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 15 - Hawks Prairie Settling Ponds

This afternoon, I drove out to the Hawks Prairie Settling Ponds.

Mount Rainier with its head in the clouds

At this 40 acre site, operated by the LOTT (Lacey-Olympia-Tumwater-Thurston County) Clean Water Alliance on Hogum Bay Road in Lacey, Class A Reclaimed Water circulates through a series of five constructed wetland ponds.

Gadwalls and a Ring-necked Duck

Water from the ponds then flows to rectangular groundwater recharge basins.  From there, the water infiltrates through the soils to replenish groundwater.  The site is open to the public and features walking trails, viewing benches, wildlife, native plantings, and kiosks with information about reclaimed water.

The north side of the site used to be an open field, with grasses and some Scotch Broom, and bordered by second-growth Douglas fir woods.  Then, a year ago, there began construction and development of the properties to the north of the LOTT facility.

Construction in January 2018

Now, the north ponds butt up against a road and stark walls of warehouses.

January 2019

The many acres of industrial buildings will likely provide an increased tax base for the City of Lacey, but is part of the on-going loss of open space and wildlife habitat in south Puget Sound.

These forty acres at the settling ponds are a bit louder now with the current construction, and increased semi-trailer traffic, but still provide an oasis for wildlife and the public.  Because the water comes into the facility with quite a bit of nutrient load, there is good growth of aquatic plants.  This time of year, the American Wigeon and Gadwalls feed extensively on the duckweed growing at the ponds’ surfaces.

It's called "Duckweed" for a reason . . . .

The LOTT folks have planted the site with “native plants”.  The original prairie soils at the site may not be the most appropriate for Sitka Spruce, which tend to thrive along the alluvial and wetland soils of riparian sites.

Sitka Spruce needles and cones

Growing on less than optimal sites result in the trees becoming stressed during the dry season and such.  And, the stressed trees are consequently more susceptible to being impacted by diseases and insects.

These are NOT cones . . .

These “cones” are actually the galls of the Cooley spruce gall adelgid, Adelges cooleyi.  These “woolly aphids” are a small family (Adelgidae) of true bugs (Hemiptera) closely related to the aphids. Overwintering females on spruce lay eggs near developing buds. Nymphs hatch as bud caps split. Nymphs feed at the base of developing buds in spring producing cone-like galls on the tips of blue spruce branches. Galls open in mid-summer. Emerging adelgids either continue to live on spruce or fly to Douglas-fir to lay eggs. On Douglas-fir they may continue to live or produce a generation that flies back to spruce to produce the gall-forming stage. On Douglas-fir, feeding on needles by nymphs produces yellow spots and curled needles but no galls.

The Douglas firs here provide perches for many birds, including Bald Eagles,

Adult Bald Eagle

who would enjoy lunching on waterfowl

Green-winged Teal drake

However, many of the firs around here have either died, or have dead tops, likely a result of the Laminated Root Rot caused by the fungal pathogen Phellinus weirii.  Laminated root rot is one of the most damaging root diseases amongst conifers in northwestern America.

Stress kills . . .

The conifers are not the only trees here impacted by bugs and disease.  The Pacific madrona is native along the coast from British Columbia to California.

Young madrona - the Canadians call them "Arbutus"

Many of the madronas here have a leaf blight, consisting of brown, desiccated leaves occurring mainly in the lower canopy.

Madrona Foliar Blight - the ugly brown spots

This foliar blight has been observed on Pacific Madrona throughout its range and generally occurs during periods of wet spring weather.  In May 2009 and 2011 severe outbreaks occurred in western Washington and Oregon.  A fungus was isolated from blighted foliage, leaf spots on emerging foliage, lesions on green shoots, and from the petiole and leaf blade of dead, attached leaves.  The fungus was identical to the type isolate of Phacidiopycnis washingtonensis, which has been reported to cause rots of stored apple and persimmon fruit and cankers and twig dieback of apple and crabapple trees, but had not been reported on other plant species.

Leaf miners write in their own language

The ‘ghost scrawl’ on some of these leaves is caused by the Serpentine madrona miner (Marmara arbutiella), which is a tiny species of moth.  Larvae of this leaf- and twig-mining moth blaze sinuous, serpentine mines across the surface of leaves. Although damage might be unsightly on individual leaves, they do not usually affect the long-term health of the tree. This moth affects madrona throughout its range.

But, all was not disease and infestation, and I enjoyed seeing the usual birds, including this Song Sparrow

Song Sparrow on Common Cattail head

and a flock of Bushtits

Female Bushtits have yellow eyes,

and the males have dark eyes

Hawks Prairie SP eBird Checklist is Here