Was in Juneau on the 18th and 19th of February to attend a day of interesting talks hosted by the Tongass Conservation plan consortium. The public day was proceeded by 2 days of discussion of 8 invited papers on various topics on the Tongass. The papers should be available on the Audobon website www.audubonalaska.org at some point, but nothing has appeared yet. Gathered a few ideas from the speakers (particularly P. Alaback) . One idea that wasn't exactly new to me, but I seem to have forgotten the language to describe it. In a nutshell the idea the a moderate level of disturbance leads to the highest diversity. It is one of those things that when someone points it out seems like an obvious sort of thing, but being reminded of it was useful. The herb rich gravel bars, alpine and upper estuary meadows around here seem to fit this model. I guess I'm thinking that disturbance can include browse, salt inundation, flood, snow creep, wind etc.
Also talked to Mary Willson about yellow beaks on winter dippers. Apparently some adult birds dark bills turn yellow or yellowish in the winter. She said that they put a bit of effort into trying to figure out a pattern to this, but were convinced that they understood why a given bird exhibited the color change.

Okay, the highlight of the bird week was the rather tame swans in Crescent Harbor. There were 2 juveniles and 2 adults. The first day, they flew low over the skiff, landed not too far astern and followed the boat for a few moments.

	February 16	February 17	February 20	February 21	February 22
Trumpeter Swan		4	4
Horned Grebe		1
Pelagic Cormorant	2			2	2
Great Blue Heron	1			1	1
Mallards	7	2		1	2
Long-tail duck	5	5	1
Surf Scoter			5
White-winged Scoter				6
Barrow's Goldeneye		2			7
Bufflehead					9
Common Merganser	4	9	3	3	2
Glaucous-winged Gull		2		1	2
Common Murre				1
Marbled Murrelet		1
Belted Kingfisher					1
Bald Eagle					1
Weather		Calm, pink sunrise	Calm	slight chop	east wind
Time	8am	8am	8am	2pm	4:30pm

3/10 This orphan entry has been sitting around for a few weeks waiting to be edited and added to. At this point, I'll just call it done.

Snowed Sunday night, Monday and Tuesday. From Wednesday through Saturday, the temperature dropped and the sun appeared. Found a few nice basking spots between tasks. On the 12th, 13th and 14th the sea ice extended from near the Galankin dock to mid channel in Crescent Bay.

The snow has a scattering of seed from the spruce, alder and hemlock trees.

	February 9	February 10	February 11	February 12	February 13	February 14
Double Crested Cormorant		1	1	1
Pelagic Cormorant	1	1	4	5	2
Great Blue Heron		1			1	1
Mallards			4	4	3	3
Long-tailed Duck		5		4	1	2
Surf Scoter	5	10	5	5	2
White-winged Scoter		7
Barrow's Goldeneye	1			2	1	8
Bufflehead						6
Common Merganser	4	2	1		2	4
Red Breasted Merganser			1
Mew Gull	2	1				2
Glaucous-winged Gull	1	1	1	1	1	4
Gull spp		1	4
Common Murre		1
weather	slight chop	slight chop	sunny, calm	calm cold, ice	calm clear, ice	calm, clear, ice
time	8:15	8:15	8:15	8:15	8:15	9:30

I'm trying to stay a bit more caught up with the data I"ve collected. I might start doing a monthly frequency summary instead of the weekly reports. This last week besides the influx of siskins, there were a few days of White-winged scoters. I'm pretty sure that they usually can be found on the west side of Galankin and Breast islands, perhaps the westerlies drove them in. Harlequins finally made an appearance in the count, I had been wondering when I would see them on the commute, they are around town and I've seen them in previous years between the island and town, but wasn't sure when.

The weather was not inspiring this past week. Buckets of rain (6.3 inches), the flu and deadlines kept me on task or at least in the office.

	2/2/2009	2/3/2009	2/4/2009	2/5/2009	2/6/2009	2/7/2009
Pacific Loon						1
Pelagic cormorant	4	3	2	5	4	5
Great Blue Heron		1		1
Harlequin				2		3
Long-tail Duck	3				6
Surf Scoter	5		1	7	5
White-winged Scoter	3		5	4
Barrow's Goldeneye		3	3	2
Bufflehead	6					4
Common merganser	8	3
Mew Gull			16		6
Glaucous-winged gull	2	1	8	1	1
Gull spp		4
Raven	2	2	1
Crow	1
Pine Siskin			3
weather	west swell, no chop		calm	snowing, calm	raining, west swell no chop	raining hard,se chop, windy

Siskins seem to be more abundant around town and at my feeder this last week or so. At least I've seen many more of them around the island. This last week there were siskins along the trail every day regardless of the weather. Today when I walked around the lake, it seemed like there was a siskin or two every few yards. No, I don't think I was herding the same two around the trail.

