I haven’t been very regular about posting for the last couple of weeks and this entry is a bit wordy and scattered as a result of that inconsistency. I'm taking advantage of the 2 hour wait on the tarmac in Sitka and an indefinite amount of time circling Juneau to write this entry. In the end, it took 3 hours between boarding in Sitka and landing in Juneau. The rest of the trip to Fairbanks went a bit smoother.

Sunday Feb. 24^th had the time and inclination to take the kayak out to search for birds. It was very calm, almost raining but not quite, at least not in the morning when I was out.

Used the plastic kayak as the yellow cedar one was in a spot not easily accessed by one person. It was windy enough last Monday that I thought the kayak could get blown off the dock so stowed it in the shop on the commons.

The plastic one isn’t anywhere near as light to paddle as the yellow cedar kayak, it is slower and takes more energy to move once in the water. The only advantage of it in general is that I don’t wince if I find ice or barnacles. Ice wasn’t a problem on Sunday.

I paddled around the lighthouse end of the island toward the cormorant rocks. The cormorants went on alert when I was not to far past the lighthouse. They are amazingly jumpy birds, it is hard to see them as prey for too many things, but my imagination must be inadequate. There was a large flock of mixed Pelagic and Double crested on the rocks and a few Harlequins, White winged and Surf scoters were in the area. There was an land otter or mink alarming when I paddles past, but I never did see the animal. Paddled west past the cormorant rocks toward Beardslee islands and Middle channel looking for alcids and shorebirds. Found the usual mew gulls, a couple of Marbled murrelets, and a Red-necked grebe in the channel by the rock across from the runway. Paddled back through Middle channel and along the town side of Breast and Morne island. Checked out the rocks and shore lines of the islands on the path, but didn’t find shorebirds. The rest of the usual commute birds were around; Glaucous winged gulls, Harlequins, Common mergansers, Barrows goldeneyes, Mallards, Buffleheads and Pacific loons. The trip seems a bit dull in the retelling, but it didn’t feel that way at the time, instead it was a rather pleasant way to spend the morning.

It was feeling a bit spring-like so figured it was time to check out the garden and look for signs of life. The witch hazel and the New Dawn viburnum were blooming, the latter has been blooming off and on through the winter. The witch hazel flowers are just starting to open. No sign of the early crocus yet.

The older deciduous shrubs and small trees (Vine Maple, Witch Hazel, Azaleas) in the garden have a number of lichens and mosses on the multiple trunks of the vine maple and branches. I haven’t done a species count yet from the garden, but I probably should. I suspect it is rather high. There are the typical array of Platismatias, Hypogymnia species and Hypotrachyna sinosa, with a lot of Ramalina and Ulota ssp. and Orthotrichum lyellii. This time one of the Ramalinas had apothecia, which was kind of exciting as it seemed like it would be easier to identify to species with that clue, especially since I didn’t want to collect the lichen to identify it. It was raining so I left the book in the house and traipsed back and forth with my hand lens. It was a bit silly, but I decided that I preferred the shrub lichens to stay living outside instead of ending up in boxes. The end point is that it is Ramalina dilacerata, a lichen associated with coastal exposure.

Also found on the vine maple another species that I associate with ocean exposure, Ulota phyllantha. It may have been growing there before, but it didn’t have obvious gemmae before, so I didn’t notice it. On the same branch was U. obstusicula, U. megalospora, and Orthotricum lyellii.

I didn’t get out much this week because I needed to get a lot done before leaving for Fairbanks and I managed to add a couple of events to an already busy week. Spending a morning at Baranof school sharing spinning and carding may not have been the best use of my time, but it was nice being around the kids and they seemed interested. I’ll have to remember to bring the mountain goat wool in the future (provided that I never learn to say no), since they see the Raven’s tail weaving at the park.

Between tasks this week spent some time looking at Tetraphis versus Aulacomium. They aren’t two mosses that I thought could be confused, but I hadn’t noticed that the old gemmae of Tetraphis elongate over the winter. The synopsis of the mostly macroscopic differences is as follows.

Habitat is a bit different, Tetraphis seems to prefer decomposing wood in shady spots and Aulacomium the same substratum, but in sunny locations.

The gemmae are generally fairly distinct, those of Tetraphis are in leafy cup-like structures and the Aulacomium look a lot like lollipops. The elongated stalks still have the leafy cups, the stalks are just a lot longer.

Up close the leaf cells of Aulacomium are papillose, I haven’t checked to see if this was visible with a hand lens.

Size; Aulacomium is typically much smaller than the average Tetraphis.

If the capsules are available, the four teeth of Tetraphis are quite distinctive.

Gemmae are a handy thing, both for the bryophyte that doesn’t need to go through the process of getting gametes together in order to produce and for the poor botanist trying to identify the creature. One recent example was Grimmia torquata. The specimen I had was without capsules, so lacked a lot of the features that were being discussed in keys and descriptions. Luckily I found gemmae in the upper leaf axils, without this structure I would have been stuck at a few likely species. Fortunately, the section descriptions of Grimmia in the BFNA clearly state whether or not the species have gemmae, so I could eliminate a lot of contenders. Apparently, this moss is rather common in southeast, I’ve just managed to overlook or ignore it until recently.

Also got to look at a small ascomycete this week, Pseudoplectania nigrella. It is a small member of the Sarcosomataceae. It is a stalkless, 2-3 cm broad cup shaped fungus that grows on wood. Both the hymenium and outer surface are black, but the flesh was white. The outer surface is hairy with a lot of short hyphae. After soaking in a bit of water, the outer surface became rather gelatinous. I was able to get a decent cross section of the apothecia, at least clear enough to see the spores, the ascus and the paraphyses. I really need a camera, the structures are quite appealing and it would be nice to have a photo of both the macro and micro features. Anyway, the spores were globose and the ascus did not react with iodine.

Thursday morning heard a winter wren singing on my way to the island dock. It sounded a bit tentative compared to the full-bodied singing that I typically hear. The sound was softer and the song a bit disorganized.

Counted the channel birds on Thursday during a particularly rainy moment. The notebook with all of the numbers is not with me, but I do recall the species (I hope):

266 Longtails, Common mergansers, Scaup (greater), Barrow’s goldeneyes, crows, Pelagic cormorant, Thayers, Glaucous-winged, Herring, and Mew gulls.

The commute birds included: Pelagic cormorants, Surf scoters, Harlequins, Common mergansers, Marbled murrelets, Glaucous-winged gulls, Mew gulls, Common loon.

The great backyard bird count occupied much of my time Friday, February 15 through Monday February 18th. It was quite enjoyable to spend that much time chasing birds, hope to do it again some time relatively soon.
Friday morning I counted the channel birds, looked at the Path of Hope, the turnaround off of HPR and walked over to Alice Island.

Saturday walked up Indian River not too far past the first bridge and went out to Starrigavan and walked around the estuary loop.

Sunday tried to paddle around the island but turned around not too far past the Lighthouse because it was quite rough. Went on the town side of Morne island and around the Twins and back to the island.

Monday walked the Cross trail from Baranof street almost to the quarry road and back. Also briefly looked at John Browns beach.

I tallied all of the species I saw for the 4 days and came up with 47 comfortably identified species. Missed some species that I saw within the prior week e.g. Varied thrush, Northern Flicker and Western screech owl.

Common Loon – 1
Pacific Loon -3
Horned Grebe – 1 (Starrigavan)
Pelagic Cormorant - 53
Double-crested Cormorant – 34
Great Blue Heron – 4
Trumpeter Swan - 2 (Starrigavan)
Mallard - 35
American Wigeon - 1 (Starrigavan)
Northern Shoveler – 1 (Starrigavan)
Greater Scaup – 52
Harlequin Duck 25
Long-tailed Duck - 121
Black Scoter – 2
Surf Scoter – 1
White-winged Scoter - 9
Common Goldeneye - 1
Barrow's Goldeneye – 20
Bufflehead – 13
Common Merganser 46
Red-breasted Merganser 8
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1
Bald Eagle – 16
Black Turnstone - 47
Surfbird – 16
Rock Sandpiper – 6
Thayer's Gull 125
Mew Gull - 16
Glaucous-winged Gull – 90
Thick-billed Murre – 1
Marbled Murrelet - 1
Rock Dove (I didn't count)
Red-breasted Sapsucker - 1
Northwestern Crow 29
Common Raven 51
Chestnut-backed Chickadee – 7
Winter Wren – 1
American Dipper – 2
Golden crowned kinglet 2
American Robin - 2
European Starling 34
Bohemian Waxwing – 7
Song Sparrow – 4
American Tree Sparrow 3
Dark-eyed Junco 12
Golden crowned kinglet 2
Common Redpoll - 44
Pine Siskin – 127

I'm sure I undercounted the redpolls and siskins. When I was leaving Indian River trail, a huge flock of birds flew over too fast to get a good count.
The bulk of the variety and numbers of birds were found in the channel and Starrigavan, next highest diversity was found on Alice island and the skiff/kayak trips. The Cross trail was very quiet, except for ravens and dogs (and me swearing).
The trip up Indian river was quite nice, the snow was still very deep off the trail, but the river was low enough that I walked up to the Pine Grosbeak tree in the river. There was a small hemlock on the bank mostly covered with Lobaria. Found a coho in a small pool, at least from the brief look I got, it seemed like one. It was a good time to review the stream mosses, the differences between Scouleria and Codriophorus acicularis was especially noticable for the slightly blind. Fontinalis was looking especially hair-like, kind of reminiscent of Ophelia in the stream. Didn't find the Hairy woodpecker on its tree, but the dippers were in the same reaches of the river. The bird in the upper (if I'm remembering correctly) was singing.

