September 13-18 at Homer Alaska

Monday is Friday the 13^th - my 112th Birthday!!  To explain this, I was born on Friday the 13th.  Unfortunately, it was in May.  The weekend around May the 13th was often Mother’s Day Weekend.  Now, I have nothing against Mothers.  I had a loving Mother!

My Mom, Theresa Unruh in 1935

But, my family was big on celebrating Mother’s Day.  So, we’d go off to Grandma’s, or some Aunt’s place, and there’d be a big gathering, with gifts being exchanged to all the Moms.  Somewhere along the line, I’d hear, “Oh!  Jonathon!  Here’s your Birthday present...”  Gee, Thanks:  A pair of socks.

So, around age 8 or 9, I decided to celebrate ALL Fridays the 13th as my birthday…  I get at least one every year, some years I get two, and on a great year, I’ll celebrate three birthdays.  My 100th was quite the blow-out . . .  Other Fridays the 13th didn’t go so well for people.

I took Alaska Highway 1 south out of Anchorage.  The road starts out as the “Seward Highway” until the junction with Highway 9, when AK-1 becomes the “Sterling Highway” and continues to the end of the spit in Homer.  Since I was in Alaska, I am spending a few days visiting an old college friend who I’ve known since our undergraduate days in the Fisheries and Wildlife Program at Oregon State & haven't seen for years.  Her place was off the Diamond Ridge Road above Homer, and it was time to visit.

I arrived to find that the local wildlife didn’t seem too concerned about visitors.

In fact, they seemed pretty darned curious!

Al gave me a nice tour of the local area, as well as a stop for brew or so at the Salty Dawg.  From Skyline Drive, you get nice views of Kachemak Bay and the town.

Homer Spit

Grewingk Glacier across Kachemak Bay

In my time here, I checked out a few places for birding, and to see what the country looked like.  One of the spots was the Effler Fen.  This 18-acre piece is owned by the Kachemak Heritage Land Trust, and is along the upper reaches of Bridge Creek, a tributary to the Anchor River.  Gene and Mim Effler were among the first homesteaders in the area, and Gene had a longtime dream of creating a trail for the Homer community on a portion of their original homestead.

I'm pretty sure this is Canada goldenrod Solidago canadensis

The property is located in Homer’s Bridge Creek Watershed Protection District, the source of Homer’s drinking water.  There is a short, raised boardwalk trail and viewing platform that takes you out into the fen.

For those who didn’t have to struggle through a hydrogeology course, a Fen is different from a Bog.  Basically, a bog is a wetland that doesn’t drain, and lacks nutrients.  A fen, on the other hand, has flowing water year-round.  Its water level typically rises and falls due to changes in the water table.  The presence of fresh water means that fens often have a higher nutrient content, and thus support a wider variety of life than do bogs.

Another great walk not far from a short stop at the Fen, is at the Carl E. Wynn Nature Center.

The trail and visitors’ center is owned by the Center for Alaska Coastal Studies, and is open 10-6 daily during summer with daily guided hikes highlighting wildflowers, forest ecology, area history, views of the bay, and the many uses of native Alaskan plants.  Self-guided hikes available, including a marked loop with a trail guide.

This is a migration corridor for moose and black bears, as well as a birding hot spot with a variety of habitats for good diversity of the songbirds in the area.

There is a User Fee of $8/person, $7/seniors (60+), $5 for youth under 18, $25 family rate. This fee is charged to support CACS educational programs.

I enjoyed seeing a flock of White-winged Crossbills foraging in the tops of the spruce trees on a beautiful blue-sky morning.

Both the Sitka and the black spruce appear to have lots of cones this fall, so there may not be much of a ‘finch’ flight in the Pacific Northwest this fall.  Hard to say.

I was intrigued by a lot of the small flowers and berries along the way, and enjoyed the ripe wild raspberries.

Cloudberry or Nangoon - Rubus arcticus

The Center has provided some informational signage, as well as building a nice network of trails.

Yes!  Sweat the Small Stuff!