The siskins are not what I would call wary either on the trail or at the feeder. I haven't had them eat out of my hand yet, but they let me get pretty close. I can have my hand on the rail while they feed about a foot away on the same rail. The nuthatches and chickadees at the feeder are also pretty comfortable with me, but the juncos are not. They are okay with me on the deck, but not too close.

Although the siskins aren't too worried about me, they do seem to be pretty aggressive toward their fellow birds. The tussles were less frequent when there were 6 siskins at the feeder, but when the number got up to 12 in the late afternoon, the aggression increased. They flew at each other in kind of a face to face aerial combat or crouching with wings slightly spread, with bills open. Birds knocked other birds off the perches, the deck and the suet feeder.

The nuthatches still visited the feeder or rail, but flewn in, grabbed a seed and flew off. The chickadees pretty much adopted the same strategy, but seemed a bit more persistant at trying to get at the feeder. When there was only one siskin at the feeder, a chickadee was tolerated at the adjacent suet feeder, but not at the same feeder. The juncos seemed a bit more able and willing to hold their own .

	1/26/2009	1/27/2009	1/28/2009	1/29/2009	1/30/2009
Horned Grebe					1
Pelagic Cormorant		1	1	2	3
Great Blue Heron			1
Long-tail Duck		2	2
Surf Scoter		5		1	2
Barrow's Goldeneye	5	1		7	17
Common Merganser		6
Mew Gull		3		2
Glaucous-winged Gull		6	3	3	2
Gull spp	5		5	4	3
Common Murre					1
Bald Eagle		`1	3
Raven				2	2
Crow		1
Weather	snowing hard, windy	slight chop	calm	raining	westerly, rough
Time	8:15	8:15	8:15	8:15	8:15

My note taking needs a bit of work, the weather comments are a bit on the weak side and it seems that I managed to misplace the count from the 31st. It was snowing on Saturday and after dance class, I walked up the Indian River trail a bit past the first bridge. It was snowing hard enough, that I couldn't see the any of the peaks, nor did I see many birds. The muskeg was nice walking, the underlying snow hadn't melted, but compressed into a nice hard layer beneath the 3-4 inches of new soft snow.

This was the week of recurring boat issues, which were hopefully resolved by a serious infusion of cash. New wiring, running light, lower unit oil, throttle cables for the aluminum boat and new throttle cables for the bayliner. Given the fun I was having with boats, it is kind of a wonder that any birds were counted.

The 19th , 20th and 22nd had intensely beautiful sunrises. On the 22nd there was pan ice in Crescent Harbor.
Noticed a male Hooded Merganser on Swan Lake on the 21st in the small area of open water near the 4-way stop.

	1/19/2009	1/20/2009	1/21/2009	1/22/2009	1/23/2009	1/24/2009
Common Loon		1
Pacific Loon			1
Pelagic Cormorant		5		2	1	6
Long-tail Duck		1	7	2	2	2
Surf Scoter	1	1		2
Barrow's Goldeneye	8			23	3	17
Bufflehead						3
Common Merganser	9	8	2	6	7	9
Mew Gull	1
Glaucous-winged Gull	1	1	1	1		3
Gull spp	4		4		4
Bald Eagle				1
Raven				2
Weather	calm, clear	calm	calm, raining	calm, clear	windy, light snow	calm, overcast
Time		9:15	8:15	8:15	8:15	8:30

Still catching up. Saving a months' worth of data for entry is really not the best idea.