Ian and I both started out in the kayaks on Sunday morning. He was planning on towing Jeanne and Brians kayak back to Bamboroshni. Quite happy that he came along, especially since I couldn't pull my spray skirt over the rim. Not sure if it was because it was cold and inflexible or if I'm just a wimp. I'm thinking the latter, as it took alot of effort for Ian to accomplish the task.
I went around the lighthouse first, hoping to get as far as Bamdoroshni, but turned around before the cormorant island because of the washing machine -like conditions. I turned Ian back by the lighthouse, I'm glad that in a few things he still trusts my judgement. Maybe he just knows that since I'll push things far enough, that if I don't like the conditions, he wouldn't either.

Paddled around Morne island and the Twins, it was windy, but not too bad, certainly not on the agitation cycle of the western exposures. Found a group of surfbirds, black turnstones and rock sandpipers on an exposed rock before the turn around the Twins. In the flock were 3 or 4 much smaller sandpiper like birds, that looked alot like breeding spotted sandpipers. They had yellowish legs and bills, with spots along the chest and sides of the belly. They were much more delicate looking than the other birds. As it is very early for such a bird to be around, I wasn't comfortable reporting the birds, particularly without any evidence. I'll just have to keep my eyes open.

Looked for the western screech owl every night of the count, but no luck. It of course turned up in the commons on Tuesday night.

I've seen one or two marbled murrelets each morning this week on the trip to town, along with the usual pelagic cormorants, mergansers, and harlequins. Thursday morning there were 8 surf scoters and a pair of longtails as well.

Hear a song sparrow singing at Crescent harbor on Wednesday morning, way too early to think about spring.

Found this photo strip on Deirdre's bulletin board last night and decided that this adequately captured motherhood for me. I think that Deirdre was 3 in the photos.

In honor of her 20th birthday, I have to turn to Shakespeare, since that is common lground. There is alot that isn't suitable. My child isn't ungrateful, treacherous or unloved, so King Lear is thankfully out.
In stead I turned to Hamlet, not exactly a happy play, but Polonius, who was never my favorite character, still gave some reasonable advice.

So here is the whole speech that Polonius gives to his departing son, Laertes

There,-my blessing with you!
And these few precepts in thy memory See thou character. -Give thy thoughts no tongue, nor any unproportioned thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel; but do not dull thy palm with entertainment
of each new-hatched, unfledged comrade. Beware of entrance to a quarrel; but being in, bear't that the opposed may beware of thee. Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice: Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, but not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy: For the apparel oft proclaims the man.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be, for loan oft loses both itself and friend, and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day,Thou canst not then be false to any man.

There was a winter storm warning for Saturday which materialized late Friday night. Light snow, but winds steady in the 20s. The visibility was very poor, most of the morning could see the ocean below the house, but Bamdoroshni island was not visible until early afternoon. The front windows were partially covered by snow, not because the wind was southerly, but the house must have been giving the the snow a swirl that landed it on the windows.

The birds spent most of the day down in the shrubbery below the deck and under the house, with a few forays up to the feeder. The species richness increased by one with the arrival of a sapsucker at the feeder tree.
Walked around the lake and to the cedar point in the early afternoon. In several places on the trail the wind had sculpted snow "dunes". The dunes were about 2 ft above the rest of the snow and had the typical curve and slip face form I've seen in sand dunes. The size was on the minature side, but the form was familiar. The wind was intense enough in these spots that the foot prints I'd made with my snow shoes were erased by the time I had returned (much less than hour). On the windward side of the island the weather still favored a face down sort of walk. Few bird tracks and none at all of mink. The leeward side of the island was more pleasant for walking, but just as quiet for songbirds. There were a few ducks in the cove by the dock (Mallards, Common mergansers, and Barrow's goldeneyes).
Decided to visit the Cedar pt on the west side of the island as I was curious if there were any lurking sea birds in the lee of the island or any mink tracks in the woods. Usually there are mink and/or otters there in the spring and summer, so I thought that they might be around. The walk was nice, the snow was deep enough to cover alot of the debris, but also quiet in terms of animals. Guess I was the only one silly enough to be out and about in such lovely weather. Several mew gulls on the west side playing (?) in the waves and wind. The low temperature was 17 and it made it to 35 before midnight.

Sunday was impressively different. Warmer and rainy and not so windy. The snow load on the roof started sliding off the roof and hitting the deck with enough weight to shake the entire house. The change in the weather is probably a useful thing at the moment. The water tank is only 1/3 full and last night the intake line to the septic tank froze...It's always interesting when you wash the dishes and find the water overflowing the laundry room sink and pouring onto the basement floor. Could have been much worse. The water line from the lake has been excavated and the water has made it half way up the hill to the house. Maybe tomorrow I can do laundry. Life is full of little pleasures.

Stayed on the island from Saturday through Friday morning with a minor case of the flu. Minor in the symptoms, but nothing I really wanted to share. Still a little light headed, but almost back to normal. It wasn't a bad week to sit by the window and watch the feeder and enjoy the view of the ocean. I should have paid more attention to the weeks weather, the imprecise summary is that it has been cold and snowy or cold and sunny. The wind has periodically been fierce, generally been steady. The coldest temperature recorded at the house was 14F, the high might have made it all the way to slightly above freezing. Although the the snow seems to be about 2ft deep, it probably isn't except where the snow has blown it into drifts or where the snowplows and backhoes have piled it. The depth is probably closer to 14 or 15 inches.

The feeder has been the busiest that I remember in recent history, probably a combination of the weather and the steady supply of food that is available because I was at home. Juncos have been dominating the feeder and the brush below the deck. One slate colored junco was in the mixture, the first I remember noticing out here. The best spot to watch the birds is out the basement windows. There is a mixture of oregon crab apple, salmonberry, elderberry and huckleberry growing on the steep slope just below the house. The birds perch in the brush, scratch the ground for seeds and I assume some invertebrates. There are a few pieces of scrap wood that get alot of attention. Not infrequently a junco will fly out from under the house. I wonder if the resident mink take advantage of the bird resource?
There has been 2 song sparrows and a varied thrush hanging out below the feeder. The thrush hasn't ventured up, but the song sparrows will come and sit on the deck rail by the feeder. They don't stand, they sit, very low almost like they are laying down and eat the seed.
The crows make a few ventures to the feeder during the day. There are about 18 of them that come around. They sit in the small spruce that is about 25ft from the feeder, watch for awhile then slowly move in closer, then land on the rail. It can take as long as 15 minutes for them to decide to land.
I did venture out as far as the dock a couple of times before I left. A few stalwart winter wrens, song sparrows, one fox sparrow and one varied thrush was the bulk of the song birds I saw on my walks. The fox sparrow was making use of the unused and open kayak shed. I first saw it in the alders, then it flew into the shed. It was pressed flat (as flat as a live sparrow can get) reaching with its beak under the stack of wood on the floor.

I did solve the mystery of the tail drag in the weasel tracks. Weasel? I should have said ermine...anyway. I saw several tracks similar to those I saw on the Indian river trail, that is small, weasel-like with tail drag. All of the tracks I've seen this week have a very tidy look to them. Two side by side tracks with the back feet registering in the front. Frequently with a tail drag. There are a few spots where the mink dove under the snow and other spots where there were slides. Haven't seen any sign of otter or deer this week, but I wasn't venturing too far off the trail.
This morning at the dock saw 7 mallards, 4 common mergansers, 3 Barrow's goldeneyes, a heron, and 2 buffleheads. Not much on the way across, but it was on the choppy side.
Stopped briefly at Starrigavan around 11am. Saw a couple of widgeons in the crowd of mallards and mergansers. There was an odd looking sparrowlike bird flying around the ducks and landing at the waters edge, but I never did get a good look at it. Marge and Tedin were just leaving as I got there, hopefully they got a look at it.
It was kind of difficult doing the channel count today. The snow berm was high enough that I had trouble seeing above it, had to wander up and down the edge to find the best view. I didn't feel like wading through it today, although I'm sure I would have if I had been with my class.
72 Scaup, 63 Long-tails, 2 Bufflehead, 14 Common mergansers, 56 Glaucous-winged gulls, 1 Mew gull, 7 Thayers gulls, 2 Pelagic cormorants, 1 raven and 1 crow.

The east wind made the ride home tonight a little on the wild side. It was the direction that the gusts don't hit the boat until almost Morne island and they are particularly strong around Gilmore islands. The wind was strong enough in the commons that it erased most signs of the mornings trail. No owl, but I didn't lift my head up too often, the wind favored looking at the ground (-9 wind chill). The snow was covered in small tracks that look right for sparrows.

