume CO2) are escaping the airlock.
The wine is supposed to stay in the demi-john for 3-6 months or the bubbles stop escaping the airlock. Good thing I have plenty of counter space.

November 13, 2009

I got ambitious this evening. Maybe it was the first snow that fueled the domestic fires or perhaps it was just another way to avoid work. At any rate, I managed to bake a pumpkin for Thanksgiving pies, started soda culture and at long last I started a batch of wine.
The last batch of soda didn’t ferment at all. Not sure what happened, it seemed like the culture was fizzy and there was sugar in the berries. The most likely problem was inadequate cooling of the berry mix before adding the culture. Intense conversations while brewing may not be the best thing for me.
For the wine I used 4 lbs of red huckleberries and blueberries (mostly red hucks). I loosely followed the amounts called for in a recipe that Michelle Putz and Perry Edwards gave us at the wine workshop. I say loosely because I used the amount of sugar, berries, yeast and water, but left out the yeast nutrient , Campden tablet and acid blend included in the recipe. The recipe was for a completely different huckleberry (Gaylussacia baccata), but maybe it will work well enough. I’m using yeast that Perry gave me, I don’t remember what sort of yeast it is. I followed his guidelines for the yeast “mix in a coffee cup full of water with about ¼ cup sugar, let stand for about 5 hours, then add to the berry mix.
I had a plastic bucket with lid (washed and sterilized with boiling water). I added the berries, poured on the boiling water, then added the sugar. Apparently I was supposed to add the sugar later. Whoops. On the 27th of November , I’ll proceed to step 2. One piece of advice that I'll try to remember to follow is to keep a calendar of when to proceed to the next step.

Visited Totem Park this week during the dry weather to collect lichens for air quality sampling. The target species were Platismatia glauca and Alectoria sarmentosa. Not exactly rare species, but they seemed less abundant when I had limited time to collect the 25 g required.

The first session I collected Platismatia mostly from the westward side of the park. I mostly found it on fallen branches, but some came from the spruce branches overhanging the beach. The protocol allows for collecting Platismatia from branches on the ground as long as the material isn't discolored. There was abundant Usnea on the west side, but not much Alectoria at least not within reach. On one foray into the woods looking for branches, I found a few more Goodyera oblongifolia plants. The plants were in the same general area as the plant I found last year, just a bit further back in the woods. They seemed to be about the same stage of development (no sign of a flowering stalk) and size as the first plant. Goodyera has tiny wind or ground insect dispersed seeds that require fungal infection for growth in the wild. Greenhouse studies say that it takes up to a year between germination and production of the first leaves. I've also gleaned from other sources that it might take up to 3 years before a plant is mature (flowering) . Each rosette only produces one flowering stalk, after the seeds ripen, that rosette dies. Apparently production of new rosettes from the parent rhizome accompanies flowering. Interesting mixture of reproductive strategies. There was a good discussion of Goodyera biology/taxonomy and ecology at this website. It might be interesting to identify the symbionts of these orchids and compare them with what we have found in the local Platanthera species. I'm not confident that I found the first plant in its first year of leafy growth, but if I did and assuming that it needs to be at least 3 years old before flowering, 2011 might be the summer I might find a flower stalk?

I had to return to the park a second time to collect Alectoria. That lichen is more abundant on the east side of the park. Apparently this species deteriorates quickly, so the collections can't be from the ground. There wasn't much Alectoria available and off the ground. Fortunately it is bigger than Platismatia, so I have plenty to send in for analysis.

There were still fungi fruiting in the park; Pholiota alnicola (?), Clavaria (Clavariadelphus) purpurea, Craterellus infundibulformis, Hygrophorus olivaceoalbus, Lactarius alpinus, Panellus serotinus and Pleurocybella porrigens.

November 8

I was fortunate enough to go out to the island Saturday at 4:30 and stay there until 1:30 the next day. It was a rewarding bit of home time both from the stand point of regaining some energy, accomplishing a few things and being treated to some enjoyable sights and sounds.

On one break from writing I went outside to plant some tulips (the latest ever!) and heard the distinct sound of a flock of shorebirds below the house. So decided to venture down the cliff to see if I could be quiet enough to watch them for awhile. Now, I'm not sure if I was actually quiet or if the birds weren't too worried about a large creature above them on the beach. At any rate, I sat and listened for awhile. There were about 120 mixed Surfbirds and Black Turnstones on the rocks; working the Fucus. They would scatter when the occasional big wave covered the rocks. I didn't do so well capturing their periodic flights, but I enjoyed them never the less.

While down there, a flock of about 20-30 Swans flew over headed in the direction of Aleutikina.

It seems like every year I see several fungi that I either haven't seen or haven't noticed previously. This year has not been an exception.

One surprise was finding this salmon colored Laetiporus or Chicken of the Woods near Otter Lake (Goulding Lakes) on Chichagof Island. It was growing on half buried wood on the ground in an alluvial fan with mixed Western Hemlock and Sitka Spruce overstory and a shrub understory dominated by Early Blueberry. There were open areas on the fan with a few Red alder (many senescent) and relatively unvegetated gravel

The salmon color of this fungus was striking, almost glowing on the green background. From a distance I thought this was a Laetiporus, but was a bit more dubious after I saw the white under side. The abundant version of Laetiporus has a bright yellow under surface.

The piece I collected gradually faded to an orange color on the upper surface, but the lower surface remains white.

Arora in Mushrooms Demystified talks about a rare variety of sulphureus, semialbinus, with features that match this fungus. I'm not sure about the fate of this variety as sulphureus is no longer used for North American species.