	1/12/2009	1/13/2009	1/14/2009	1/15/2009	1/16/2009	1/17/2009
Horned Grebe						1
Double-crested Cormorant						2
Pelagic Cormorant	1		4	4	4	1
Blue Heron					1
Mallard					3
Scaup sp.			3
Harlequin	3
Long-tail Duck					2
Surf Scoter	7					10
Barrow's Goldeneye				21	2
Bufflehead						4
Common Merganser			5	5	20
Mew Gull	1
Thayer's Gull				1
Glaucous-winged Gull	3	2	4	5	2
Gull spp.	2
Common Murre						1
Crow				10		4
Weather	rough, raining	calm, raining hard		grey, calm	clear, calm	clear, calm
Time	8:15	8	8:15	8:15		8:45

The morning of the 17th was the first of several intensely colorful sunrises.

	1/1/2009	1/2/2009	1/3/2009	1/5/2009	1/6/2009
Common Loon	1		1
Pacific Loon	4			2
Pelagic Cormorant	3	2	6	1	4
Great Blue Heron			1
Long-tailed Duck	2		3	1
Surf Scoter			16	12	12
White-winged Scoter			5
Common Goldeneye	3
Barrow's Goldeneye	22	27	21	21	19
Bufflehead	6
Common Merganser	8		8	16	12
Red-breasted Merganser	3
Mew Gull					1
Glaucous winged gull	1		2	1	2
Gull spp					3
Common Murre				1
Marbled Murrelet			2
Bald Eagle	1		1		1
Song Sparrow			1
Weather etc	Cold, sunny, calm, Noonish	Snowing hard, 3:30	snowing, 1:30	9:30, chop	8am, calm

The next set of observations

	1/8/2009	1/9/2009	1/10/2009
Loon sp.		1
Pelagic Cormorant	3	3	4
Harlequin		2
Long-tailed Duck		1	1
Surf Scoter	12	7	4
Barrow's Goldeneye	3		16
Common Merganser	3	17	6
Mew Gull			5
Glaucous-winged Gull		3	7
Gull spp.	6
Marbled Murrelet		1
Weather	snowing hard	rough, chop and swell	calm
Time	8am	9:30	8am

Walking home through the commons on the 10th saw a flock of redpolls. At least they sure looked like redpolls in the waning light.

Working in my office I am rather insulated from the weather. Can't hear the wind or rain or see the sun, this is a long way to say that there isn't a window. Not to complain, it is a very comfortable closet and I don't get distracted by an external view.

I knew it wet (total rain fall was 3.07 inches ), I had been outside a few times during the day, but the wind didn't start in any kind of serious way until after I had settled in my office for the evening.
Leaving the dock was a bit of a problem, actually it wasn't leaving the dock, but getting turned around by the wind in the space between dock and rocks. There isn't alot of room there. I was thinking about just backing out, but decided that I could work my way around.

The wind hadn't built any waves to speak of, but there were white caps. The waves were low, almost flattened by the strong southeasterly wind. I thought that the wave height might increase as I went out toward Morne Island, so I went around the west of Breast island, what I call the Lighthouse way. I was also a bit concerned about plowing right into such a strong wind., I would need to go at a higher speed than I was comfortable with in the dark, as it was I had a tough time keeping the bow down so that the wind couldn't push it around. I had to slow down a number of times as the bow was getting turned by the gusts.
Had to turn the flood light off because it was raining so hard the light was just bouncing around obscruing everything outside the blur of light. I couldn't see the islands that I was steering around until I turned off the light.
Steering was a very active job, particularly once around Breast island. Keeping a given direction was a bit of a challenge and I was very happy that the engine cooperated. It was easy to imagine that the skiff would end up at the airport or on a beach at Kruzof in a very short time without power.

Getting into the stall at the dock was kind of a challenge, in fact slowing down enough to feel comfortable going between the dock and rock, also meant that the skiff was pushed closer to the rock than was comfortable. Decided after the second try to tie up at a spot that the wind would work with me rather than against me. Tied up the rather heavy fiberglass double kayak to the bull rail. Apparently the kayak isn't heavy enough to keep it from getting scooted across the dock.

There weren't many branches on the trail and I didn't feel compelled to run through the woods. I did hear one large crack, I assume that it was a branch.
At home the windows were flexing during the big gusts and there was a good breeze blowing through the one window that was redone in a less than adequate fashion.

The anemometer at home measured the following gusts: 52 mph 8:45 pm, 57 mph 9:25pm and
67 mph gust at 10pm. The airport measured a gust of 62mph. Looks like there were 3 gusts of similar energy between 10 and 11pm. I found a summary of the weather recorded at the airport. Yesterday's weather
On the walk to the dock this morning found 3 small (up to 16 inches dbh) dead trees across the trail. One of the trees was pretty close to where I heard the cracking sound last night.