Woke up to more snow, both on the ground and coming down. Based on the amount I had to shovel to the bird feeder, it snowed about 5 inches over night. The snow seems wetter than what we had Thursday night. It is sliding off the roof in huge slumps with 1.5ft long icicles curving toward the house. Swept the snow off the rhododendrons and other shrubs so that the snow won't break branches. It doesn't have much in the way of protective qualities for tall shrubs. I left it on the shorter plants, not sure if the juniper really likes the moisture though. The New Dawn Viburnum was still blooming under the snow. No sign of witch hazel flowers.
Spent most of the day indoors watching the feeder, writing descriptions and doing chores. The feeder had steady activity today, mostly the usual visitors with the additon of a Varied thrush.

I did leave the house to snowshoe around the lake in the early afternoon. Managed to put my shoes on the right feet today. The snowshoes seemed incredibly loud today. Didn't think that I'd see a single bird on my walk. I was wrong, but it took awhile after I left the house to find much. There were Winter wrens and Song sparrows along the trail, I was surprised not to find any siskins in the alders around the lake. There was a bit more variety down by the dock and in the commons. Buffleheads, Barrow's Goldeneyes, Pelagic cormorants, Harlequins, Common Mergansers and Glaucous winged gulls by the dock. Not a terribly impressive list, but better than along the lake. I did find 2 Bohemian waxwings in the commons. Their distinctive call was what alerted me to them. I got a brief look before they flitted off again. Decided to look at the Mountain ash trees by the A-frame to see if there was a bigger flock, no luck, but I was lucky enough to be looking in the right direction when a Northern Goshawk flew by. It flew from Galankin over to the forest on Gilmore Island. I didn't get a long look at it, but by the size, flight pattern and color it seems right for a dark juvenile.
Wandered back to the commons to do a bit more searching. Found a couple more song sparrows over by the house at the south end. Was turning to head back to the trail and saw another hawk. The most distinctive thing about it other than its size was the very red tail. It wasn't sunny, so I believe that the color was truely red. The bird was too large for a kestrel, so I'm not sure what else it would have been other than a Red-tailed hawk. This bird was also flying toward the Gilmore islands, but I lost sight of it, so I don't know if it landed or continued on.
The rest of the walk was rather quiet except for the noise from my snow shoes.

Finally Thursday morning, after what seemed like months of staring at slides of roots, I finished the last of the bioassay samples. 75 plants, 3 slides each = blindness. I didn't find any VA mycorrhizal infection (okay I found 1) in wheat planted in dilutions of either the swale or hummock soil. There were several endomycorrhizal spores germinating in the hummock soil dilutions, but only one achieved some infection. The dark septate fungi were infected the wheat, down to the 5th dilution. I may redo the experiment with spring gathered soil and leave out the 6th and 7th dilutions and let the plants grow longer before breaking it down. It might also be useful to use a second host plant. The plants innoculated with the fungi from the root isolates look good above ground, hopefully something is happening in the root zone.

Went skating again and visited the feeder, siskins, both Slate and Oregon juncos and a few redpolls. Did verify that snow covered cracks are difficult to see and that gravity is working just fine. No new bruises.

On Friday woke up to snow. It snowed until about noon. Based on the depth at the island dock, there was about 8 inches accumulation. Saw two Tree sparrows in the salmonberries down in the commons. 4 Pelagic cormorants, 2 Harlequins, 3 Surf scoters, 6 Common mergansers and 2 Mallards on the way to town.

Helped the Mt. Edgecumbe students get their research papers finished and sent in to Fairbanks for the science symposium. The lab has accomplished alot since September. We have alot of lab work to do in the next three weeks before the conference, so that everyone has more complete data to present. I probably need to go back to the muskeg with an ice axe to get the dissolved oxygen measurement and the pH of the ponds. Not that it will be terribly representative of the growing season, but at least we can answer the question if asked. I'm looking forward to going north, hoping to see some northern lights and the UAF herbarium.

Celebrated the completion of the papers by heading up Indian river. The snow and the quest for sapsuckers was what drew me. I suppose there is the beauty of the forest in snow. One person and a dog had been as far as the Cross trail cut off, but the rest of the trail was untouched. Nice being the first person up there, the snow wasn't so deep that it was hard to walk through and the tracks were interesting Saw squirrel, mink and otter tracks. One of the sets of tracks were a little mysterious. One set looked most like squirrel, small feet, parallel fore feet, but there was a tail mark. It seemed reasonable that the tracks of a red squirrel would show a tail, but after looking at the track book I have, there isn't any mention of a tail mark in the snow. The only vaguely similar tracks with a tail are those of a weasel. There supposed to be around, but I have yet to see one. The tracks weren't clear enough to see the shape of the foot.

The snow was about 5 to 6 inches deep on the trail and very powdery. The depth of snow over the ice seemd to be adequate to mostly avoid slipping. Only minor skating on a few flat spots.

Saw one dipper downriver from the cascades below a long gravel bar. It wasn't singing, in fact it wasn't moving much at all. Found one mallard near by. Went as far as the 2nd bridge, went up the shore of the east fork aways then cut back to the west fork through the woods. I thought about following the west fork up, but wasn't prepared to do so and I did need to accomplish some work.

On the way back down was treated to a male Hairy woodpecker debarking a small dead spruce. I heard it working before I saw it. It would hit each section of the bark from different angles, turning its head to either side and striking. Looked like it was driving its beak underneath a bark section from either side until the bark popped off. After it successfully removed a section it must have picked up a few invertebrates, but I couldn't quite tell. The bird sometimes followed the fallen bark down the tree, poked at the bark a few times, then moved back up to the spot it was working. This particular bird had a very yellow patch of feather at the base of its beak.

It was snowing for most of my hike and I didn't see many other birds, I did hear Kinglets or Creepers, but couldn't locate them.



Saturday morning because of an unavoidable errand ended up being late enough to dance class that I decided to go up the river again. One doesn't go to Dance class late, I was happy for the excuse. Not that I don't like dance class, but it was rather nice outside. Happily, I brought my snow shoes to town as I had intended to take a short hike between dance and writing. Headed up river again around 10:30. Yesterday's tracks were almost covered by the evenings snow. There was one couple with dogs ahead of me, but didn't encounter anyone else until I was heading down. The dipper was in the same part of the river as yesterday, this time a mallard and two mergansers were with it.

Started up the west fork, not sure how far I went before turning back. Decided that I didn't know the terrain well enough to know how to avoid the major holes that were covered up by the snow. Seemed like some of them could be deep enough to swallow a short woman, especially hazardous for one traveling alone who didn't tell anyone where she was going. Most of the path was relatively open, but there were a few areas that seemed to be piles of debris. The debris didn't seem like a big deal when I could see what I was avoiding, but was a little daunting when less visible. I believe that I was approaching the large slide area, but as there could be another small one that I'm not aware of, I'm not sure. Did visit the Shistostega rootwad. It was looking lush.


Turned back and decided that I had enough time to visit the muskeg northwest of the 2nd bridge. Besides I had carried my snowshoes and wanted to use them. Slogged through the brushy area without the shoes, the snow was definately deep enough to bury me there, but I wasn't going to be turned back again. Definately not sure what I was walking on. I did make it to the muskeg, added the shoes and wandered around a bit. Discovered that it really feels quite odd to wear the snow shoes on the wrong feet. However, I was too lazy to fix it and carried on. There were at least two sets of deer tracks in the muskeg. They entered the muskeg near where I did, then traveled to several of the small clusters of pine trees. Under each clump of trees there were clusters of tracks and bits of needles, lichens and bark. Not sure if they were eating the lichens or part of the pine. Given the amount of snow I'm sure that the lichens are much more accessible food than the wintergreen forbs. I'd like to get into the big trees during the winter to look at deer use again, seems that the muskeg route might be easier for me.

On my way back down I saw the male Hairy woodpecker working the same tree. Still hammering and prying bark.

Saw another dipper downriver from the 1st bridge, just below the more island like bar. At first I assumed that it was the same dipper that I saw further down river, but the lower river dipper was still in place. Guess there are two birds. Both birds were active when I saw them today.
Also saw chickadees, a winter wren, ravens and juncos.

Saturday evening got a couple of interesting bird reports. The first was a hummingbird update. The two Anna's were seen on Saturday at the feeder. The second was about a ptarmigan seen at the golf course late Saturday afternoon. Sounds like it was working the ground near the trees on the northwest edge of the course. The barking dogs sent the bird running, then flying away from the course. Might be worth checking out the benchlands road in the next few days.

The cold weather arrived in force on Sunday. The overnight low on the island was 13F and I believe that the high was 19. The wind was fierce enough that I only ventured out to feed the birds and grab firewood. It was quite pleasant sitting in the sun at the table writing and watching the birds at the feeder. Jeff tried to run some errands in town, but was prevented from doing so by the frozen steering on both skiffs. A little time with a torch on the metal parts seemed to have done the trick because both skiffs were functional Monday morning.

The wind carried on through Monday evening, in fact I had one of the more uncomfortable rides home I remember having. Not because the water was exceptionally rough, it was gnarly, but manageable. It was the addition of the heavy freezing spray that added to the experience. Within about 5 minutes, the front and port side of the house were covered with ice, fortunately I could see out the starboard window well enough to get across without running into any islands or rocks. Happily, the weather was much nicer on Tuesday.
Tuesday morning there were roughly 50 gulls (mew and glaucous winged) near the island dock. Usually that many gulls aren't near the dock unless there are herring in the area. No sign of feeding, so I'm not sure why the congregation.