Michael Kuo (Mushrooom Expert) has a page on a similar featured Laetiporus, cincinnatus, that occurs east of the Rockies and prefers hardwoods. I haven't found a western counterpart as yet, so I might just refer to this one as a variety of conifericola. I'm not sure that the fungus from Otter Lake wasn't growing on buried Red Alder, there were a few in the area
I did find a resource on the web; The Genus Laetiporus in North America by H. Burdsall and Mark Banik that was somewhat helpful.
The only two taxa that I saw listed with a white pore surface was Laetiporus, cincinnatus and L. gilbertsonii var. pallida. Both occur on hardwoods and southeastern Alaska seems far out of range.
I might have to post this one on Mushroom Observer to get a few more leads.

The road to Fairbanks is rather convoluted for a Sitkan. We started on the MV Fairweather on Thursday; spent the night in Juneau at the Mendenhall Campground (outwash is hard); took the Malaspina to Haines and spent last night at a campground we had visited years ago while taking in the Southeast State Fair.

I haven't spent much time looking around me; the heavy rains and general distraction of keeping things going in the right direction have been a bit of a deterrant.

We did stop at Mendenhall Glacier for a quick photo of Deirdre and to let her look at the rocks from her new perspective. She gets pretty excited by striations and weird textures.

We noticed alot of people hanging out in front of the restrooms; now this isn't unusual in a busy tourist area, but they had cameras and were busily snapping photos. Finally saw a group of fledgling Barn swallows on the ledge just above the Restroom sign. There were 4 when I took the photos; later there was a 5th bird. A parent visited twice while I was watching.

So far this is a three tarp camping trip; one under the tent, one over the tent and one over the eating area.

Picked a sandwich container of Arnica lanceolata ssp prima at the shore of Lake Rezanof near the old cabin and our camp site. My intention was to do a bit of experimentation with the plant. I was pretty sure that only the flowers were used for medicinal purposes, but didn't want to collect too many in case I was incorrect about that assumption. I also dug up a small clump for the garden.

I had hoped that Janice Schofield's book "Discovering Wild plants" would have a recipe for preparing a cream for aches and pains. No such luck. A bit of research turned up a few articles on preparation of tinctures which can be used to treat bruises (I bruise very easily), bug bites (I was covered) and aches (not usually an issue).

The flowers filled an 8oz spagetti jar a bit more than 3/4 full, then I covered then with cheap vodka, and put the jar in the dark. The Doctor quoted in the Herb Companion article (http://www.herbcompanion.com/Health/Natural-healing-Arnica-montana-Natural-Magic.aspx) gave the following recipe: " 1 part arnica flowers and 10 parts 96 percent alcohol should be put together in a bottle and left for a week, during which the bottle should be shaken. Then the flowers can be removed. It is important that this alcoholic solution must be diluted with water from three to ten fold..."

Seems like my mixture will probablly be on the strong side, so I'll go with the 1 to 10 dilution (or maybe a bit more).
In the same article another person said to leave the steeping tincture in a sunny place for 3 weeks. At this point, I'm going to leave the jar in the pantry while I do a bit more research.

The species most often used medicinally, Arnica montana, is native to Europe and I'm not sure if North American species have been tested in any way for effectiveness.

The Doctor in the Herb Companion article said that the active ingredient in Arnica are Sesquiterpene lactones which seem to inhibit the release of inflammatory mediators e.g. transcription factor NF-kB, which seems to be involved in a number of basic cellular processes besides inflammation.

Sesquiterpene lactones aren't entirely benign; doesn't sound like Arnica should be ingested internally in anything but extremely small doses (homoeopathic sort of doses seem to be okay). Seems like I should be a bit cautious trying this tincture as it could cause contact dermititis.

"Two little feet to get me 'cross the mountain

two little feet to carry me away into the woods

two little feet, big mountain and a

cloud comin down, cloud comin down, cloud comin down

I hear the voice of the ancient ones

chanting magic words from a different time

Well there is no time there is only this rain

there is no time, that's why I missed my plane"

Decided to refer back to my journal and a Greg Brown song for the third part of "Waste Not Want Not"

This is what I wrote (with some editing)

On day two of of waiting a day for a pickup, Jonathan and I decided to abandon the richness of our shelter for the less than certain chance of a floatplane pick up at sea level. We were motivated by travel plans (me to Glacier bay, Jonathan to Washington and Idaho) and by losing our only way to communicate with the outside world (Barth and Mary made it out in the morning). They left us food and a tent cached at Sisters lake, our job was to get there and hopefully meet a Ward Air plane at 5pm. There is a trail from Rust to Sisters lake, so this didn't sound all that bad and in fact it was quite doable. What is so bad about carrying alot of stuff downhill?

We left the tarp structure standing, the tent up and the less desirable food, garbage and traps up a tree. I somehow managed to fit all of my belongings into the large pack andstrapped the day pack to the outside of it. Jonathan carried the press and the few of his belongings that would fit in a large dry bag/pack, his camera bag and sleeping bag. Then there was the food bag with radio and water bottle; rather heavy, but it needed to come with us.

Paddling across the lake was a bit easier this time; serenaded by Jonathan and at the beginning a loon. The beginning of the trail wasn't terribly obvious,but we did find it. The trail itself was rather tricky, appearing and disappearing at rather inconvenient times. Alas I sent us off on a very wrong turn which added some distance and some totally unnecessary elevation gain. The trip down took much longer than the 1.5-2hours Barth thought it would. The wrong turn and the ridiculously heavy load didn't help. Happily we made it down in plenty of time, found the stashed gear and food, relaxed for a few minutes and then the Cessna arrived.

