Signs of Spring Everywhere

Earlier in the week, J-Pod departed the inland waters of the Salish Sea again, but not before making one more pass by Lime Kiln Point State Park. Many of them were way too far offshore to ID or even see, but a few of them, like J17 Princess Angeline with her youngest J53 Kiki, were fairly close to shore:

It absolutely doesn't feel right for the residents to still be scarce as June arrives, but there's nothing we can do about it but hope they're finding enough to eat wherever they are spending their time. In the meantime, there are plenty of other amazing natural sights to enjoy on San Juan Island, including just in our yard, where the birding has been quite amazing! This week one species after another has started to show up with their first brood of chicks, and none of have been more amusing that the trio of fledgling red-breasted nuthatches. When they first arrived in our yard, they could only perch on top of things, but as the days have progressed they've learned to perch upside down and sideways like their parents, and have apparently enjoyed doing so even when there's no food to be had as a result!

They look so much like their parents, but their colors are just a little fainter and something about them still gives them that baby cuteness:

The nuthatches were the first to arrive, but there have been others, some of which have taken a moment to identify like this fledgling spotted towhee!

There's also been one or a couple of young dark-eyed juncos:

And as of this morning, the first fledgling chestnut-backed chickadees have arrived, although it took a lot of patience to get a shot of one!

No house wrens yet, although it the pair is still active around the nest box after having gone into stealth mode, likely for the egg laying an incubation period. I think maybe their nestlings have hatched at this point as the trips have become more frequent, perhaps to feed the babies. I hope we get to spot the fledglings some point soon!

We also have a pair of both hairy and downy woodpeckers that visit every day, and while we don't know for sure, I hope that they too are nesting nearby and will bring their chicks to visit!

Down at American Camp yesterday, we paused to watch all the fox activity in the rabbit field. There are several dens of foxes down there and the kits, who have gotten pretty big, all seemed to be active. They were keeping a wide berth from the bald eagle that had landed in the prairie, however, but when one of the parents returned, it bolted and then jumped at the eagle to chase it off! Only a sequence of photos really captures what happened; after the eagle flew off, the kits came in to feed on a kill the eagle had been on. I wonder if the foxes stole the eagle's kill, or if the eagle was trying to mooch off the foxes? Something tells me it was the latter.

While the major bloom of spring wildflowers like camas and lily have passed, there are still other flowers and interesting plants to see on the prairie, like this chocolate lily seed pod:

There are several small species of lupine in bloom; I think this one is two-colored lupine:

Lupinus bicolor

And also both yellow and purple salsify:

Tragopogon porrifolius

Then today, a walk on Mitchell Hill turned up my first deer fawn of the season:

And also a close-up photo op of this blue-eyed darner:

Aeshna multicolor

The weather has been just perfect - the only thing missing is more whales!

May 22: Baby Foxes and A Baby Whale

After being around a lot in late April and the first couple days of May, J-Pod took a two week leave of absence from the Salish Sea. When they returned to inland waters on May 17, they kept their visits to the west side under the cover of darkness more often than not, so it wasn't until May 22 I was able to catch up with them again.

Early on the 22nd J-Pod hadn't been located yet, so I went for a walk down at American Camp, thinking I might find them off the south end and also hoping to find some fox kits to photograph. The whales weren't there, but I did find a trio of kits!

One of the things I love about fox kits, other their innate cuteness, is that they're mutually curious. Look at that face!

I just sat down on the grass, and they came over to check me out!

In addition to these orange and black ones, there was a gray one who mostly stayed a little bit further away:

I took so many photos of these guys, it's hard to narrow down which ones to share!

Later on, we came head to head on the trail with an adult fox who was carrying a snake. He stopped not far from us, and I suspected he didn't want to detour into the tall grasses, so we stepped off to the side of the trail and he ran right by us, not two feet away!

Umm, please get out of my way? This is my trail.

When there was still no sign of Js on the west side in the afternoon, I figured they were going to stay up north for another day, but then I heard from a friend they had made a switch and were coming down! The first few whales got to Lime Kiln just before sunset.

As is often the case, little J50 was quite a ways away from mama - her independence, along with the wicked rake marks she may have gotten from a difficult birth, lead me to think of this little whale as being very spunky, and a true fighter, which is just what this population needs!

5 month old J50 cruising by Lime Kiln in the sunset

A gull was also circling overhead carrying something, so I snapped a photo, and saw later it was carrying three fish! Impressive!

This is also a good time to note my few additions to my year list as spring has carried on: Swainson's thrush (159), Cassin's vireo (160), and black-headed grosbeak (161) - all first identified by song and "heard only", though I'd get nice looks at the vireos later and a grosbeak pair has become an occasional visitor to our feeders.

J-Pod would overnight off the south end of the island, and it would take some patience, but they finally made their way back north on May 23rd. Photos of that encounter next!

Yellow Island Trip ~ 2013

Last weekend, as part of my parents' visit to the island, we took an excursion over to Yellow Island, the 10-acre Nature Conservancy property north of Friday Harbor in San Juan Channel. While it is known for the amazing wildflower blooms that usually peak in April and May, it's a beautiful place to visit any time of year. In addition to some lounging harbor seals, we saw a nice variety of bird life including a pair of olive-sided flycatchers, numerous rufous hummingbirds, and lots of singing white-crowned sparrows:

It's an idyllic place, with beautiful scenes no matter which way you look:

As you can see in the above photo, just because the peak wildflower season is over doesn't mean there aren't still wildflowers to be found. The fireweed (Chamerion angustifolium) in particular was both abundant and beautiful. One stretch of the trail involved walking through a fireweed jungle, with the densely growing flower stalks tall enough to be towering overhead. I had to spend some extra time there....

