Found the first Early Blueberry (Vacciniium ovalifolium) blooming the island this evening. There were two bushes with open flowers about 20 ft off the trail on Litman's lot just above the rock hill. I suspect the flowers were open this morning, but I didn't notice them as I walked, must have had my head down while trudging to town. It was snowing and blowing hard westerly this morning, the kind of weather that doesn't favor looking around much.

Also heard two song sparrows singing, one in an alder near the ramp at UAS, the other close to the bridge. Still haven't heard one on the island.

Hiked up Verstovia to the second cables on Saturday after dance class, hopefully the first of the weekly trips up I intend to take this spring. Plenty of snow from the trail head upward. There were a few partially clear spots of trail near the beginning, and a spot of quite vibrant green in a perennial seep, but mostly the world was white. There were red polls, pine siskins, crossbills and juncos near the salmonberry thicket at the beginning of the trail. Surprised a deer on the way down in the same spot. The photo was taken looking up the trail not too far beyond the first cable around 700ft (?). Next time I'll take my altimeter and a pole to measure the snow.

Thursday, June 14th

I was happy to wake up to a sunny day since it was the day selected for a hike up Verstovia with the Forest Ecology class. We couldn’t have done the trip as a class without the help of an RA, Emily. We recorded trailside vascular plant species at 500 ft and every 250ft elevation gain after that to 2250ft. We took a few notes at our lunch site at 2340, but weren’t very thorough at that stop.

We first picked up Chamaecyparis nootkatensis at the 1000 ft, Cladothamnus pyrolaeflorus (or is that Elliotia?) at 1380, Tsuga mertensiana at 1500ft and Harrimanella stellerina at 1680, Veratrum viride at 2000ft stop and Luetkea pectinata at 2250. The next class trip we’ll stop at staggered elevations so that I have a better sense of the changes, maybe starting at 400ft. I still want to get a clearer idea of what elevation Picea sitchensis becomes more abundant, but I’m not there yet. On Verstovia it seemed to be around 1900 to 2000 ft.

It was the first climb up a mountain for 5 of the 7 girls, I think that having the releve stops helped a few of the girls make it to the top. It was a challenge for most of the class, but they seemed to be happy that they had pushed themselves.


There was Vaccinium ovalifolium and Coptis asplenifolia blooming on the ridge. It was difficult to listen to birds with all of the ipods and chatter, but I did notice several robins in the trees around the meadow at the ridge.
The Placopsis gelida was rather abundant on the rocks by the ropes.

June 15th
One of the girls found a live, but lost fledgling Townsend’s warbler in the middle of Nelson Logging Rd. today. She just barely saw it in time to avoid stepping on the bird. She moved it to the side of the road. The fledging didn’t make a sound, but the parents were chipping at us rather insistently.

I caught a couple of lovely yellow-green flies which I refrigerated in hopes of getting a photo. Hopefully they will survive until Monday in the lab refrigerator.