The float plane was wonderfully warm and dry after that sloppy wet walk.

The ceiling was just barely above 500 ft, we traveled along the outside coast of Khaz then down the outside of Kruzof as Salisbury was full of clouds. Great aerial tour of sandy beaches and survey of trollers on the eve of opening day. We finally made it across Kruzof just north of Mt Edgecumbe.

Mary met us at the Forest Service dock and saw Barth cheering from the fuel dock. It was nice to make it back in time for a cheeseburger, shower, deal with the plant press, laundry and repack for Glacier bay.

Left the house at 4:45, flew to Juneau, had breakfast at the Silverbow, did some grocery shopping and left Juneau for Glacier bay at 11am on board the Iyoukeen.

It turned out to be 10 days of sun

Must be time to get up to the Harbor Gavan trail. Ian returned home this morning with these flowers tucked in his pack strap.

" Waste not, Want not" part II

There were two reasons to go to Rust Lake, one was simply logistics, Mary and Barth were planning a trip there to look at options for restoring the lake and the other was the band of marble/limestone that occured nearby.

The second morning we set up off up the valley toward one of the carbonate outcrops. Fortunately it was a relatively obvious path, as I had managed to leave the aerial photos and topo behind in my hurry.

We crossed the creek at the second or third gravel bar, found several (14) poppies (not blooming) and further off towards the cut bank, several bones of a long dead bear. Long enough time had passed that there was moss growing on the bones (not fruiting though). Didn't see any knawing on the bones which seemed a bit odd. Thought that a large source of nutrients would have been pretty attractive.

Carried on up the river; through open meadows, another gravel bar with poppies, then dove into the scrubby forest. Not too far along, I tripped over something (very unusual) and saw about 4ft in front of me a very small, spotted fawn tucked under a blueberry bush. . It held very still for a time (I'm not here,really), then scampered off. Felt rather badly about disturbing it, I'm hoping that mom found it again.

Not too much further on, found more of the green appressed Nephroma on another Mountain hemlock and a smallish Sorbus sitchensis.

As we climbed (pretty gentle incline), the vegetation shifted from moderately productive mountain hemlock to mixed conifer interspersed with more typical muskeg/bog areas. The feeling was still of upper elevations; there was plenty of Cassiope mertensiana, Elliotia, and Nephrophyllidium crista-galli.

Like I hinted at in the last post, I had forgotten my aerial photos (I studied them, but how much was I going to remember?) at home and forgot that there was a small lake below the limestone area. Fortunately, we ended up on the open muskeg side of the lake (still had ice) and it was pretty easy getting around. We had a bit of a sun break here (may have been the only one of the day). Once around the lake, we went a bit further along the pass to Patterson Bay, before heading up the much steeper slope to get to the open rock. The rock on the west side of the pass was not carbonate.

Found Polystichum lonchitis and Asplenium trichomanes -ramosum at the base of the mountain. I haven't really decided what to call the place; is it a moutain? it goes above tree line, it seems more like a nunatak, but I'm sure that term should only be used to describe mountains above the icefields. Might stick with nunatak for now.

Going up the slope was interesting (code for slightly scary); I hadn't any prior experience with karst topography, but had read enough to be aware of sinkholes, but not how sharp some of the rock formations were. There was smooth rock, areas that were deeply vertically incised into channels by water (solifluction rills? Grikes?), sinkholes, column-like areas within sinkholes and really sharp mini mountains. Gloves would have been handy as would tougher rain pants. I managed to rip a few holes in my raingear clinging to the rock (I missed the sticky rock of Red Bluff).

From a brief conversation with Deirdre, it seems that the difference in weathering might be caused by differences in mineralization or metamorphism?

The P. lonchitis was abundant; and some of it was as large as sword ferns I'd seen down south. It was interesting that this fern was growing from the lower slopes to the top of the nunatak (in crevices only on top).

There was still alot of snow in large patches, most of which we didn't walk on; it was kind of difficult to tell if there was ground below the snow or if it was a "Snow field of death".

There were alot of interesting plants on the hike, including Anemone parvifolia, Saxifraga oppositfolia, Erigeron humilis, Silene acaulis and a few species of willows (including reticulata).

On top found Geum rossii on a few outcrops; abundant Pedicularis oederi and Oxytropis campestris (or some segregate). There were two species that I hadn't seen around here; Lloydia serotina ( a rather small lily-looking flower) and Thalictricum alpinum (not blooming). Both were growing in very shallow soil over rock. I was anxious to find the latter, earlier in the hike I was conjuring it out of weird looking columbine foliage. This species of Thalictrum is substantially smaller than the columbines, but the foliage pattern is pretty similar.

There were patches of meadow-like alpine plants; Arnia, Geranium, lupine, Columbine and Pink Paintbrush.

The going got much more certain on the top, it seemed that there was a mixture of rock types on the top. Despite the cloudy and frequently rainy weather, the view was pretty spectacular.

Saw a Rock Ptarmigan (?) still in winter plummage, RC thought that the males remain in winter plummage longer than females and kind of act as a distraction for predators.

I was rather relieved when we found an easier way down than the way we came up. I wasn't looking forward to clinging to the sharp rock while finding footing. As it was, I was grateful to accept a hand a couple of times over gaping holes.

"waste not, want not" (Part I)

Rust lake experience turned out to have rather convoluted logistics, marginal weather, but very interesting natural history.