	12/23/2008	12/24/2008	12/26/2008	12/27/2008	12/30/2008
Double Crested Cormrant		1			1
Pelagic Cormorant		2		1
Great Blue Heron			1
Mallard		3
Long-Tail Duck		3			4
Surf Scoter			23	7	8
White-winged Scoter		7
Barrow's Goldeneye	8	26	1		6
Bufflehead					7
Common Merganser				2
Mew Gull		2		1	6
Glaucous-winged Gull			3	2	2
Gull spp	2		6
Marbled Murrelet		10		1
Belted Kingfisher		1
Song Sparrow				1
Bald Eagle			3		2
Raven			2		1
weather etc	dark (8am), snowing hard	calm, west swell, 1pm	calm, 3pm	calm, 11am, some snow	very rough

The count on the 24th was a on a variation of the regular route. I went around the west side of Breast island (found the White-winged scoters) then dropped Deirdre off at the Litman's dock before returning to the main dock. The 10 marbled murrelets were on the east side of Galankin near Katz island.

january 1

Deirdre and I hiked from Herring Cove to Beaver Lake on January 1st. It was sunny and rather cold (max temperture 25F), and we had a late start so didn't often stop walking to look around. The trail was pretty quiet in terms of both people and birds. Did hear kinglets and chickadees in the canopy and crossed paths with two other groups of people. The trail was a bit icy in places, but most of it was crunchy snow which made walking relatively easy.
Picked up a lichen from one of the alders along the trail near the avalanche area. It is greyish green with soredia scattered over the surface. The lower surface isn't uniform in texture, there are areas without a lower cortex, a few rhizines and some tomentum. The lichen greens up nicely when wet. I haven't really taken the time to identify it with any degree of confidence yet.

We walked up to the lake and turned around, neither of us were too interested in walking the road back to the car. We had seen one dipper in the small creek at the beginning of the trail on the way up the trail. Didn't stop to look at it closely, just noticed it was there. On the way back down Deirdre and I noticed the ice on the small cascade, went to take a closer look and aroused 2 dippers. There was much scolding and both flew a short distance away. I did manage to get a photo. Not a brillant one, but what is more noticable in the larger version of this photo, is the yellow beak. I wouldn't have noticed the color of the beak without having taken the photo, so I guess it might be worthwhile hauling a camera around.

The yellow beak is characteristic of juvenile birds. Sibley 's Guide to the birds of North America says that the young of the year birds acquire adult characteristics by fall, if this is true for this area, this bird is woefully behind.

I haven't been able to find much more information about bill color in dippers, so well have to do so more careful observing. I really don't know if this bird was unusual or not.

I have looked at dippers once or twice on Indian River since the 1st.

Saw two dippers in the river. One with a dark beak was about 10ft from the first bridge. The other had a very yellow beak and was feeding in the flats where I have often found dippers.

Deirdre and I were thinking about making a trip to Indian River falls over Christmas break, we didn't get quite that far, but had a nice walk up past the first bridge and on to the muskeg. It was snowing most of the time, we briefly saw the Middle Sister from the muskeg before it disappeared in a cloud of white.
Based on boot depth estimates, the snow depth in the muskeg was about 8 inches , in the riparian area about 3 inches and in the transition scrub between muskeg and forest the depth varied from 3 to 5 inches.

We were pleasantly chatty, so probably missed some birds on our way; we did see Winter wrens, Song sparrows, Varied Thrush, Juncos and 2 Dippers. One dipper was just above the first bridge.

The snow seems to encourage alot of birds to congregate below the deck in the tangle of wild Oregon crab apple, Elderberry and Devil's club that grows below. There must be a reliable or substantial amount of seeds both from the feeder on the deck and the plants. The juncos and chickadees that visit the feeder also hang out down below. There are ususally Song sparrows scratching up food down there. Went down to look more carefully at who might be there (after being prompted by the bird list) and found a few Fox sparrows. I tend to go by the yellow bill, but their color is more evenly warm brown. Found 4 more Fox sparrows around the island, one pair by the lake and the other by the A-frame.