Prickly Rose Rosa acicularis

Devil's Club was common; I avoided kicking into it . . .

Incorrect sign - the Raspberry is R. arcticus.  Ribes laxiflorum is a 'way different plant.

While I was kneeling down at one spot to photograph the vegetation, I heard the beating wings of a flushing grouse, and thought “Oh, No!” figuring that I’d lost my chance to see a Spruce Grouse.  When I lifted my head, though, the bird was sitting in a Sitka Alder tree right above me!

Yay!  ABA Life Bird No. 655!

I followed several of the trails, including one called the “Moose Meander” which went down past Bridge Creek.

As I crossed the creek, I heard the scrunch of brush, and noticed a pair of brown ears at eye level, which turned out to be those of a cow moose.

I backed away quietly, until I was back on ‘my’ side of the stream, before she saw me.  But, she showed little interest, and kept on browsing on the willows.

A smaller mammal was busy collecting spruce cones, and had quite a pile of them in its midden.

The “Red” Squirrels here are quite grey.

Tamiasciurus hudsonicus

Monday was a nice day, so I checked out the Alaska Department of Natural Resources’ Anchor River Recreation Area.  I walked from the parking lot, north toward the mouth of the river, and looped back.

Common Mergansers

From here, there were views of Mount Iliamna, and in the far distance was the Mount Augustine volcano, whose last eruption ended in March 2006.

Mount Iliamna

That bump 'way out there is the top of a 1,260 meter tall volcano!

Just above the river were a number of houses built right up to the edge of the bluff.  I’m guessing that as ‘self-reliant’ and independent that Alaskans are, they’ll still demand that Government bails them out when an earthquake or mudslide pitches their houses into Cook Inlet . . .

On Tuesday afternoon, I walked the trail down Diamond Creek to the mouth and scanned the salt chuck until it began raining.

A rugged beach at the mouth of the creek

Sitka Alder Alnus viridis is the common tree around here

Wednesday September 18th was my day to head back to the Lower 48.  I was up a bit early, made certain I was all packed, and was surprised to see a young male Ring-necked pheasant in Al’s yard!

Amy Bragg photo stolen from Craig Medred’s page

I read (on the Interwebs) that the “only breeding population of pheasants in Alaska has recently (2008?) established itself in the Homer area.”  More likely, some local is illegally releasing them in the area.  Certainly, Alaska Fish and Game isn’t too thrilled with people introducing non-native species.  The 2019-20 Homer Christmas Bird Count tallied 28 of these chickens.

I bade my farewells to my friend, and made my way to the big city.  I again passed through the area that was burned in the wildfires this summer.  Fairly extensive, the Swan Lake Fire burned 167,000 acres, and closed sections of the Sterling Highway back in August.

I caught Alaska Flight 137 from Anchorage to SeaTac.  We arrived in Seattle a little early, and then sat on the runway for over a half-hour, waiting for Alaska to get another plane out of our gate.  Several people expected to miss their connecting flight.  But, it was good to be home for a while, and have a break from hard-core birding.

Must be time to go home - it's raining . . .

Sept 13 - Cooper Landing eBird Checklist is Here

Sept 14 - Homer Beluga Lake Overlook eBird Checklist is Here

Sept 15 - Homer eBird Checklist is Here

Sept 16 - Effler Fen eBird Checklist is Here

Sept 16 - Wynn Nature Center eBird Checklist is Here

Sept 16 - Anchor Point eBird Checklist is Here

Sept 17 - Diamond Creek Gulch eBird Checklist is Here

Sept 18 - Homer eBird Checklist is Here  

January 19 - Okanogan Highlands

The alarm went off at 5 a.m., so that we could breakfast at the motel.  The Omak Inn’s offerings consist of waffles and/or biscuits and gravy, along with cereals, yogurt and fruit, breads and bagels, and such.  Not bad at all, except for pretty weak coffee.  My Dad used to tell me that “… most people camp too close to the creek to make decent coffee.”