Things started out a bit crazy; Richard and I got to the float dock a tiny bit late and Mary Emerick looking a bit frantic with a phone in her hand. It turned out that RC's partner's father had passed away and he couldn't go on the trip. This left me a bit frantic, it was the second trip in a week that would have been cancelled for some reason or other and I was beginning to feel like I wouldn't get anything done on the Wilderness survey project. After some frantic phone calls looking for a last minute substitute (on another phone, I couldn't find mine), I gave up and went to yoga and ate some pizza. At about 2pm, I found my phone and a field partner, Jonathan Goff. Called dispatch, arranged a flight and off we went. I should have taken the time to get a sat phone and perhaps checked my backpack for the aerial photos and topo map...

We did have half the food, some gear and a boat with oars (no life jackets, no outboard) and landed at the lake without much of an issue. The only question was; when were Barth and Mary going to join us?

The rest of the day, we set up camp; fortunately Jonathan found a large tarp in the trees (not since grad school had I felt so materially wealthy) and two 8ft (?) treated 2x4's and two 2x2's and we built a pretty skookum shelter. My earlier attempts at building a shelter from alder was fairly pathetic, but it kept me entertained.

Rust lake was dammed in 19?? as a reservoir for a power supply for a Sister's lake mining operation. They put a valve that seems to have malfunctioned at some point and Rust lake has a lower water level than it had in the past; there is a noticable band of rock or gravel (bathtub ring) around the lake.

The beach near the campsite had a cover of Racomitrioideae and Stereocaulon (brown apothecia) with scattered small spruce, mountain hemlock and sitka alder. There were deer and goose tracks along the shoreline below camp and a somewhat pesky pair of nesting mew gulls on a large rock in the lake near shore. They didn't seem to appreciate dish washing.

The next morning we decided to try to paddle across the lake to see if Barth and Mary were in sight. Paddling proved rather difficult in the wind, we made it about half way across the lake and decided to explore the south shore instead. Found a population of what seems to be Viola langsdorfii with an impressive amount of variation in size and color. I collected a range of the plants and plan on sending them off for a second opinion.

Adjacent to the lake was some shallow to bedrock muskegy like vegetation and outcrops. Found a Primula cunefolia, Dodecatheon jeffreyi, Elliotia and Pinquincula. Kind of an odd mix for 800ft.

On the far side of the outcrops and muskeg was a tall sedge meadow (we would see alot of tall sedge meadow in the area). Blooming Petasites and Caltha leptosepala, young Veratrum, Frittilaria and Athryrium made up the bulk of the non-graminoids. It turned out that most of the bear sign we saw was in this area. We started around the lake through the moutain hemlock/spruce forest thinking that it might be alot better to walk around than paddle, but decided that leaving the boat would cause alot more hassles than retrieving it. The highlight of the forest was finding large patches of Nephroma on the trunks of a few Mountain hemlocks. It was green; which reminded me of N. arcticum, but the habitat was wrong. I still haven't quite decided about the identity of this lichen. Also noted many Streptopus streptopoides blooming.

Collected blooming Sibbaldia procumbens from the lake shore.

Paddling back to our side of the lake was a real chore, the head wind was not merciful. We couldn't stop paddling or we traveled backwards, much vocalization and swithing of sides was required to make the trip.

Made our first foray up the creek to look at the gravel bar vegetation (poppies, cerastium, oxytropis, dandelions) and set out the snap traps in the meadow in the afternoon in hopes of catching a vole.

It turns out, I'm not much of a trapper, not surprising. Probably should have read up a bit on the habits of voles or brought more traps ( had 11). The next day we found a more heavily used (at least that we could see) vole site on the first gravel bar. We did catch and lose something in that area, at least the trap was knawed).

The lower reaches of the creek had pretty interesting cut banks which gave an indication of the role geomorphology had in determining the vegetation type. We could see a band of peat over what looked like till and in an adjacent rill, we found a nice outcrop of fine silty sediments. Not clay, at least it didn't roll into much of a stable worm.

The vegetation in the the valley along the river was fens (tall sedge) and small patches of Spruce-Mountain hemlock/ blueberry forest . The dominance of tall fens seems to be due to the layer of basal till and the preponderance of small minerotrophic water ways running through the area. It was rather spring-like up there, so I couldn't identify all of the sedges etc, but did see Carex lenticularis, I suspect that there are probably a few more species eg. C. aquatilis. Dodecatheon jeffreyi and Rubus stellatus were in bloom.

I was oddly enthralled with the slumping peat banks along the river. Right across from this bank we found our first and only poppy in bloom. The rest of the plants were on the opposite shore and not quite blooming.

Went to Blue Lake around noon to spend the night to be in position for a breeding bird survey on the 19th of June. After dropping the overnight gear at the gravel bar near the lichen rich alder/nettle avalanche track, we proceeded up the creek with the intention of at least getting around the barrier falls. We went a bit further.

Did stop to check on the lone poppy in the gravel bar and to "measure" the exceptionally large cedar along the trail. My reach is roughly 5ft 3", it seems like the tree must have a diameter of slightly less than 5ft.

The valley beyond was narrow U-shaped one with an interesting mixture (or maybe tangle) of different vegetation; alder thickets, youngish mature forest, boulder piles with subalpine like shrubs and a lovely patch of nettles. Seems like the driving force in succession in this valley is probably avalanches and mass wasting. Wind may have some role, but it seems secondary.

There was one slide not too far past the falls that seemed like it happened this last winter or spring, found some bones and a nice bit of hide of a mountain goat in the snow. Some of the hair is now in my freezer, hopefully, I'll get this spun this winter.