Spent time each day this week ice skating at Swan Lake. Not the platonic ideal of skating ice, but it has been very nice. Found a yard past the radio station that has a number of feeders in the garden bordering the lake. On Tuesday I saw Pine siskins, juncos, golden-crowned kinglets, a song sparrow and chickadees. Some of the siskins looked alot like redpolls, but it was difficult to see the red patch without my binoculars. Wednesday I took the binoculars skating with me, didn't see any red polls but did notice that several of the juncos were of the slate colored type. I was fortunate to get to learn a bit more about bird behavior when various predators were in the area. The first predator on the scene was a Sharp-shinned hawk. I first noticed that the siskins scattered at the same time as the neighbors dog was walking by. At first I thought it was the dog that alarmed them, but noticed the hawk. I'm assuming that it was the hawk, rather than the quiet dog that alarmed the birds. It was interesting that the juncos didn't noticably react to the hawk. The next predator was a cat. Completely opposite reaction. The ground dwelling juncos immediately flew up and the siskins just carried on with feeding. I didn't notice any change in calls in either case.

Finally saw one of the flocks of Bohemian waxwings this morning. I was walking through the courtyard at Mt. Edgecumbe and heard an odd call. Looked up in time to see several birds flying over the courtyard and the adjacent roof. The waxwings were in a shore pine when I walked around the building, at least they were there long enough for me to get a brief look.

Did the channel count this afternoon: 10 mallards; 4 pelagic cormorants;2 thayers, 1 mew, 48 glaucous-winged gulls; 7 common mergansers; 47 scaup and 2 ravens. No long-tails or goldeneyes. Previous channel counts had the following number of long tails recorded:

2002: 0
2003 :42
2004: 60
2005: 61
2006: 39

2002 didn't record any longtails until the 4th week of class, the other years the longtails were recorded from the first week through at least the 6th week.

The wet snow of Friday and very early Saturday has been frozen by a drastic temperature drop this afternoon and evening. I could hear the drips this morning laying in bed and walked to dance class in wet snow, by the time I walked back the wind was already up and the temperature was dropping. When I went home around 3:30 or so, the temperature was around 27 and there were white caps. The spray froze when it hit the windshield of the boat. Not terribly easy to see. The lines were wet when I tied up in town this morning, so were frozen solid when I was trying to leave. It took several minutes to untie each line. Nothing like repeated wiggling to generate a little heat.

It was a nice 24 hours for birds. Last evening coming home I saw the island western screech owl in a red alder in the commons. It stayed put for several minutes while I looked at it. I hadn't seen it for a few weeks, so it was nice to see that it was still around. I assume that it is the same individual. A Northern flicker was in Litman's yard this morning.
Walking back to Crescent harbor I got several glimpses of what I assume were red polls near the park entrance. Never did get a good look at them. They were too big for siskins, but somewhat similar in coloring.
Decided to visit the Moller park feeder as I hadn't been there for awhile and maybe some interesting songbird followed the flocks to the abundant food. It was a cold walk down from the ball field to the survivors walk. There were abundant juncos, both slate and oregon, siskins, a song & a tree sparrow and a few starlings. The tree sparrow was in the salmonberries by the informal looking parking lot across from the feeder. I hadn't noticed how yellow it's beak was on previous sightings. I'm pretty sure I've seen (or at least recognized) more tree sparrows this year than ever before.
Saturday was a rather busy day in the neighborhood, lots of kids, four wheelers and cars, the birds were still rather thick and kept flying toward me when ever a vehicle or kid happened by. I guess that I was the lesser of two evils. I stayed as long as I was warm, kind of hoping for a hawk so I could look at the eyes... fortunately for the songbirds, I didn't get my rather heartless wish.
Did a few errands then continued on my slacker pursuit of birds. Decided it was today or maybe never to visit the Anna's hummingbird. Very glad that I did. Sat with Pam and Mike in the living room and watched the feeder for about an hour. The male Anna's showed up pretty fast after I arrived. It was considerably larger than the rufous hummers that I have in my garden during the summer. Now I'm sure that I haven't seen an Anna's on Galankin. Both the size and the markings are distinct enough that even on a quick glance it would have been obviously different. It visited the feeder several times, but mostly it sat on a hemlock branch across from the window. It was rather interesting to watch it turn its head back and forth rather incessantly. I don't think I've seen this behavior before. We assumed that it was watching for predators. The violet of the throat would flash on each back and forth. It was mesmerizing watching this tiny creature flashing against the background of the hemlock branches. Kind of amazing that it has been keeeping warm enough, even though it is getting plenty of food to generate its own heat. Can't imagine that it hasn't found some warm place to spend the night. I hope that it has one tonight.
I stood up to leave as I didn't want to wear out my welcome and the hummingbird had abandoned its branch. Decided to see if the bird was on the elderberry below the deck, it was there, and it was chasing another male Anna's away. They chased down toward Sawmill creek. Maybe it was watching/guarding its territory instead of lookiing for predators? Pam and Mike had no idea that there were two birds around, maybe there are more? Given that they said that there are often up to 50 humminbirds around the house in the summer, certainly there could be a few that aren't wired to migrate.
Given that it is 17 F tonight, I hope the birds have warm haven. We joked about putting out a heat light for the bird, might have been a good idea.

Finished another 15 descriptions.

Thursday was a classic winter day for sun basking. Cool, but not too cold, and a light wind from what seemed like a northern direction. it was the kind of day that I might look for very early crocuses in sunny places near buildings. A little early, but still possible. The New Dawn Viburnum is blooming again, so why not a confused crocus? Did get a brief bit of basking in on a nice rock on Alice island.
Spent the morning at home making smoothies and soup for Ian, whose face remained very swollen, then went to town in the afternoon.
There was a report of a Yellow eyebrowed thrush in a garden on Davidoff st. this week. Decided that I wasn't going to prowl around someone's yard, but decided that if I was a lost Aleutian/Asiatic bird, maybe I'd like the open spaces, alders and ash trees of Alice island. It was also a more convenient site to where I needed to be. I didn't expect to have any luck in quest for odd thrushes, and I didn't, but I did come across a Sharp-shinned hawk perched on top of a small spruce tree between the boat launch and the road near the sewage treatment plant. We looked at eachother for several minutes, then it flew off toward Millerville. I still have some trouble deciding whether I'm looking at a Sharp shinned hawk or a Merlin when the bird is perched. Once the bird flies, it seems clear. If it flaps and glides, I call it a Sharp-shin if it doesn't glide its a Merlin. The differences in the wing shape are easy to see in the bird book, but not always so easy for me when I'm looking at the tail end of a bird flying away.
From looking at Sibley, it seems that I need to start remembering to look for a clear distinction between the color of the throat and the head (seems like it is more distinct in a Merlin) and the cheeks (lighter in a Sharp shin).

14 Common mergansers, 2 Barrows goldeneyes and 2 pelagic cormorants near the Galankin dock. 3 Common murres, 2 pelagic cormorants, 2 mew gulls and a long tail on the way across. Heard what seemed like a Northern flicker in the alders on the way to the dock.

Some ice on my way home after dance class.

I received an interesting slide of prepared peat material from the Jarvis St. muskeg core. The slide was made from the 8,000 year old part of the core. Tom sent this slide because of the abundance of fungal hyphae and in particular because of the bumpy or papillose hyphae that he found in this core. He said that he associates an abundance of fungi in a given layer with dryer conditions that would favor decompostion. I see alot of hyphae in the rhizosphere zone, but perhaps that abundance doesn't continue in the deeper layers. I haven't really looked at the peat below the root system, so don't have much of an opinion. Unfortunately, the camera set-up on the microscope hasn't been cooperating lately, so this is the best I can do for now. Hopefully, I can improve on the situation. The bumpy hyphae in the prepared peat cores matches some of the hyphae that I've found in my rhizosphere work. The bumps or papillae seem to a permanent part of the cell wall exterior given that they survive both boiling in KOH and the horrors of peat samples for pollen observations. I haven't been able to identify the type of hyphae yet, tried sending out an inquiry to a couple of people, but haven't had a definitive answer yet. I found some hyphae with clamp connections in the slide, so there are definitely Basidiomycetes and other structures such as sclerotia that look very much like what I'm seeing in the current muskeg material.

Also in the sample is alot of pollen. Still hoping to get some photos and learn abit on how to identify the pollen.

I've changed my thoughts about muskeg plants and their root systems since I started digging around this fall. One thing that I've heard and probably repeated about muskeg plants is that their leaves seem to be adapted for dry conditions (xeromorphy). They are often tough, with cuticles and narrow shaped with enrolled margins. It seems that a more accurate way to think about the leaves is that they are adapted for long life rather than to reduce moisture loss. Narrow evergreen leaves have less nitrogen and lower photosynthetic rates than broad deciduous ones. The lower nitrogen availability in muskegs would seem to favor plants with evergreen leaves. Muskeg plants also have reasonably well developed root systems with root hairs. Not of course as abundant as your average grass in the prairie, but much more well developed than I had thought. Given the amount of water in the muskeg during the active part of the growing season, it seems that adequate water is available. Given how water moves into the vascular system, it seems that water isn't a problem. Does it really matter that the rhizosphere might be mostly frozen in the winter when they aren't actively growing?