We arrived along Fancher Flats road at dawn, which has been a good spot to see Chukars in years past.  We waited for a while, hearing the morning song of a Canyon Wren from the rimrock above the road.  Then, a pair of Golden Eagles landed on a ponderosa pine snag on the ridge and vocalized with their ringing calls.  Kyle spotted a ‘chicken’ high up on the ridge line, but it was just a silhouette against the mist & gray sky.  This was his “Lifer” sighting of a Chukar, but a fairly unsatisfying one.  Then, the eagles launched from their perches and as they flew, nearly 40 Chukars flushed from the hillside, and several settled close to us for very nice views.

Leaving the Flats, we drove up Siwash Creek Road.  Siwash is a pretty derogatory term for a Native American here in the Pacific Northwest, and I’m a bit surprised that the leadership of the nearby Colville Tribes has not petitioned the County for a name change.  Siwash, is an Anglicization of the French “Sauvage” or Savage!  Perhaps they take pride in it?  Who knows?

Stolen from Dr. Robertson’s Chinook Jargon page at
https://chinookjargon.com/2013/03/27/racially-insensitive-verb/

In any event, we had been successful in previous years in finding the Columbian Sharp-tailed Grouse feeding on the buds of the water birch (Betula occidentalis) in the area.  But, it was not to be today.

We scouted around the Okanogan Highlands throughout the morning, and picked up Pygmy Nuthatches, and finding several more large flocks of Cassin’s Finch.

Finches in the Birches

These large flocks of the finches seem pretty unusual, and makes us wonder whether there had been a lack of feed in other areas that resulted in the species making such a good showing here.

At 10 a.m., we pulled into the Highland Sno-Park to call for woodpeckers and a purported Great Gray Owl.  We did not hear an owl, nor see one through the ground fog, but a Black-backed Woodpecker gave us a brief visit.

Why is it always foggy when I'm in the Highlands?

Besides the snow, there was rime ice on the trees, giving them a very “Christmassy” look.  Among the pines and firs, there are a number of trees that appear dead.  But they’re not!  These are the “tamarack” or Western Larch, which lose their needles every fall, and are a deciduous conifer.

Frosty Western Larch Larix occidentalis

Driving out of the Sno-Park we saw a doe and yearling White-tailed Deer of the Columbia Basin subspecies, and a curious Red Squirrel.  The ‘red’ squirrels around here are mostly grey in color, but are all Tamiasciurus hudsonicus.

Red Squirrel Tamiasciurus hudsonicus - not all that red around here

Checking a couple of farmsteads where the residents put out bird seed to feed the winter denizens gave us good looks at species we’d already seen on the trip.

Downy Woodpecker male

Black-capped Chickadee

American Goldfinch male in winter plumage

Suet for lunch . . .

Hairy Woodpecker male

Mountain Chickadee

Shep graciously provides bags of bird seed to several of these folks in exchange for their good will in allowing us birders to stand in their yards to observe “their” birds.

Gifts are Good

The fog lifted here and there, and besides seeing the scenery revealed, we had views of more of the local residents.

We came into the town of Chesaw,

Chesaw History

which often has some of our target birds at feeders and in the habitat along Myers Creek, but it was pretty quiet this afternoon.

We did find our first Northern Shrike on a utility wire above town, which is always a good bird for us West-siders.

We birded around the area until the sun went behind the hills, and headed back toward Chesaw, finding a nice Pygmy Owl

Our Smallest Owl

and a lone Ruffed Grouse.  We drove back toward the Sno-Park.  As the sun set

and the moon came out

Shep’s sharp eye spotted a beautiful Northern Goshawk atop a fir tree, shortly before it headed for its night roost.

Highly enhanced Goshawk photo

The Sno-Park was still fogged-in, and again we did not hear any owl vocalizations.

Still foggy . . . still no Great Grey Owl

We drove back down the mountain and stopped in the town of Tonasket to eat at the Rancho Chico for Mexican food, before returning to Omak for a good night’s sleep.