Christmas morning about 11am took the kayaks out for a family paddle. Time constraints and approaching weather required a choice between kayaking and ice skating. Glad that kayaking won out, it had been a long time since I went for a paddle. The weather was sunny and not too cold (34). The water was pretty calm, there was a west swell which was small enough that it didn't interfere with using the binoculars. Deirdre brought her camera and didn't seem to have too much trouble keeping the horizon. She graciously provided the photos.

We started from the Galankin Dock and went west around Rockwell lighthouse. A pretty large flock of Common mergansers (25), 7 mallards , one Common loon and most of the Surf Scoters (8) were between the dock and the lighthouse. Two sea otters were just southwest of Rockwell island. They let us come relatively close for otters (about 50ft or so). Continued on to Ferebee Rock (I call it Cormorant rock), about 54 or so Pelagic cormorants took off as soon as we headed that way. They are impressively sensitive to approach. I'll count myself vaguely stealthy when they let me get close. Continued on around Galankin inside of Sheep island. A Sharp-shinned hawk was on the north point of the island, it flew to a tree on Galankin and unfortunately I lost sight of it. Also saw a Horned Grebe on the west side of the island.

There were 3 eagles (2 mature) in the trees on the west side of my lot. The Crows that have discovered the deck feeders were down on the rocks below the house (fresh water? mussels?). On the way to the Twins, found another sea otter close to the southern most Gillmore island. By the pass between the two islands (by Michelle and Roland's dock) found a few more Surf Scoters (4)and Harlequins. On the far side found Buffleheads (6) and a couple of Common Mergansers.

Went through the Gillmore islands back to the main interisland basin then Ian and I took a peak between Kutkan and Breast islands before returning to the Galankin dock. Found a few more Harlequins on the north side. The only alcids (2 Marbled murrelets) seen were on the return to the dock.

I lost track of the number of gulls; did notice several Mew and Glaucous-winged and one Thayers gull.

Made a first attempt to record a trip using Google Earth, the result is a little clumsy.

Also seem to have been cooking alot the last few days; one thing turned out especially good for a recipe-less creation. In hope of making a successful seafood pie again some time, I'll include the recipe here. Maybe I'll find this one.

Leftover fish pie recipe:

white sauce (1/4 cup butter, 1/4 cup flour, 2 cups milk (mixed non fat and half and half), 1ts salt. Added an unknown amount of tabasco sauce and lemon juice . Sauted 4 chopped stalks of celery and a purple onion until relatively translucent. Filled a 14 inch diameter pan with the cooked vegetables, leftover coho, scallops and shrimp. Sprinkled about an ounce of smoked blue cheese over the filling, then poured the sauce over. It didn't look quite moist enough, so added some cream until it looked evenly moist.

The top crust was a pile of mashed potatoes. Just before putting in the oven, Deirdre brushed it with egg yolk (beaten). Baked it at 350 for 40 minutes.

The deer in the greenhouse made it to the freezer yesterday, it yielded roughly 30 lbs of meat. The kitchen scale is pretty marginal, so I'm not sure how reliable that number really is. Cut 4 roasts out of the hind legs; the front legs, ribs and everything else except the backstrap went into burger. The kitchen aid grinder was rather hot by the time the process was complete. Kept the rib meat burger seperate, I'm kind of curious how it compares with the rest of the meat as it has a bit more fat included in the grind. If the second island deer is harvested, I'll make some sausage and maybe try to make jerky as well.

Snow, hail, thunder and lightening last night.

The cold, clear weather has been around for most of the last week. The morning of the 16th was rainy, but it was sunny by noon.

There is still a very thin crust of snow and frost and a nice thick layer of ice on the trails. The Rhododendron leaves are curled up against the cold, also noticed that the Cornus canadensis looks a bit on the dry side. The shinier wintergreen herbs don't look to be as vulnerable to the cold and dry.

The last few nights, we had a nice view of Venus in the west and even luckier, we've seen Mercury just after sunset on the commute to the island.

I was trying to get a photo of where the sun came up and where is sits at noon on the Solstice. I wasn't terribly successful, the photos were definately on the bizarre side. The best description that I have of where the sun comes up is east of the Pyramids, near Deep Inlet over a low moutain locally (perhaps ) called Eureka Mtn at about 9:30am. At noon the sun was just to the west of the Pyramid mtn and not too far above the peak.

