Life on the Outer Coast

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