In addition to asking about the bumpy hyphae, I asked about a small basidiomycete collected from a cedar last year that was allegedly sent on to UAF for identification. Found out that it never made the trip and since I couldn't relocate the small piece that I had saved, went out and collected another.

The fungus grows on cedar, where I've seen it the bark was gone. I'm not certain if this fungus is limited to cedar or if I just haven't noticed it on other species. This one was growing on a cedar above the canyon beyond the waterfall on the route between Herring cove and Beaver lake. The fungus colonies look like scattered black dots on the tree trunk. It was on the adjacent trees as well, but the largest colony was on the tree from which I collected the fungus. It is in the mail.

Ian had 4 wisdom teeth removed on Sunday, so I've been home most mornings this week, only running to town for groceries or to take a dance class. He is still very swollen up, maybe 2 at a time might have been better. Although maybe a sensible person wouldn't go back for more torture.

Tuesday saw a group of about 25 Pacific loons between Breast island and the Lighthouse. One pair of Marbled murrelets and several pelagic cormorants.

Since the Natural history class was cancelled, I decided to do the channel bird count on my own. Yesterday there were 67 scaups, 26 longtails, 12 common mergansers, 3 Red-breasted mergansers, 3 pelagic cormorants, 2 crows and 1 raven. There were considerably more longtails out of the count area toward ANB harbor. There were 2 song sparrows between the bridge and the Coast guard dock.

I've finished 120 plant descriptions, well below where I wanted to be, but at least I'm making some progress.

I spent most of the week getting ready for the new semester and writing plant descriptions. When I stop to actually write down what I did, there was a bit more variability in activity.

Wednesday desperately felt the need to stretch my legs and walked up to the second bridge around noonish. It was a nice break before settling down at my desk. I needed a dose of walking with a background of forest, not so much for the exercise, but for the quiet time. Found a brown creeper on one of my stops to look around and listen. Decided that I still like just stopping periodically to see what is flying or growing. This habit would drive some of my friends crazy, but it works when I'm by myself. Found it difficult to stop at the second bridge, felt like finding the lower muskeg, but didn't have my boots on and needed to act like a responsible teacher. On the way back down, found a dipper (maybe the same one?) I found earlier in the fall. At any rate it was in the same area of the river, not singing, but bobbing and swimming. Once it seemed like it had an invertebrate in its bill, but I couldn't quite be sure.
Still haven't found the time to collect more muskeg soil for the mycorrhizae search. I still have plenty of cultures to maintain and more roots to look at, so I can wait for the right time. I did subculture the most abundant the fungi isolated from Kalmia on Friday. I'm hoping that the cultures grow fast enough that I can innoculate a few plants in early February. The wheat that I innoculated with a culture from Cornus suecica seem to be doing well. I'm crossing my fingers that I've successfully captured the most common endosymbiont.

I went back to the cemetary twice looking for more lichens. The first time to collect a slightly bigger piece of the potential Nephroma isidiosum. I found several more interesting lichens on that visit. I did find a larger piece of the same isidiate lichen, Peltigera collina, Nephroma resupinatum and Sticta fuliginosa. Not sure why I hadn't found this many Nephroma spp. previously. I checked through my field books and found a few collections of Nephroma arcticum and one of N. helveticum from Chichagof island, but none of the species I've found in the cemetary. The third trip this week was very brief, just long enough to verify the host trees and look for a bigger sample of the Sticta. No luck on that mission, in the time available. I sent the collections to Linda Geiser (F.S. Air quality lichen lab) in Corvallis for verification. Fortunately she had the time to look at them and had good memories of working with me on the Stikine a life time ago. My clearest memory of working with her is showing her how to load and safely carry a rifle, after I found out that the Stikene area was sending people to the woods with big guns and bullets, but no training. I've always been a little nervous about loaded guns.

One of the interesting bits of information I heard at the monthly Fine Arts camp board meeting was that Pam Kernin has had a pair of hummingbirds visiting her feeder continuously since the summer. One of the birds (a rufous ?)disappeared during the cold weather this fall, but the probable Anna's is still around. Hopefully, I can visit soon and see the bird. I was hoping that she had a digital photo of the bird, but no joy, another video.
The weather has been on the wild side this week. Saturday night the wind blew from the south-southwest for several hours, the peak was 57mph. No trees down, but there were alot of small Sitka alder branches down by the lake this afternoon. Did see a varied thrush in the commons. One surf, one black scoter, 3 mergansers, two mew gulls and 4 pelagic cormorants on the way to town.
Went in to town in the afternoon and managed to get myself stuck because of the extreme weather. I couldn't tell how windy it was from Harris island. There weren't any visible white caps or maybe I was too busy talking to look out the window. Once I got to Crescent harbor, it was quite apparent that the weather was extreme. The wind was out of the southeast, there was green water between the whitecaps, but it didn't seem like much green water. I decided to try to go home, but didn't get too far. The waves seemed to be about 5 ft inside the mouth of the harbor and they were stacked up in a nasty sort of way. The wind was screaming (I found out it was around 66mph). I only remember getting the the harbor mouth and turning around once in my commuting years. I must be a bit smarter most times. It was actually rather gnarly turning around in the harbor.
After about 3 hours, the wind had shifted to the west and diminished to a less intimidating level. The waves were steep and white capping from the west with a nice underlying swell. I had to slow down and turn enough that I wasn't in the trough all the way home. I turned the spot light off once I determined the wave direction, because seeing them was distracting and not at all helpful. It was also snowing.
Two red alders were down in the commons, and a few hemlock branches, no trees that I could see.
Nice to be out of the weather and home. I wasn't looking forward to scrounging a bed in town.

Walked around the Baranof St. cemetary after dance class looking for Bohemian waxwings that were reported Monday. Always feel a little silly chasing yesterday's birds, but I like to assume that I will at least see something that I wouldn't have seen regardless of the success of the search.
This time I didn't see the waxwings or any birds other than ravens and eagles. It was quiet back there except for the wind.
What I did find was some great habitat for epiphytic lichens. The cemetary has crab apple, european mountain ash, red alder, sitka spruce, western hemlock and probably some other trees that I've overlooked.
I haven't done much of a survey yet and based on what I found today, I probably should. One lichen that I found looks like Nephroma bellum. It is a medium sized brown foliose lichen with apothecia on the underside of lobe tips. The lower surface is light brown or tan and smooth, the upper surface darker and smooth. The photobiont is a blue green bacteria.

The second lichen I found is most likely a Nephroma isidiosum. It is also dark brown on the upper surface and has a lighter colored tometum on the lower surface. Some of the "hairs" are bottle-brush like. The upper surface has tallish black isidia on the lamina and on the margins of the lichen. The photobiont is a blue-green bacteria. The tomentum really threw me off, I decided that it was a Peltigera, but couldn't find a species in that genus that fit very well. What eventually got me back to the (hopefully) right track was the presence of a lower cortex. This was only clearly present in cross section. This species has only been reported from the Yakutat forelands and mainland river valleys. Lovely.

Did see a robin on the island Monday morning.

Ended up spending more time indoors than I had wanted this week. Deirdre was apparently incubating a lovely cold when she arrived home and was coughing horribly most of the last week. Glad we went to Kruzof right after Christmas when she was relatively healthy.

Friday was sunny and I thought she and I could try a couple of short forays into the outdoors. Was inspired by a great morning view of a very narrow crescent moon over peak 2975 and what I'm pretty sure was Venus over Eureka Mtn to the southeast. There is something especially pleasant about looking at the sky from a pile of pillows. Maybe it is just nice indulging my inner slacker.
There was a heavy frost on the ground which didn't disappear despite our impressively late start. We managed to leave the house around noon. Went out to Starrigavan, the eternal optimist in me always hopes for swans, but is seldom rewarded. We didn't see anything too exotic, but we didn't give it much of a look either, the cold out there was aggravating Deirdre's cough and I was feeling rather wimpy myself.

Next stop was Moller park, the sun was nicer. Deirdre was impressed by the number of Pine siskins and juncos at the feeder. Also saw a Tree and several Song sparrows at the feederand a Northern Flicker in a red alder in the survivors walk. She had enough energy for one last short loop walk on the Indian river trail to the Cross trail and back to the road. Nice to get outside even if for just short forays.

Deirdre left for Boston on Saturday, arrived there on Sunday and leaves again on Monday for Yucca mountain and Death valley via Las Vegas. Too bad the school doesn't realize that it needs a botanist on geology trips.

The feeder tree was at long last visited by a Golden crowned kinglet and a Brown creeper on Saturday, it is nice to be able to turn in something other than juncos and chickadees on the feeder watch report. Looked for the owl the last few nights, but didn't see it. The last sighting was Thursday evening.

