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