We made our way up the valley using the rather large remaining patches of snow allowed for easier going. Things were pretty springlike (plant wise) beyond the falls. Ranunculus coolyeae was blooming and many of the plants that would have made the walk more challenging were short or buried in snow. Did find an interesting Agrocybe in the alders.

Finally reached a point in the evening that it was time to turn back; it would be well worth a return. The valley felt like we were at the core of Baranof; steep valley walls, rugged topography and a raw kind of feeling. We could see muskegs much further up the valley and Mountain goats not really all that far above us.

Before we headed back I collected a bag or two of young nettles and fiddleheads. Many of the young nettles were purple.

The warm temperatures and sun over the last 5 days has given things quite a boost. There are darners flying around the garden and a good variety of both domestic and wild flowers blooming in the garden. The crab apples (Malus fusca) are in full bloom on this end of the island.

I haven't spent much time in the garden this year. I've been too busy hiking on the weekends and going in an absurd number of directions. Fortunately the flowers are mostly perennials and seem to be still mostly outcompeting the rhizomatous grasses, chickweed and arabis. I franticly planted most of the vegetable garden before I went to Fairbanks on the 31st and added a few more seeds this evening. Now, there's garlic, horseradish, rhubarb, 3 kinds of onions, french sorrel, potatoes, carrots, cauliflower, lettuce, joi choi, brocoli, basil, zucchini, and a variety of herbs growing or hopefully growing.

The blue and purle columbines (I think that the one in the photo is a flabellata cross) are beginning to hit there peak. I need to stop culling the hybrids that didn't work out. By "work out" I mean have flowers that are pleasing in appearance. There are a few that are down right ugly.

Still catching up.

	May 8, 2009	May 9	May 10	May 11	May 12	May 13
Pelagic cormorant	3	1	2		2	1
Glaucous-winged gull	2	1			5
Marbled murrelet	1	4		3		3
Rhinoceros auklet		2	2	2		2
Belted Kingfisher	1
Bald Eagle			1			1
Raven			1		1
Crow			3
Weather	calm	calm, overcast			sunny, calm
cruise ships				2	1

	May 14	May 15	May 16	May 18	May 19	May 20
Pelagic cormorant		3
Common Merganser	3
Mew gull						1
Glaucous-winged gull	9	5		8	10	1
Marbled murrelet	5	8	2	2
Rhinoceros auklet		2
Bald Eagle					3
Raven					2
Crow	4				1
Weather	overcast		choppy		sunny
cruise ships	1			1	3	1

	May 1	May 2	May 3	May 4	May 5	May 6	May 7
Common Loon						1
Barrow's Goldeneye	2	2
Common Merganser			2
Glaucous-winged gull	8	9	18			8	2
Gull spp		2			8
Marbled murrelet		2
Rhinoceros auklet							6
Bald Eagle					2
Crow		1			1	1	1
weather	sunny, calm				calm, sunny	calm, light rain
cruise ships							1

Note that on the 4th, I didn't see any birds on the water portion of the commute. In the evening of the 4th, I saw 3 Rhinoceros auklets, 5 Marbled murrelets, 1 Pacific loon and a Mew gull.

The trail to the dock was pretty bird rich during this week. There were Golden and White crowned, Fox and Song sparrows; scads of Rufous hummingbirds, Nuthatches, Pine siskins, Winter wrens, Robins, Varied and Hermit thrushes.
Orange crowned warblers were singing in the garden on the 4th of May.

A first for the garden (at least that I observed) was an Olive sided Flycatcher. I was sitng on the boardwalk in the sun, talking on the phone when I noticed an odd looking bird in my peripheral vision in a nearby hemlock. Fortunately, it stuck around for several minutes and I could see the dark vest-like pattern on the chest.
The Menziesia and Red alder leafed out on the island during this period.

I seem to have gotten rather behind in the posts again...

	April 20	April 21	April 22	April 23	April 24	April 29	April 30
Common Loon						1
Pelagic Cormorant				1	3
Mallards	2	4	2
Barrow's goldeneye	2	4	4	2	2	4	2
Bufflehead			2			2
Common merganser	2	4	2	4	1		8
Mew gull		2			1
Herring Gull					1
Thayer's gull							1
Glaucous-winged gull	2			4	4	3	2
Gull spp	30	1		1		1	50
Bald Eagle							1
Raven						1
Shorebirds							60
weather/time	8am	low chop 8am		sunny 8am		sunny 8am

I went to Juneau for a few days so there is a gap in the data collection. The flock of shorebirds on the 30th were on a rock near Morne island. Unfortunatelly I didn't have my binoculars along, so I didn't get a good look at them. My best guess is a mixed flock of Turnstones and Surfbirds, but I'm not convinced.
On the 30th (it was sunny and warm) found Pippets, Townsends warblers, Robins, White-fronted geese, 4 semi-palmated plovers, and Sandhill at Totem Park. The crane did a fly over before it landed by the stream side for a short time then flew off toward Jamestown Bay. Fortunately it flew back, but then overflew the beach and headed toward town. It flew over a couple of other times, but didn't land. The call is pretty distinctive, hard to find words to describe the sound exactly. Patience was helpful in this case as the crane eventually returned and landed in the tide flats, so I got a good look.
Also in this period (based on my notebook) I seem to have collected alot of herring eggs for the garden and

Took two hikes this weekend trying to prepare for the cross island expedition. On Saturday MB., Molly and I walked the Blue Lake road from the mill site to the lake. We had intended to walk up Harbor Mtn road, but road re-construction was a bit off putting. The purpose of this particular training hike was to test MB's back pack. She filled it with enough debris to bring the weight up to 30 lbs. Molly added 2 large cans of tomatoes to her

load. I stuck with the usual pack load of miscellaneous supplies.