The photo of Cross Mountain was taken from the upstairs deck. Didn't have much to do with sunrise or noon, but the mountains have been rather beautiful in the snow and sun.


Celebrated the solstice by cutting 5 Sitka spruce for the auditorium. 3 were in the garden and would eventually block the sun getting to the vegetables. They had to go sooner or later and at least at this point they were relatively easy to move around, as the tallest was about 12ft. The neighborhood had a skating party and bonfire at the Galankin lake in the evening. The stars were out and the ice was very smooth. Most were skating with headlamps which looked pretty interesting gliding around the ice in the very dark night. I turned mine off a couple of times once I was pretty sure that the ice was smooth. Interesting, but a bit on the scary side.


There were 2 deer on the slope north of the green house when I walked home the other night. They were starting to walk off when I noticed them and stopped. I tried the low whistle, they stopped and listened, then resumed eating after a few minutes. One is now in the greenhouse waiting to be butchered. It had already shed its antlers which seems a bit early, but I guess I don't really know when is normal.

The trail count of birds remains pretty spotty, I did hear and eventually see a Brown creeper on the 20th and there was a robin in the garden on the 21st.

	12/15/08	12/16/08	12/17/08	12/18/08	12/19/08	12/20/08	12/21/08
Pelagic Cormorant	3		5	4	1	4	2
Scaup				2
Long-tailed duck			3
Surf Scoter	12	3	4	3	1	20	15
Barrow's Goldeneye	3		11	7	1	35	23
Bufflehead						10
Common Merganser			12	3	5		3
Thayer's Gull	1						1
Glaucous-winged gull	2	2	3	2	4		2
Gulls	5		6			2
Common Murre			1
Kingfisher						1
Bald Eagle		1	1			2
time	8am	8am	8am	8am	8am	2pm	10:30am
weather	calm, cold, isolated skim ice	calm, raining	calm, cold	calm, cold	ice, calm	small waves, cold	small waves, cold

It's been rather nice the last few days, sunny and cold enough to keep the small amount of snow from melting. I'm wearing the giant, calf length coat, two pairs of gloves and a scarf across my face for the commute. It takes me a bit of time to acclimate.

If I remember right the snow fell on Wednesday and Thursday. The bayliner's fuel lines froze on Friday, that skiff seems to succumb every winter, fortunately the aluminum skiff remains functional. It took a good 10 minutes to untie the boat on Friday because of frozen lines. Swan lake was still open on Friday (finally got a good look at the Canvasback), by Sunday morning only a bit of open water remained. There was a bit of thin ice at the harbor mouth on Saturday.
The full moon was pretty spectacular, both at night rising over the Sisters or Verstovia (depending on my location) and setting in the morning. It set over what I assume is a peak on the north end of Kruzof, or maybe toward Partofshikof island. I thought that the moon seemed a bit larger than normal that morning, presumably it looked on the cinematic side because of not only being full, but also at perigee (221,560 miles).

The fungi are frozen. The only creature I collected this week was a Xylaria from a Sitka alder. Haven't dissected it yet for spores, some seem flat and divided like hypoxylon others were round like something different.

This week I left the house a bit earlier and the slightly darker conditions added a bit of a challenge to identifying gulls, so I had to make use of the gull spp category.

Common Loon	12/8/08 8am	12/9/08 8am	12/9/08 2:30pm	12/10/08 8am	12/11/08 8am	12/12/08 8am	12/13/08 8:30am	12/14/08 10:00am
Common Loon						1	1
Double Crested Cormorant						5
Pelagic Cormorant						2	4
Great Blue Heron		1
Mallards							3	4
Harlequin						1
Long-tailed Duck						2
Surf Scoter	25	16	29				12	13
Barrow's Goldeneye		18	27	18	22	21	19	18
Bufflehead						1	3	8
Common Merganser				3			7
Glaucous-winged Gull	5	3			1	3	2	2
Gull spp		1		11	2		7
Bald Eagle	2	3			1	1
Raven		2

The feeder remains popular with nuthatches, juncos and chickadees. Stood out near it for awhile Sunday afternoon trying to get a photo of a junco. No luck, but did notice that the chickadees taking off from the deck rail sound alot like a cat purring. I assume that it is there wings that are responsible for the sound.

Still have a crush on the Nuthatches that are visiting the feeder. They have been joined this week by 10 juncos, at least 5 Chestnut-backed chickadees and a Brown creeper. The creeper was working the trunk of the tree that the feeder hangs in.