Sunday noonish, Jeff and I took a short paddle to the runway area and Mermaid cove. There was a big swell, but very small chop (less than 1ft), only out between Rose and Mitchell Rocks did the water feel a bit intimidating. It was gnarly enough that I didn't want to go further around the airport. The sea conditions weren't that favorable for seeing birds. The skin on frame kayak is a joy to paddle or maybe its the wonderfully light paddle. I was using the mixed cedar paddle that Brian made. The kayak seems to skate over the water compared to the plastic one, I don't usually find myself in the lead in any kayak trip. It still feels very odd to feel the waves underneath the boat. The only thing that was a pain was trying to put the small spray skirt on with the layers of winter clothes I had on to keep warm. I was wondering if maybe I shouldn't have bought a small. Fortunately, once it is on, it fits just fine even over two windblock coats, but it was a bit of a comedy getting into the thing.

From the dock to the lighthouse saw a group of 8 Pacific loons, about 20 Barrow's Goldeneyes, 2 Buffleheads, several Common mergansers, 6 mallards, 2 Surf scoters and one Horned grebe. Paddled around behind Galankin to the Ferebee Rocks, 2 Glaucous winged gulls and about 50 Cormorants, mostly Double crested and 4 Harelquins. The cormorants were all on the rocks until I got too close, which is not very close. Continued on around the west side of the Beardslee islands toward the runway in search of alcids. Only one marbled murrelet and a couple of Mew gulls. Mermaid cove was pretty quiet as was the runway. More cormorants, 2 Harlequins and a Common loon. I almost talked myself into seeing a perched owl, but I'm fairly certain it was just a weird piece of wood. Paddling southeast from the cove was a bit of a steady work out. I was fairly convinced that if I stopped paddling, I'd end up on the runway. There was a mixed group of Surfbirds and Black Turnstones on the northeast shore of the southern most Beardslee Island. What was so nice about being in the kayak was that I heard the birds before I saw them. The birds weren't too worried about the kayk, I got close enough to have an excellent view without binoculars.

I've been trying to catch up with the bryophytes I collected last summer. The material I collected from a seep at 3200ft, collected in this case is a nice way of saying stuffed a clump of mixed bryophytes in a paper bag. There was alot of Lepidozia reptans, Diplophyllum albicans, a former Racomitrium which is most likely a Codriophorus, and a new liverwort for me, Gymnomitrion concinnatum. The drawing of Gymnomitrion in Schofield's guide doesn't really do it justice. It is a very small (about 10mm long), rope-like green liverwort. The stems are covered by the imbricate leaves. Each leaf was green at the base and hyaline from about mid way to the tip. The leaves are very shallowly lobed, the lobes have pointed apices. It was tangled in the lower stems of the Lepidozia and Codriophorus and I wouldn't have seen it except that I was being particularly anal about looking at the Lepidozia. The Liverwort Flora of the British Isles by Jean Paton was the only source of ecological information that I had access to at the moment. She has a rather thorough disscussion which I'll inadequately summarize: this liverwort is common on dry or wet areas of late "snow-lie" on mountain summits and slopes in Scotland and Northern Wales. Other than being on the wrong side of the Atlantic, it sounds like where I found it.

I've not spent much time outside the last few days as I've been attempting to be diligent about writing plant descriptions and admittedly being an incredible slug. I've had to postpone the hike to the Indian river falls until Deirdre is over her cold.
Did get lucky and scar up a western screech owl Saturday evening about 5:30. I was trudging noisily homeward head down through the alders in the common area when I saw the owl flying away from me. I was a bit irritated with myself for not paying attention, since it had obviously been in an alder right along the trail. Got lucky again as it landed in another alder not too far away and I got a good long look at the bird before it flew off again. Haven't seen it since then, but can't say that I've been outside after dark either.

Sunday it snowed from around 8:30 until approximately 2pm. Ended up with about 2 to 3 inches of snow on the island. After it stopped,Deirdre and I walked around the island. Relatively quiet for birds. Did see a Varied thrush in the alders and a Red-necked grebe by the dock.

Besides writing did look at the bryophytes I collected from the Yellow cedars on Kruzof. The Plagiochila seems to be P. satoi, although I'd like to see drawings of the leaf margins of the different taxa to be sure. P. satoi, P. schofieldiana, and P. semidecurrens all occur on Chamaecyparis, so I'll have to look at the marginal teeth on every one I collect.
The Herbertus is H. aduncus var. aduncus. Fortunately the treatment for this genus is available on the eBFNA. The four species listed in Schofields liverwort guide have been consolidated to 3 species. H. sakuraii has been incorporated into H. dicranus. I'm not sure what happened to H. haidensis.

The clumped mosses from cedar were all Tortella tortuosa, I thought that there might have been a second species in the collection, but it was just a smaller plant.
Haven't gotten to the mosses from the basalt cliff yet.
Did identify one of the smaller polypores collected as Trichaptum abietinus. The larger rusty orange one, I'm not terribly satisfied with yet. It turns black with KOH, which made me think it was a Phaeolus, but now I'm not too confident. I'd like to find one that is a bit fresher to work with. The ones I have seem a bit far towards the rotten side.
Have 31 descriptions written.

Decided to abandon the plans to go to Goddard because of Wednesday’s forecast for west winds to 25 mph and seas to 24feet. For some reason heading over to Brent’s beach cabin seemed like a friendlier proposition. We loaded the skiff with what seemed like enough gear for 2 weeks and headed north through the channel. I opted for the bow seat, so I was wearing polypropylene pants and shirt, wool pants, a wind bloc pullover and jacket with rain pants and coat over all. Not to forget the life jacket, hat, and water proof gloves. I could barely move, but I was warm and dry. The swell was noticeably large the entire way from the north breakwater to the beach. Between Crow and Guide islands was particularly sloppy. I was happy to have my back to the seas and the view. Did see a number of Common murres and one pair of Marbled murrelets along the way to Kruzof. Because of the high tides and storms the water was full of logs, seaweed and misc. detritus. It might have been a bit of a nasty ride after passing Crow Island, but the beach landing was truly gnarly. In fact, we looked at it for quite awhile before deciding to make the attempt. The breaking waves were mostly in the 1 to 2ft range, but there was the occasional 3 to 3.5ft wave. Ian jumped out at the beach and I tossed him stuff as fast as I could, once Deirdre made it the bow, I jumped/slid onto the beach too and Deirdre tossed us both stuff. What the unloading crew didn’t see was the wave that went over the stern; we did see the debris floating to the beach though. The wave turned the skiff broadside, then stern to the beach. We had it unloaded; now we had to get it off the beach. It took all four of us to push it out just enough to barely get the prop in the water (and out of the sand). The rooster tail of water was substantial when Jeff got the outboard going. Fortunately getting the skiff tied up to the mooring buoy went a lot easier, the surf wasn’t too much for the little plastic kayak. The only damage was one prop blade was slightly bent in the sand.

It was near high tide when we arrived which was useful for moving the pile of supplies. The cabin was in good shape, but is rather dark inside compared to the cabins at Fred’s creek and Shelikof It took a bit of effort to get the fire going, the provided wood was a little wet, bringing kindling from home was quite useful. I forgot to bring an axe, but the Forest Service fortunately provided a good axe and splitting maul at the cabin. We spent the rest of the daylight hours getting the cabin in order and walking on the beach. Saw one varied thrush and a robin in alders north of the cabin. Seven Black turnstones were working the drift line near the high tide peninsula to the small island. That night it hailed, snowed and blew.

The next morning Jeff and Ian went hunting and Deirdre and I went north to see if we could find an easy way to the cave near Pt. Brown. We didn’t manage to find a suitable path. We were stopped by a chasm that was just a bit wide for us to jump. We wandered up slope to look for an easy way down. No luck. We ended up above the cave on a headland. Lots of deer sign, but no animals.
We decided to head for Kamenoi beach while the tide was low. The beach fringe path made this trip much more straightforward than our first morning walk. The name Kamenoi apparently means rocky, I can only believe that the point was named first. The beach is sandy, rather coarse, but still sand. There are a couple of large rocks in the middle of the beach, but I’m still thinking that the point was the origin of the name. I hadn’t been on this beach since Deirdre was a toddler. It used to be a great razor clam spot. What I really remember about this beach is one of my first “stupid parent” tricks. Managed to take everything on the excursion, but what was needed the most. Why would anyone take a toddler clam digging without bringing extra clothes? Fortunately she can take care of herself now.
The beach fringe forest was a classic example of what we used to call a Pisi/canu or Sitka spruce/ pacific reedgrass stand. Lobaria linita/oregana would be good name to add to this forest type. This spot was interesting in how far inland the grass understory layer continues inland. The area was also interesting because of the incisement or ridges semi-parallel to the beach. The height of the ridges seemed more extreme than what I would expect from uplift, maybe some of them are due to basalt flows in addition to uplift Should always carry a shovel so I can test these ideas. Also saw 4 (maybe 3) Shore pines in one spot on the edge of the forest. Not a common sight around here.
Deirdre found a couple of basalt cliffs to explore and I collected two mosses and one small orange filamentous alga from the cliffs. I’m pretty sure it is the same orange creature that I’ve found on the basalt cliffs near Pt. Brown. There were three or four sets of deer tracks on the beach, but no other animals. Found a small group of Pine siskins and a Song sparrow and at one winter wren about every 100 yards. The wrens are in the drift wood, I assume eating small arthropods. None of them were too worried about us, just briefly scolded and went back to food gathering. Didn’t find any interesting beach debris except 4 Big skate egg cases (each about 10 inches long). Saw Mew, Thayers and Glacuous-winged gulls, Surf and White-winged scoters, Pelagic cormorants, Pacific loons, Common mergansers, Harlequins, Barrow’s Goldeneyes, Buffleheads and 1 Horned grebe on the water side. There were at least 10 Double-crested cormorants on the rocks in front of the cabin.

