Journey North Robin Migration

American Robin

News from Ms. Hamilton
Teacher at Innoko River School in Shageluk, AK

Through the window at Innoko River School in in Shageluk, Alaska.
No robins yet!
Photo Joy Hamilton

April 3, 2008

Dear Journey North,

We are still locked into ice and snow at this point but the days have much more sunlight and the temps are getting warmer. We have, however, experienced a warming trend that is taking us for a ride down wintertime again! Last week it snowed 25 cm in two days! Thick, wet snow blanketed everywhere and then—it RAINED and melted. All the snow didn't melt (I think we have an estimated snowpack of 3 meters in areas around our village, much deeper out in the flats and woods).

Helping Scientists Gather Data
Our high school has been involved in our 6th year of gathering lake ice and snow data for Seasons and Biomes (part of the GLOBE program ) and this year, by far, we have had record snow and ice thickness on our lake. We have had a total of 2.5 m snowpak on the lake and 130 cm of ice thickness on the lake! That's some thick ice! Usually we're winding down our data gathering around the middle of April but this year, I'm not so sure!

As for FIRST MIGRATORY BIRDS: Rudy Hamilton, our Elder who has helped us so much with our regional science projects, spotted the first Bald Eagle while he was hauling wood on Friday, March 28. That is right on time, according to our 10 years of data! We suspect we'll see other birds arriving on time, too, so we'll let you know when we see our first Robin. I don't expect them for a long, long while. I took these pictures April 3:

See the 10-foot high snow drift from snow that cascades down our roof! We have had so much snow that we can't even see our bird feeding station outside our classroom window anymore!

This is our Teen Center, Washeteria and Kashim (traditional meeting place). You can see the weather is still wintry!