Not too surprising, the lake was still frozen, I was kind of surprised that the boat we used as a commuter last summer was on the lake. I wonder how much space is between the ice and the water.

Picked up a couple of mosses from the cliffs on the way back. One looks like a Mnium (no sporophytes) the other is Pogonatum dentinum.

The sunny morning, inspired Molly and I to venture up the Verstovia trail on Sunday. The Early Blueberries were blooming near the beginning of the trail, and a few salmonberries had visible pink petals. The snow had retreated quite a bit since my last trip up here.

The photo is of roughly the same spot (about 850ft) that I took a photo a few weeks ago.

About 1500 ft, saw a Willow Ptarmigan on the trail ahead of us. It quickly moved above the trail, but not so far that we couldn't get a good look at the bird. It was in winter plumage, we could see the black on the tail and a faint bit of red above the eye. The red looked kind of like faint eye shadow. I don't think it was a Rock Ptarmigan, mostly based on the lack of a black eye strip. By the time I retrieved the camera from the backpack, it was gone.

Found Bear tracks about 2000 ft in the snow. They were undisturbed or maybe fresh enough that the claw marks were very crisp and clear.

We carried on to the clump of trees just below Picnic rock. There wasn't any wind to speak of and it was pretty warm sitting up there. The snow was compacted enough along ridge that the only use we had for our snow shoes that day was to use them to sit on while we took a break at the top.

Saw a large flock of Canada geese fly over just as we went into the trees on the way down.

I was kind of happy that I brought an old ski pole along. There were a couple of spots with very soft melting snow that were a bit unstable. Actually both of us gave up trying to stand on the way down the second cables. We just hung on the cable and slid, the turn was a bit dicey, but it was fun.

Another sign of spring; this gardener is driven to gather herring eggs, sand and seaweed from the beach. Managed to collect 5 five-gallon buckets and 6 garbage bags (I re-used them), haul them up the hill and spread them in the garden.

Found two Alaska Blueberry bushes in bloom on the island. There are a few salmonberries with pink petals showing. The herbs seem to have greened up and grown very quickly the last couple of days. Found Streptopus amplexifolius (about 8 inches tall), Osmorrhiza, Heracleum and Aruncus near the dock. The commons seemed pretty warm today.

The walk through the commons to or from the dock has been rather slow this last week. The area is pretty busy with thrushes, sparrows and kinglets. On Tuesday evening finally heard, then saw a pair of Ruby Crowned kinglets, the next day there were 4 individuals. Typically there are about 10-12 Fox sparrows, many Robins, Varied Thrushes, Pine siskins, fewere Winter wrens, Chickadees, Nuthatches and Song sparrows along the path. There were 3 Brown creepers in the alders on Sunday.

The birds have thinned considerably on the commute. There are still plenty of waterfowl around, but seem to be near the creek outlets. Saw quite a few ducks (and gulls) at Totem Park on Friday; Teal, Pintails, Mallards, both species of Goldeneyes, Canada geese, Common Mergansers, and a pair of Gadwalls. HPR had a rather large raft of Scaup both days I gathered herring eggs.

	April 13	April 14	April 15	April 16	April 17	April 18	April 19
Double crested Cormorant						5
Pelagic Cormorant	1	2	1	1	1	2	1
Mallards	2		3	2		2
Common Merganser	2	4	2	2	1	2
Herring Gull	2				3
Thayer's Gull		1		2		2
Glaucous-winged Gull	8	10	1	19	8	4	2
Gull spp	8
Eagle	1						2
Raven	1
Weather	calm	calm	calm	SE chop	ripple	calm	ripple
Time	9:45	8	8	8	8	9:30	10

Maybe it was the mass blooming of Early Blueberry on the island or seeing Skunk cabbage flowers but this weekend things started to feel a bit more spring-like. It was kind of overwhelming listening to all of the bird song on the way home from the airport at 5:30am. Winter wrens, song sparrows, varied thrush and robins were carrying on. This last week I lay in bed in the morning and listen to a song sparrow singing in the garden.

It was also pretty nice soaking up the sun in front of Steve and MB's garage door while the kids found the eggs we hid around the yard. We are going to have to borrow kids pretty soon. It was dry and sunny enough that we drew chalk pictures in the driveway and I had to wear sunglasses in order to keep my eyes open in the blazing sun.

Had a nice walk around the island after dinner this evening, there was still several patches of snow on the west side of the lake. The lake ice is continuous to within about 2ft of the shore. The visible water is a very murky looking blue-green color. Found 4 Fox sparrows in addition to the birds I already mentioned.

	April 6	April 7	April 8	April 9	April 10	April 12
Pelagic Cormorant	30	7	5
Mallards		2	6	4
Harelquin			2
Surf Scoter	3	7	3	1
White-winged Scoter	12		7
Barrow's Goldeneye	4
Bufflehead	1
Common merganser		15		9	5	2
Mew Gull	1	1				4
Herring Gull				1
Glaucous-winged Gull	1	10	1	6	4	8
Gull spp				4	10
Bald Eagle	2			1		1
Crow						7
Weather	calm	se choplet	calm	calm	calm	calm
Time	8	8	8	8	8	11

There was Herring spawn in Crescent bay on Friday the 10th.