After lunch, Deirdre was willing to follow her mother toward the muskegs west of the cabin while Jeff and Ian tried for deer north of the cabin. The forest was a little brushy, but there were so many deer and people trails that it was relatively easy to get to the muskegs. Some nice cedar along the way, found one with the plaited looking bark that I associate with the largest or oldest of the yellow cedars. The bryophyte mounds on the cedars were dominated by Herbertus , the smaller ones by Tortula tortuosa. Both mounds had Apometzgeria, Plagiochila and Radula growing with the dominant species. There were the usual flat sheets of Frullania mid trunk and Isothecium cardotti toward the base of the cedars. I should probably positively identify which species of the liverworts I’ve been collecting from the cedars.
The muskeg had just enough snow to make it difficult to do a proper search for juniper and probably quite noisy for hunting. Didn’t find any juniper, birds or deer sign. Unfortunately, I didn’t find the easiest path back to the beach either.
We stopped at one of the small beaches between Crab and Kamenoi pt to watch the birds. A group of seven Pacific loons (could actually see the dark necklaces) was in the cove.

Decided to take one more walk down the beach before the retreat to the cabin for the night. Was turning to head into the forest to go around a point found a different sparrow. It had white wing bars, a light breast with one central spot, and brown stripes on its head with one brown eye strip that tended downward. I was fairly certain that it was a White-crowned, but after looking at Sibley, decided that it was a Tree Sparrow.

While trying to follow the sparrow around the beach fringe, I noticed a large flat gray lichen on the lower trunk of a Sitka spruce. All I could tell in the dim light was that it was something I hadn’t seen previously. The white spots on the underside were indicative of a Pseudocyphellaria or a Sticta. It wasn’t the right color for the latter genus, nor for the more common species of the former. I had found one piece of P. anomala on the ground earlier in the day. Had to wait until I could look at the Macrolichens of the PNW before deciding the lichen was P. rainierensis. I’ve read about the lichen, but hadn’t found it previously. It is a rare lichen through out its range and is considered to be associated with old growth in the PNW. In the lichen inventory of the Tongass, this lichen was found on Spruce and Crab apple along salt water beaches, same habitat that this one was growing (is still, I only took a small sample).
The Black turnstones which had wandered off during the day were back in their spot at high tide.

That night saw my second live marten. I was sound asleep on the top bunk; this is only impressive if one has slept on a narrow plywood bunk, when I was woken by a very loud pounding. The wood in the cabin amplifies every sound, a person rustling in their sleeping bag is quite loud, so the rest of the family ignored the sound, thinking it was me accidentally flinging things out of my bunk (I did this repeatedly). With headlamp in hand, I looked through the front window of the cabin. Hanging on the door to the cooler was a marten. It had its front paws through the top of the screen and the lower ones on the bottom wooden ledge. It was shaking the daylights out of the door trying to get it open. The door was held closed by a hook and eye latch and I’m surprised that the marten wasn’t successful in wiggling it open. Its ears were laid back and it was making odd noise (not quite growling). There was a particularly smelly hunk of liverwurst in the cooler which was most likely the object of interest. It wasn’t too worried about the light or me, but eventually it stopped the shaking, shifted position to peer briefly through the window at me, then jumped on top of the cooler and disappeared. It came back at least one more time that night, but didn’t have any more luck.

The other noise that started in the night was the surf, it had calmed down considerably on Thursday, but at some point in the night the swell had built up again. There was a little snow on the ground in the morning.

Deirdre and I walked back to Kamenoi beach while Jeff and Ian tried hunting again. No deer tracks this morning, but one set of river otter tracks. The otter followed the drift log line to a creek, entered the creek and I didn’t follow it further. The surf was huge. The waves were breaking on the large rocks and splashing about 15ft high. It didn’t seem like conditions were going to be too good for loading the skiff.
We did decide to leave mostly because the forecast sounded like it was just going to get worse. This time we used the boat anchor to off the stern to keep the skiff from coming in too shallow. The shore line was long enough to slowly move the boat toward the beach without grounding it, but shallow enough to allow loading. It still required a lot of frantic flinging of gear so that Ian, Deirdre and I didn’t get wet. Managed to load the boat without further destroying the prop, Deirdre and I stayed dry but Ian got wet to the shins. I did enjoy it when Ian had to pick me up to get me in the skiff. Where I could reach the skiff without wading too deep, the rail was above my chest, no way I could get myself on. I did pull him in after me. The joys of having grown children.

Decided to take a brief peek at Port Krestof, brief because Ian (and it turned out Jeff) was wet.
Oystercatchers, Horned grebes, Canada geese (6), Brant (about 20), Buffleheads, Scaup, Barrow’s goldeneyes, Common and Pacific loons, mallards, Common mergansers, White-winged scoters and a lot of ducks in the river channel that I couldn’t identify.
The ride home was flat calm in comparison with the trip over on Wednesday. Saw 2 groups of sea otters near Crow island. Friday evenings paper had a report of a dead Green sea turtle found in Port Krestof on Thursday. What looked like the same hunters (or at least a similar boat) were on the beach by Pt. Brown maybe hoping for a deer to go with the turtle.

Sunday evening successfully retrieved Deirdre from the potentially endless Christmas travel loop. She didn't suffer, American Airlines put her up in a large hotel room with free wireless near O'Hare airport. In fact she seemed quite rested despite having a rather long day. Fortunately, a year away from island life hasn't caused any noticable loss of skiff skills. Maybe it will always be there for her. Since I didn't teach her how to ride a bicycle or drive a car, I guess it is good I taught her some other transportation skills.


Monday's high tide wasn't quite as high as Sundays. At 15 minutes before the tide, there wasn't a moat around the lot 4 house and the trail was still passable around the north end of the island. Went out to Starrigavan around 1:30 to look for Friday's swans. Probably should have looked on Friday. Lots of mallards, scaups, common mergansers, a few Buffleheads and a Northern flicker. The water from the high tide was still covering the lower places in the meadow and in the forest between the longer side trail into the meadow and the bridge. There was still snow on the boardwalk of the estuary trail and the muskeg trail. There was a flock of about 60 Pine siskins in the alders by the Old Sitka parking lot.

Collected a small mushroom from an alder. It is a light tan to brownish fungus with an short lateral stem. They can be shelving or seperate on the branches. It is the same fungus that I've seen many times in the winter, but never quite finished the job of identifying it. Finally got a good spore print (white), checked the spores for an amyloid reaction (positive) tasted it (mild), cross-sectioned the cap (had a gelatinous layer) and decided that it fits Panellus longinquus. The mushroom acquires a purple/rosy cast as it dries. It is most likely var pacifica decribed by Susan Libonati-Barnes (a former graduate student of Stuntz that I knew at University of Washington). Mycotaxon 20: 205-212 http://www.cybertruffle.org.uk/cyberliber/index.htm. The biggest ones I found are slightly larger than the range described in Arora, but I'm not too bothered by that discrepancy. This fungus fruited on and off through last winter. I mostly remember seeing it on alder, but I believe that it also occured on Mountain ash. I'll have to keep my eyes open.


The bird feeder has been more active the last two days or maybe I'm just around more to watch it. The song sparrows which used to stick to the ground below the feeder have decided that the deck and railing are good for foraging. The juncos have moved to the tube feeder (they didn't go near it before), perhaps because the sparrows are in their former territory. The chickadees remain faithful to their habit of picking up a seed then flying away. I really wonder where they hide it all. I can almost imagine sunflowers blooming out of crevices in the hemlocks around the garden.



Christmas noonish the family walked around the lake during a lull in the hail/rain/sleet. We did take refuge at one point on a porch during one hail event.

Did a Christmas bird species tally on the island and the surrounding water: Common & Pacific Loons, Red-necked grebe, Pelagic cormorants, Bufflehead, Barrow's goldeneyes, Common merganser, Mew, Glaucous-winged, and Thayer's gulls, Bald Eagle, Raven, Northwestern crow, Common murres, Song sparrows, Varied thrush, 4 Robins, Oregon juncos, Chestnut backed chickadees and a Winter wren. Also found 2 dead siskins on the porch where we hid from the hail.

Also collected a small pleurotoid fungus from a very large (old growth) Menziesia near the cabin. The largest ones had caps about 2cm across. The caps were white with enrolled margins and smooth edged gills. It also has white amyloid spores which makes it a Panellus. I haven't decided which one yet.


