Life on the Outer Coast

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

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

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

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