Life on the Outer Coast

I found the first Early blueberry (Vaccinium ovalifolium) blooming on the island on March 11. There are still early blues blooming (top photo), but many are on their way to being fruit. The now synonymized Alaska blueberry (Vaccinium alaskense) has been blooming for about a week. I haven't done a survey of flower color on the island, but the red ones do seem to be more abundant.
I've started tagging the blooming plants with labeled flagging so I can track the plants through to fruiting. I've never been convinced that the berry color is consistently darker in the Alaska blueberry, but that could be because I not sure which plant is which by the time they have fruit. I'm also hoping to collect a few leaves from each plant for DNA extraction/analysis to see if there is a consistent molecular difference. The work from last fall is a bit inconclusive as yet.
Golden crowned sparrows and a Hermit thrush have been on the island the last few days.