Seemed to spend much of the afternoon in the kitchen, getting the lamb ready (with a hammer) to bake and attempting my first Christmas pudding. Printed the recipe from the NPR web site after being intrigued by the story a few days ago. Had to make a few substitutions in the recipe, forgot to buy rum and couldn't find the right kind of figs. After brieflly cooking the figs and raisins in brandy and rum (had to substitute scotch ), one is supposed to burn off the remaining liquor. I must have cooked it too long because despite trying several times the liquid wouldn't ignite. The rest of the recipe went pretty smoothly, only substituted blueberries for cranberries and added some walnuts. Managed to get the bundt pan in the big stock pot and steamed the pudding for the required 2 hours. Getting the cake pan out of the pan was a bit of a trick. There isn't alot of room between the stock pot and the pan particularly when wearing oven gloves to avoid being burned by the steaming water. The true pyromaniac moment is just before eating the cake. Heated up 1/3 cup of brandy to almost steaming, poured it over the cake and applied a match. Great blue flame. I applied the match a little fast, because there was still brandy in the saucepan. It also ignited. It is quite fun to pour flaming brandy on a cake. Although the cake tasted just fine, the highlight was definitely the blue flames.

Got out to observe one of the higher
tides of the year this morning. The high was 12.5 ft at 11:22am. There were two 12.8 tides in November and a 12.6 in October, so this wasn't the largest tide. It was however helped along by a large low pressure system and accompanying gale. The photo is of the house on lot 4 which is on fill added to what I assume was an existing beach to expedite the removal of gravel from the quarry (now a lake). On the highest tides the house has a saltwater moat with small waves lapping at the porch. The water covers the trail in front of the house, but it is possible to wade through with rubber boots. I have seen the water deep enough in this spot to necessitate carrying small children. The other place on the trail that was submerged was on the west side of the dock approach. It was too deep to wade without getting wet and there isn't going around because the trail abutts a cliff. I suppose a dedicated person could get around, but I wasn't that motivated.
The tops of most of the dock pilings were about shoulder height for me. Found Parmelia ( probably sulcata) a Brachythecium and a small Vaccinium ovalifolium/alaskense growing on the tops. Impressive with all of the creosote around.
Saw Robins, a Varied thrush, song sparrows, winter wren, juncos, chickadees and golden crowned kinglets on the walk.
Briefly woke up this morning around 6am and saw the fullish looking moon and Mars through the westward facing window of Deirdre's room. The moon was nicely lined up with the window and filled the hallway with light. It was a nice view of Mars and the moon. There was another bright object that I briefly thought must be another planet, but couldn't find one that would fit. Must confess that I've had an underlying doubt about the date full moon. I thought I had checked the Sky in December section in Natural History magazine, but alas I had looked at the November issue . So the full moon is today.

Most of the snow disappeared on Thursday and Friday in the rain and wind of this lovely low pressure system we are enjoying. Crossing my fingers that the weather is adequate for traveling down to Goddard on the 26th. Also crossing my fingers that Deirdre makes it in today. She got out of Chicago where she was stuck yesterday and is hopefully on her way home now.

We have had about 6 inches of snow on the ground. Most of it fell Sunday night and Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday have been mostly clear and cold. Fortunately kept the water flowing from the lake this time, so can do laundry without worrying about running out of water.

Monday morning the mink tracks started at the far edge of the front porch and continued down the boardwalk. Another set of tracks went off toward the greenhouse. I didn't have time to look at the rest of the garden. The boardwalk set seemed to mostly favor one side of the boardwalk, occasionally cross the other side and continue. The mink would also periodically leave the boardwalk altogether, then return a few feet later. The one side pattern continued on the dock. The tracks stayed close to the edge of the approach and ramp, crossed the dock, went along the dock very close to the bullrail, crossed to the other side and continued. I'm not sure who eats mink in the neighborhood.
Most of the tracks are in groups of three, but tonight there were tracks in pairs. Tonight the boardwalk near the house is pretty much covered with human and mink tracks. Kind of looks like a mink highway. So far, they haven't found a way into the insulation (it is supposed to be covered with plywood). I'm crossing my fingers.
Both Tuesday and Wednesday late afternoon I walked up Indian river trail. The first day I started early enough to make it to the elevated boardwalk before the first bridge before dark, today just went to the cascades. The trail is pretty well traveled, but most people are gone by mid afternoon. The scarcity of other hikers is kind of pleasant when there is snow. The quiet is exceptionally nice. Mostly, I don't mind sharing the trail, but it is alot easier to listen for birds when alone. Not that there was alot of birds to hear. Each day I heard a winter wren or two, it was kind of late in the day though. Today just at the large notched tree up from the cross trail cut off, I heard a western screech owl. It was making some particularly odd sounds, I wasn't sure that it was a weso, the sounds were so strange. Then after a few series of notes (?), it sounded a bit more familiar. It was in a red alder between the trail and the river. It was impressively loud and close. It was my first owl this fall. I thought I might have heard one on Monday in the alders above the lake on the island, but it was faint and not repeated.
Neglected to mention how nice the moonlight was coming through the trees. I had my headlamp on, but only used it in the darkest part of the trail because of the light provided by the moon and reflected by the snow. The moon looked a bit bigger than half (it's full on Christmas eve) and was making irregular looking pools of yellowish light in the snow. The view of the moon from the first muskeg it was rather striking, it was just off directly over Arrowhead.
The few birds I've seen on the island in the morning have been a flock of siskins, a couple of juncos and winter wrens in the commons. The commute has been really quiet lately.

On Friday after a morning of meetings and waking up a new born for the pure pleasure of holding him, I decided to allow myself another simple pleasure. I took a walk up to the first bridge on Indian river. At least I intended to stop there, failed to stop and walked up to the first muskeg because I could just see bits of blue sky between the trees.

Didn't linger too long in the muskeg because it was a bit late in the afternoon. Wandered a little along the river to look at the extensive patches of Panellus serotinus (some quite large) on many alder, collect a piece of Polystichum and Conocephalum. Decided that I would be quite unlikely to confuse Conocephalum with Preissia no matter what the state of the collection. Also am convinced that the Polystichum in the valley bottom is braunii. Each pinnule definately narrows down to a short (very short) stalk. The species from the waterfall (P. setigerum) doesn't have a narrow base.

On the way down the trail on the boardwalk section (near the large spruce that fell over the river) were three or four pieces of bark. I was curious how many types of epiphyte lichens occured on each. So far I've identified 4 crustose lichens and a pin lichen; Mycoblastus sanguinarius, M. affinus, Pertussaria spp, what is probably a Biatora and Stenocybe (clavata?). The Biatora is very tentative. It is one that I've found before, but haven't been terribly satisfied with its identification. The thallus is green and seems to consist of balls of algae. The apothecia are unrimmed, pinkish brown with ellipsoid spores in spherical asci. No reaction to KOH or bleach. The species covered in Brodo aren't a very good fit, but neither is anything else I can find in the book.

I didn't see the Stenocybe until I had the bark under the dissecting scope. It is a very small ca. 1/4 inch tall black "pin" growing out of the bark. It isn't obviously lichenized, but they are generally treated with the lichens. Lichenized thallus? This genus is very host specific, the best I could do was S. clavata which occurs on western Hemlock. There have been a couple of collections from southeastern Alaska and British Columbia. The one I found has spores that are regularly 3 septate instead of 4 to 7 septate. I'll continue my search. For a more satisfactory answer.

Sunday was the Christmas Bird count for the Sitka area. The forecast wasn't promising, but the day turned out to be a rather nice one. My plans kept changing for the day, but I settled on doing the Herring cove to Beaver Lake to Theobroma route in the morning and skiff around Japonski in the afternoon with Scott Harris and Andrew Thoms. I was curious to see Andrew's paths through the area and thought that there was at least the possibility of a surprise type of bird. No such luck on the surprise bird. In fact we didn't see or hear a bird in the woods until a flock of siskins flew over us in the muskeg. No, I did forget a winter wren by the creek above the falls. Did get to catch up on local politics and stories on the way and went on a slightly different path than I had been on previously to the lake. Another place with alot of area to explore.

It started snowing as soon as we entered the forest, which was much more enjoyable than the promised rain.

Nothing in the frozen lake, nothing in river, or the campground. Did start finding birds when we were above the clarifying tanks at the mill. About 10 ravens, a crow and a junco...we were on a roll for a few minutes. Stopped to admire the bears in their tank. They seemed to enjoy their brussels sprouts. Was tempted to count the domestic geese and the chickens at the farm, but decided that we would do better on the water route.

Scott's boat wouldn't start, deadish battery for a 115 horse. The charger connected to the kicker wasn't going to do the job in the time we had available, so I drove the lee shore skiff.

The birding improved rather noticably on the water. Traveled from Crescent Harbor through Middle channel around Makhnati and Signal island, inside of Battery and back through the channel to Crescent. The greatest diversity of birds was in between the runway and Makhnati and the channel. The water was rough enough around Signal to make it rather difficult to focus on much of anything. Kind of like birding in a washing machine with better light. This was only a bit frustrating because there was an interesting group of shorebirds on the shore of Signal that I wasn't quite convinced of the identity. They just seemed a bit light to be the usual surfbirds. Andrew was convinced that it was a mix of surfbirds and black turnstones. Not unlikely, but they didn't look quite right.

Did see Bald eagles, Ravens, crows, Pacific and Common loons, Common murres, Marbled murrelets, Harlequins, Common mergansers, Pelagic and Double crested cormorants, Black, White-winged, and Surf Scoters, Common and Barrows Goldeneyes, Scaups, Long-tailed ducks, Mew, Glaucous winged, and Thayers gulls, Surfbirds, Black turnstones.