Week Three of the commute count. I've been taking notes on the sea state, so thought I might include them here. What I have noticed is that the choppier the seas, the more ducks near the Galankin dock. In any weather most of the birds I see are between Galankin Island and Kutkan island. The exceptions are the Long-tails and the Common Murres which so far are closer to Crescent harbor.

	12/1/08	12/2/08	12/3/08	12/4/08	12/5/08	12/6/08	12/7/08
Common Loon		1					1
Horned Grebe			1
Pelagic Cormorant	4	2		4		4	2
Great Blue Heron							1
Mallard				9
Harlequin	2			2	2
Long-tailed Duck			2				1
Surf Scoter	3	2	12	27	8	4	8
White-winged Scoter						5
Barrow's Goldeneye	13	6	19	12	18	22	25
Bufflehead				7	7	3
Common Merganser	5		10
Mew Gull	3
Thayer's Gull				1
Glaucous-winged Gull	2	3	4	18	5	3	5
Common Murre		2
Raven	1
Weather	Calm	Calm	Calm	Choppy	Calm	SW ripple	Calm

There are still fungi to be found in the area. Mostly Panellus spp, Mycena occidentalis and M. epipterygia. Also fruiting is Guepiniopsis alpina (gum drop jelly?). The Panellus longuiquus I've found this week has varied from hot pink to grey in color. I've found the small white version of this fungus on Vaccinium parvifolium, Menziesia and now on exposed roots of a small windfall Sitka spruce.

Found my first Panellus serotinus on Western Hemlock this week. It was growing on two trees, both had numerous fruiting bodies of Fomitopsis pinicola. Apparently hemlock isn't an unusual host, I just haven't seen it here. Found a particularly large one growing on a Red alder. It attracted my attention to another alder with several Xylaria. Not sure which one it is yet. It isn't hypoxylon and it doens't look like polymorpha. I need to locate spores to use the key I found, but so far the perithecia are immature. Fortunately, Xylaria dry and store pretty welll.

Another or maybe the same Western Screech owl was in the commons this eveing around 5:15pm. It was sitting in a willow at a height just above my head (way less than 6ft up). It let me walk within about 2ft of it. I stopped and spoke softly (some very inane nonsense), then walked past. After I passed by, it flew off.

This week I skipped Thursday as it was Thanksgiving and I stayed on the island, should have gone kayaking as it was a very nice day.

	11/24/08	11/25/08	11/26/08	11/28/08	11/29/08
Common Loon		1
Pelagic Cormorant	3	3		5	4
Long-tailed Duck				2
Surf Scoter		26	22	6	7
Barrow's Goldneye			4	17	7
Bufflehead				7
Common Merganser				4
Mew Gull	1	1
Glaucous-winged Gull	2	31	5	1	5
Black-legged Kittiwake		1
Bald Eagle	1		1		1
Raven	1/

On the 24th I started to take notes about the birds I see on my way to the dock. Suffice it to say that it is alot easier to count birds on the water than it is in the woods. Most of that information will be presence instead of numbers and alot of the information on presence will be based on sound. At this point, the trail observations are still in my notebook, they may end up in a digital form this week.

First snow fell at sea level (at least while I was watching) this morning. Didn't stick around for long though.

Scared up a Western Screech Owl on the way home around 6:30pm. It was on the ground near a pond (or large mud puddle) near where I've seen the snipe. It flew up into a Red Alder and stuck around despite me trying to see the effect of a soft whistle. I'll have to look for feathers in the morning.

Decided that it was time to take better notes about when mushrooms are fruiting. Although I have a sense of which species I find through out the year, I don't have very good documentation of the phenology. The last couple of weeks, I've found; Hypholoma capnoides, H. fasiculare, Lactarius alpinus (1st photo), Hygrophorus olivaceoalbus, H. camarophylllus, Collybia acervata, Pholiota sp., Panellus serotinus, P. longiquus, Pleurocybella porrigens, Crepidotus spp. possibly Panellus mitis, Mycena epipterygia and probably two species of grey striate lignicolous Mycenas (so much fun). Also found a Psathyrella which I haven't managed to id to species.