There was still evidence of some of the flower species the island is better known for - they've just all gone to seed. Here are the bulky seed pods of the chocolate lily (Fritillaria biflora):

A few of the other species I saw were gumweed (Grindelia sp.):

...and nodding onion (Allium cernuum):

....and harvest brodiaea (Brodiaea coronaria):

As always, it was another great visit to Yellow Island! My friend Phil is the caretaker there and always provides lots of great information and hospitality - thank you to him too!

A few other recent sightings...on June 29th I heard a willow flycatcher (164) at Land Bank's Westside Preserve, the same place I added to the year list last summer. Also, while birding with my dad at Cattle Point on the 30th, we found 15 Heermnan's gulls (165), a species that arrives this far north after it concludes its breeding season down in Mexico.

Last night, on July 1st, Keith and I went for an after dinner walk at American Camp. I'm inspired to get out there more around dusk after my last spectacular sunset visit! As expected, the wildlife was again active, like this rather tame (and probably human fed) fox in the parking lot:

We saw other more skittish foxes out on the prairies, as well as these interesting insects, which I believe are ten-lined june beetles (Polyphylla decemlineata):

A woman we saw who seemed scared of the foxes thought they were hunting gulls - unlikely. More likely is they were hunting these beetles, which I've seen them eating before and are large enough to provide at least a little bite-sized protein.

I've already got some other great blog posts lined up, so there will be more posts following in the near future!

American Camp Summer Sunset

When I used to just spend a few weeks up here every summer, being out every evening until after sunset was an almost nightly occurrence. Whether at American Camp or on the westside, or maybe up Mt. Young, I was always out enjoying the golden hour. Now that I live here, I still get out and about and enjoy the island all the time, but for some reason it seems I don't go for as many summer sunset hikes as when I was a visitor. This past weekend, after the disappointment of a shortened camping trip and after having slept the better part of the sunny afternoon away, Saturday evening seemed like the perfect time to go for a walk at American Camp.

I walked down to the point south of Granny's Cove, passing only one couple on the trail. As I sat down on the rocks, there was not another person in sight. The photo above was my view to the south. As I turned to the north, I saw a boat just begin to edge its way around the corner. I watched a few more moments, and sure enough, saw the distinct blow of an orca lit up from behind by the setting sun. I knew the L12s had been around, but again my timing was seemingly perfect. I saw for half an hour as part of the L12s (all but the L22s, I believe) made their way slowly south. They were all a good ways offshore, but in the glassy flat waters they were visible from far away, and the sound of their blows also carried loudly through the stillness.

L85 Mystery, pictured above, was the closest whale to shore at about 3/4 of a miles out. 

While watching the whales, a bald eagle made a short flight out and back, passing right overhead int he process.

There were about 50 glaucous-winged gulls spread out on the water much closer to shore than the whales, taking advantage when possible of the 20 or so foraging rhinoceros auklets. When this one popped up right in front of me, I snapped this somewhat blurry picture that I just had to share to show how many bait fish he or she is holding in their beak. These guys stock up a mouthful to carry back to their nest burrows right before sunset. This one has at least 4 or 5 fish in its mouth, making it look like it's got a long, silvery mustache.

Oh yeah, the sunset wasn't too shabby either....

In addition to the whales, eagles, and other birds, I also saw a fox, a couple of deer, and a quick glimpse of what I think had to have been a mink. Why don't I do this more often again?

April Flowers and May Moths

The weather last weekend didn't end up being conducive to much more picture taking, but I did get out to a COASST survey at Fourth of July Beach, and as per usual the live birds were the most interesting find as there were no stranded birds. I was surprised to see a trio of killdeer there, and hanging out with them was a small flock of least sandpipers (149) and a single western sandpiper (150). 

This week, however, has seen some more beautiful, warm spring weather. On Tuesday afternoon I took a walk at American Camp where more wildflowers are blooming every day. 

Small-flowered lupine (Lupinus polycarpus)

Meadow death-camas (Zygadenus veneosus)

Common camas (Camassia quamash)

One of my favorite wildflowers is also one of the smallest. It's very easily overlooked - the small-flowered forget-me-not:

Small-flowered forget-me-not (Myosotis laxa)

Here's another shot with my thumb in it to show just how small they are. The flowers are only 2-5mm wide.

I'm not sure what this plant is, but it also had very small white flowers:

I was surprised to see a mosquito (or a close relative) feeding on some English daisies. As annoying as they can be, only the females are blood suckers and only during parts of their life cycle, so it makes sense that the rest of the time they're another useful species of insect pollinator.

I also came across this very cooperative butterfly:

Common checkered skipper (Pyrgus communis)

It stayed completely still as I slowly made my approach and took a few pictures. When I glanced down at my camera to check a setting, it made a quick getaway, as when I looked back up it was no where in sight. My field guide says this is probably the most common American skipper species, but I haven't noticed it here before.

These interesting insect sightings were trumped by a surprising find today on the sidewalk in front of the office at work. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this ceanothus silk moth:

Ceanothus silk moth (Hyalophora euryalus)

These are the kind of moths you see pictures of in books and magazines, but I've never seen one in real life. They're mostly nocturnal, which explains why I haven't seen one before, but WOW! Also known as the Nike moth (for the swooshes on its wings), the larva feed on plants of the Ceanothus genus which explains their other common name. I was surprised to see Douglas fir and madrone are also on their list of host plants/food - I guess this is good habitat for them here!

The giant silk moth family, so named for the large silk cocoons they spin, contains some of the most stunning moth species in the world. I believe this one is a male due to the large size of the feathery antennae. The adults only live for 2-3 days, but males may fly up to 20 miles in that time as they track down females by scent.

Yet another example of how you just never know what you're going to see - or where you're going to see it!