It is difficult to see, but the photo is of Blue Lake from a very snowy hill above Beaver lake. Marybeth, Molly, Stacy, Sarah Jones and I hiked a up and over sort of loop in the Herring cove/ Beaver lake area. They called it the "humphalumps" or somthing like that. We started from the road about a 1/4 mile or so from the gate and climbed a rather steep slope to the hills. There was enough snow on the top of the rolling hills to form mini cornices with rippled overhanging wedges on the edges of what must be underlying rock. The snow shoes were more than helpful, the one spot that MB and I took ours off in the trees and tested the snow depth with our bodies (mid thigh) was rather slow going.

Collected a Phellinus on Mountain hemlock not too far below the slope break near the top. Mtn hemlock was pretty abundant beginning around 800 ft. Also collected a bit of yellow snow from under the tree branches. Haven't looked at all of it yet, but found numerous fragments of bryophytes and a few lichens.

Another sea lion and whale rich week in Crescent bay and Sitka Sound.

	March 30	March 31	April 1	April 2	April 3	April 4	April 5
Pelagic Cormorant		1	2	1	5	4	30
Great Blueheron	1
Mallard
Harlequin		2		3
Surf Scoter	8	11	3	7			3
White-wingedScoter							12
Barrow'sGoldeneye	4					6	4
Bufflehead							1
Commonmerganser		5	14		15
Mew gull	4	2	3	1	4	1	1
Herring Gull				10	1	1
Thayer's Gull						1
Glaucous-wingedGull	10	8	2	30	15	11	1
Gull spp	100	30			20
Marbled murrelet		2	1
Song Sparrow	1
Kingfisher	1
Bald Eagle	1				1		2
Weather	west chop	calm,new snow		snowing, calm	sunny, calm	southeast chop	calm
Time	8am	8am	8am	8am	8am	9	9:30

This week commutes should have a couple of rows for marine mammals. Two mornings (3/23 and 3/24) there were humpback whales in Crescent bay near Turning Island. Driving home on the 24th there were several whales breaching off Whale Park. Just happened to notice one huge splash, so stopped and watched for a short time. Through Wednesday, there were also small groups of sea lions in Crescent bay. The marine mammals seem to have disappeared from the bay on Friday and Saturday.
It was spring break, so I made a few additional trips to get Ian to track practice. Most afternoons and evenings, I saw a blue heron near the Galankin dock, a pair of marbled murrelets and a Horned grebe near the Galankin dock. Did watch a male kingfisher swoop from the tourist ramp under the pier, into the water and fly up on the ladder down from the pier.

	3/23	3/24	3/25	3/26	3/27	3/28
Horned Grebe		1				1
Pelagic Cormorant	2	2	2	2	2	3
Double-crested Cormorant						1
Mallards	2	2	3	2		4
Surf Scoter	5	7	5	6	15	11
Barrow's Goldeneye	6					4
Bufflehead						1
Common Merganser	8		14	5	10	8
Mew Gull		6			4
Thayer's Gull		1		1		1
Glaucous-winged gull	10	8		3	8
Gull spp		4			20	6
Common Murre	1					5
Marbled Murrelet						5
Bald Eagle				1
Raven	1
Weather		Snow, west steep chop	ripples	snow, se small chop		sunny, calmish
time	8am	8am	8am	8am	8am	9:30

Still have red polls on the island, as well as nuthatches. I'm kind of hopeful that the nuthatches will stick around this summer.

Found the first Early Blueberry (Vacciniium ovalifolium) blooming the island this evening. There were two bushes with open flowers about 20 ft off the trail on Litman's lot just above the rock hill. I suspect the flowers were open this morning, but I didn't notice them as I walked, must have had my head down while trudging to town. It was snowing and blowing hard westerly this morning, the kind of weather that doesn't favor looking around much.

Also heard two song sparrows singing, one in an alder near the ramp at UAS, the other close to the bridge. Still haven't heard one on the island.

Hiked up Verstovia to the second cables on Saturday after dance class, hopefully the first of the weekly trips up I intend to take this spring. Plenty of snow from the trail head upward. There were a few partially clear spots of trail near the beginning, and a spot of quite vibrant green in a perennial seep, but mostly the world was white. There were red polls, pine siskins, crossbills and juncos near the salmonberry thicket at the beginning of the trail. Surprised a deer on the way down in the same spot. The photo was taken looking up the trail not too far beyond the first cable around 700ft (?). Next time I'll take my altimeter and a pole to measure the snow.

Redpolls showed up at the feeder about a week ago. Don't recall seeing them very often at the feeder (if at all).

I've seen up to 6 of them at a time. They aren't as agressive as the Pine siskins, but can hold there own. Siskins and Redpolls did eat side by side more often than the other species. When the siskins are around, the nuthatches tend to fly in grab a seed and fly off. They also seem to favor the food that falls to the deck. Lately, they are climbing the uprights on the deck rail.

Also seeing Redpolls and siskins on the trail to the dock, mostly in the alders near the lake.

Not sure why I didn't write down the count for the 12th, but alas I didn't

	March 9	March 10	March11
Horned Grebe	1
Mallard	5		2
Surf Scoter		6
Barrow's Goldeneye			9
Mew Gull	6	2
Herring Gull		1
Glaucous-winged Gull	7	8	16
Gull spp	5
Bald Eagle	1		2
Raven		1
Crow			3
Weather	calm, cold ice near skiff	se chop, snow	se chop, snow
time	8	8	8

This table should get me up to date with the counts

	March 16	March 17	March 18	March 19	March 20	March 21
Pelagic Cormorant	2	2	4	2
Mallard			2		6	2
Harlequin			3
Long-tailed Duck				2	2	1
Surf Scoter	9	3	4	12	5	7
Barrow's Goldeneye	8	4	1	5
Common Merganser	4	5				1
Mew Gull		1			9	3
Herring Gull				1	1
Glaucous-winged Gull	1	4	1	1	3	4
Gull spp			2	2	4	6
Marbled Murrelet			2		2
Bald Eagle	3				4
Raven		1
Weather	choppy, overcast	se chop, overcast	calm	snow	chop	minor chop sunny
Time	1pm	8am	8am	8am	8am	7:30am

The Harlequins and the first pair of murrelets were between Litman's dock and the A-frame. Subsequently I've seen murrelets on the regular commute route.

