A funny thing happened to winter in January.....it disappeared! We have had mostly warm (34 degrees) and wet conditions since our 8 feet of snow in December. We have had a few snowfalls to bring us up to about 10 feet for the winter.
Here's a shot of the bay looking towards "town" and Baranof Falls.
Looking across the bay towards the lodge and Melinda's house on the same calm day.
We're gaining about four and a half minutes of light every day. On clear days, we might even have an hour of direct sunlight now!
Sunrise lighting up a few of the peaks across the bay.
Jen took this shot of the moon just cresting the ridge across from the lodge.
Looking up at the lodge from the dock after one of our rare January snowfalls.
Out in the skiff on a sunny crisp day.
Harris Air brought some supplies in for us in January. We had a group of friends try to fly in for a visit, but they got bumped in Seattle and didn't make it to Sitka. We were sad they didnt' get here, but were cheered up by the load of groceries and Christmas goodies that did make it.
Pilot Mark Hacket, playing Santa, ties up to our float plane dock.
Offloading supplies from the De Havilland Beaver.
Our neighbor Jackie has her skiff loaded up and heads to "town" in the falling snow. Jackie and Keith caretake the dozen cabins, boardwalk and dock at the Baranof townsite.
Jen volunteers to take pictures while I move all our supplies up to the lodge. This is one of the rare times that the plane came in close to high tide so the ramp wasn't too steep!
This was the first plane in a couple months, so we had a nice stack of Christmas cards to enjoy.
The Christmas tree moves out to the deck in January--without the ornaments, of course.
The martens that had been living in the store in "town" have either all been relocated or they moved out when the weather warmed up. We ended up catching 11 total, although we know that we caught one (Number Nine) at least three times.
On my last relocation, I got out of the skiff, gave the marten a quick spray paint job and released him. This took maybe 5 minutes tops. When I got back into the skiff, the falling tide had grounded it on a rock. I couldn't push it off with an oar, so had to radio our neighbor Keith to come get me in his skiff. We anchored the stern off, so the boat would be floating on the next day's high tide. Here is Keith taking me back out to pick up the skiff.
These two flamingos flew from Eugene (home of the University of Oregon Ducks) to Sitka on Alaska Airlines, then arrived with the load on Harris Air. We gave them a place of honor by the flagpole, where they can rest their weary wings after such a long flight.
They immediately burrowed down to insulate themselves with snow.
This is our resident belted kingfisher--we see him most days.
We have lots of Barrow's Goldeneye who winter in the bay.
Surf Scoters
This Mallard decided to take a nap in the snow squall.
This bald eagle took an early morning rest in the Heron Tree, as the moon was starting to set. You can usually count on eagles sitting in one place for as long as an hour, but of course this guy gave Jen a challenge and only sat there for about 4 or 5 minutes.
And now you know why we call it the Heron Tree!
Fish for dinner!
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