I've avoided Mycenas for a very long time, mostly because it takes a sharp single edged razor blade and a skilled hand to cut miniscule cross sections of miniscule gills in order to look at the shape of the cystidia. The skill is a bit variable, but I can buy razor blades. The yellow stemmed Mycena fits the description of M. epipterygia. Another somewhat similar species is flavoalba. If I had Meltzers I could be a bit more certain as M. epipterygia has amyloid spores and M. flavoalba does not. I'm more comfortable with epipterygia because of the somewhat viscid stem (notice the debris stuck on the mushroom) and the habitat and coloration seems to fit epitpterygia a bit better. I've found it on well rotted wood (either moss covered logs or branches) in scattered groups and sometimes in fairly tight clusters.

The grey somewhat frosty looking Mycena in the photo was growing on a rotten conifer log. The frostiness developed as it dried. When wet it was uniformly grey with a striate margin. In the center of the rather bad photo of the gill edge, there is a structure that looks like it has several stubby projections. There were basidia with pretty tidy looking sterigmata, so I'm interpreting this structure as a branched cystidia. Could be wrong and I'll try for a better section later.

This one seems to fit the description of Mycena occidentalis in the very fun section of the Pacific Northwest key to grey or brownish species and their cystidia . The key led me to M. subcana, and a note at the end of the that species description sent me to M. occidentalis. The hygrophanous, frosty cap, striate margin, cystidia with blunt projections, and occurence in clusters on conifers are the characteristics that seem to indicate that occidentalis is a reasonable fit. It is hard for me to be too confident with some of these species.

http://www.svims.ca/council/Mycenoid.htm#n726b)

I've been keeping track of atypical birds that I see on my way to town in the morning for quite some time. Recently I've decided to count the birds on my way to town. I'll try to keep it up for a year. Most of the counts were done around 8am, the counts on the 22nd were at 9:30 and 2:30. The / indicates a double count. I'm counting from the Galankin Island Dock to my slip in Crescent harbor. I'm counting mostly the area of my path through the water, basically what I can see and identify without binoculars. I'm not counting gulls flying in the distance nor the eagles in the trees on the small islands.

	11/12	11/13	11/15	11/16	11/17	11/18	11/19	11/20	11/21	11/22
Common Loon	1									1
DoubleCrested Cormorant		1
Pelagic Cormorant	3	3	3	2	2	3	2	1	2	4/3
Great Blue Heron										1
Mallards										5/
Harlequin		3	3						3
Long-tailed duck					4
Surf Scoter	7	7	7	7	4	1	2
Barrows Goldeneye								3	2
Bufflehead								1
Common Merganser	2	4					1		1	1/
Glaucous-winged gull	1	14	1	2	2	4	3	3	5	5/
Common Murre	2		2	2	2
Marbled Murrelet	2			3
Belted Kingfisher							1
Song sparrow										1/

Started noticing the distinct smell of mink in the basement last weekend. The mink like to move into the rather large space under the house below the mudroom. They don't actually get into the house, but the odor is intense.

Cheap canned tuna seems to be the best bait for island minks. I've tried jam and salmon scraps, but their weakness seems to tuna.

This one was not that happy to be photographed or for that matter to be carried down the trail. Unhappiness was expressed by scrambling back and forth in the cage and by an impressive odor. emitted from its scent glands. Carrying the cage 1/2 mile with an unsettled mink was satisfying, but not necessarily a treat. This one went to town in the skiff and was released on the city dock. Last year I spray painted the tail of one captured mink to see if they would return and didn't see any sign of that one after its removal. Not exactly conclusive evidence, but I'm not fond of the idea of moving the mink further using the car or of killing the mink. I suppose if I wanted the fur for something, I might reconsider.

In other island animal news, the semi-tame deer seems to be missing, at least it isn't frequenting the common lot by the dock any more. I'm not really sure if another resident decided to eat the deer or if it wandered off, but I'm guessing that it is more likely the former explanation.

There does seem to be a snipe living in the commons lately. I've flushed it twice, once on Friday morning and on the way home tonight. Both times it flew up pretty directly, then dropped just as quickly about 100ft away. The first time I thought that the wind caught it (it was gusting about 35-40 mph). Tonight it was very calm and it did the same thing. I could be the vegetation that is dictating the flight path.

There are still at least 6 nuthatches visiting the feeder, along with an equal number of juncos and chickadees.

The Galankin lake surface is largely covered with ice.