More commute catch-up

	Feb. 24	Feb 25	Feb 26
Pelagic Cormornat	1	1	1
Mallards	2	2	2
Long tail Duck			4
Surf Scoter	111	5
Barrow's Goldeneye			3
Bufflehead	2
Common Merganser		2
Glaucous-winged Gull		1	8
Gull spp	3		2
Weather	calm, sunny	calm, sunny	calm, overcast
Time	8am	8am	8am

February and March have a number of missing days because of travel to Juneau and Fairbanks.

	March 3	March 4	March 5	March 6	March 7	March 8
Common Loon		1
Horned Grebe					1
Double-crested Cormorant					1
Pelagic Cormorant	1		1	3	1
Great Blue Heron		1
Mallards	2	2			4	2
Surf Scoter	4	6	8	12	4	11
Common Goldeneye						1
Barrow's Goldeneye	6		6		5	3
Bufflehead				1		2
Common Merganser	6		4			4
Mew Gull		1		1
Thayers Gull		2
Glaucous-winged Gull	10	1	4	2	1	1
Gull spp			3			1
Common Murre					1
Raven						1
Crow						1
Weather	calm	calm, sunny, fresh snow	calm	choppy, rain	calm, sunny, ice by skiff	calm
Time	8:15	7:15	8:15	8:15	8:30	9:30

getting closer to being caught up...

It is officially spring both by the calendar and according to at least one bird. Walking to the dock this morning I heard a Winter wren sing, not once but twice. It was near the outlet of the lake in the alders so I couldn't see it, but it was quite audible. Funny that yesterday in the same spot I thought a heard a very half hearted and disorganized bit of sound that seemed like it might be a winter wren, but I decided I was conjuring the sounds out some random Pine siskin chatter. Heard a soft call of a Varied thrush on Thursday.

The herring fleet is gathering in Sitka (2 hour notice begins on Sunday) and the gull and sea lion activity seems to be picking up. Saw the first sea lion for quite a few months in Crescent harbor Monday evening. I suspect it was interested in the baiting activity of the longliners.

There is alot of snow on the ground. On Galankin there is 4-6 inches of snow in some places and up Indian river on Thursday I measured 1ft 10 inches in the west valley near the big tree and about 3 ft in the muskeg below the Middle Sister.
The early blueberry buds are slowly swelling, checked the shrub that typically blooms first on the island, but it doesn't look like it will be flowering for a couple of weeks.

On a completely different subject, I've been walking home at night for the last several months mostly without using my headlamp. Mostly decided to try it to see how difficult it was to do after all, I never know when I'll forget my headlamp or the battery will die. The trail home is mostly pretty easy. For the first 1/8 of a mile or so the path from the dock goes through a very flat and wide open area where the trail is wide enough for a four wheeler (or a truck) with large Red alders and large willows. The only issues here can be giant puddles, not much of a challenge for night walking. The path then goes up a small hill and proceeds along the lake. The path narrows and has dense second growth on the south side and large red alders on the other. It is still pretty easy to see here and the trail surface is pretty smooth. There are a couple of tripping hazards (large roots or some sort of woody debris) in the trail where it levels off, but the alders (now mostly Sitka alders) let in alot of light and the roots are pretty easy to avoid (they don't seem to move much). The first section of boardwalk is in this area. Walking on it is kind of a home free feeling, don't have to think much. This is however a short lived feeling, as the most challenging part of the trail is not too far past this spot. The path starts winding down through a very dense second stand of second growth trees on one side and a very dense stand of desperate shrubs and conifers on the other side. South of this section is older forest. The over all effect is very dark. In fact it is extremely dark for many feet of trail that has narrowed to a foot path, is going down hill and has several large roots that at first seemed a bit intimidating. So it took me a couple of times before I was willing to navigate this part of the trail without at least using my cell phone (there is alot less light from my phone than my headlamp). The cell phone light didn't seem to set back my night vision quite as badly as the headlamp. A full moon or snow gives enough light that this section seems fine without light, but in the dark of the moon without snow, it is impressively dark. It was easy to give in and turn on the light and I still use a light when I'm carrying alot of stuff or am really tired. I slowly gained some confidence was just walking slow, it is pretty easy to feel the ground and to remember the location of the roots. It doesn't seem that I actually see more, but I can navigate with what little I can see (nothing on the ground). I should say that if I stand at the top of the dark section for a few minutes and let my eyes adjust (go rods!) I can see a bit more.
At the bottom of this section is level boardwalk, very nice walking, although I did get cocky one dark night and walk off the edge. This is still relatively dark with dense shrubs (old growth Menziesia) with a few large conifers. On some nights all I can see is the vague outline of the shrubs. On the darkest nights it looks very strange and doesn't take much imagination at all to conjure up all sorts of strange images out of the darkness. There are a few more places with log faces or gravel as a trail surface, but mostly it is boardwalk through open older forest to the house so it pretty straight forward. I'm not sure that my night vision has really improved by this exercise, but I feel like my confidence in my ability to make use of what I can see (and of course my memory) to navigate has improved.