In Denali National Park on the Taiga Trail.
Showing posts with label Birding (2011). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Birding (2011). Show all posts
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Friday, May 13, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
Three Cranes
The Sandhill Cranes are officially back! Kate and I saw one out in the field yesterday. Today there were at least 4 between both fields, but maybe five.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Goose, Gooses, and More Gooses
Ohhhh boy, you'll never guess what we saw today: Geese!
The first flocks of Canada Geese arrived in Fairbanks a couple of weeks ago. Today, Creamer's Field (migratory water fowl refuge) was packed! We saw both Canada and Cackling geese, but to be honest I can't really tell them apart (the cackling geese are smaller). The geese (and hopefully soon, Sandhill Cranes) are just stopping here on their way up to the tundra where they breed.
This is a big deal here since it means that the winter is really on it's way out, and that's a good thing. The winter was long, cold, and dark and personally I'm ready to be warm and see some color again.
The thing that really made today really special was that, in classic Alaskan style, the geese did not come in moderation!
The first flocks of Canada Geese arrived in Fairbanks a couple of weeks ago. Today, Creamer's Field (migratory water fowl refuge) was packed! We saw both Canada and Cackling geese, but to be honest I can't really tell them apart (the cackling geese are smaller). The geese (and hopefully soon, Sandhill Cranes) are just stopping here on their way up to the tundra where they breed.
This is a big deal here since it means that the winter is really on it's way out, and that's a good thing. The winter was long, cold, and dark and personally I'm ready to be warm and see some color again.
The thing that really made today really special was that, in classic Alaskan style, the geese did not come in moderation!
Monday, April 18, 2011
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Chickadee Icicle
I took this one back in February, but wanted to add it here so that it can go into my birding log (blog ha!). Just a common chickadee hanging out, getting a drink.
Gray Jay
Another bird to add to our tick list. This one was seen on the McKay Creek Trail, off the Steese Highway a little past Chatanika.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Take off your jacket folks, it's warming up!
That's right, we are welcoming high temps in the mid-forties! Sure, it still gets cold at night, but it's nice to go out and do stuff in the day and not need the heavy Primaloft or down jackets. Even Kate, notorious for being unavoidably and eternally cold took off the hat and the jacket during a walk today on the campus trails!
My lovely wife waits for me, the slow husband, who just spent 15 minutes trying to take a picture of a bird. I got the picture though, it's below.
While out on the trails I think I may have managed to get a little sunburn on my face, something I have not thought about at all for the last 7 months. We had a really nice, 2 hour walk back on the trails, and explored a little bit of the boreal forest too.
I love the trees here. They are a bit smaller and spaced much further apart than trees in the lower 48. We're in the taiga, and there is plenty of permafrost so it's harder for the trees to get real big. Since the roots are constrained to the top layer of soil, they can't be as tightly packed.
The forests here are mostly made up of and black spruce, tons and tons of birch, aspen, and I guess you can count alders too. I've never seen birch forests like the ones we have here. You go walking through the woods and it's all white bark everywhere! And in the fall the yellows are unbelievable. When we were hiking up the Healy trail in Denali the valley floor was a river of yellow! It's so cool to see moose trolling around the forest, snowshoe hares and red foxes too. I've shared lots of moose pics, but haven't been fortunate to have my camera on me for a fox encounter, and I have no idea how to take a picture of a snowshoe hare in the snow.
Anyway, I've uploaded quite a few new photos to flickr in the last week. Here's a link to the lightbox that starts at the last recent upload (just scroll through with the right arrow key). That's all for tonight. . . except for the red poll:
I'm not fortunate enough to have a big telephoto lens right now. So when I get photos of animals, you can be pretty sure that I'm as close as I can get. With moose this can be scary, but red polls just take patience. If they don't immediately fly away, they slowly become comfortable with me so I can get close enough to get some good shots. I'm going to have to find a bigger lens for bear season, wildlife is just so cool!
While out on the trails I think I may have managed to get a little sunburn on my face, something I have not thought about at all for the last 7 months. We had a really nice, 2 hour walk back on the trails, and explored a little bit of the boreal forest too.I love the trees here. They are a bit smaller and spaced much further apart than trees in the lower 48. We're in the taiga, and there is plenty of permafrost so it's harder for the trees to get real big. Since the roots are constrained to the top layer of soil, they can't be as tightly packed.
The forests here are mostly made up of and black spruce, tons and tons of birch, aspen, and I guess you can count alders too. I've never seen birch forests like the ones we have here. You go walking through the woods and it's all white bark everywhere! And in the fall the yellows are unbelievable. When we were hiking up the Healy trail in Denali the valley floor was a river of yellow! It's so cool to see moose trolling around the forest, snowshoe hares and red foxes too. I've shared lots of moose pics, but haven't been fortunate to have my camera on me for a fox encounter, and I have no idea how to take a picture of a snowshoe hare in the snow.
Anyway, I've uploaded quite a few new photos to flickr in the last week. Here's a link to the lightbox that starts at the last recent upload (just scroll through with the right arrow key). That's all for tonight. . . except for the red poll:
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Birds and Moose!
You know I've been busy when I haven't had time to blog about wildlife encounters. First Kate and I saw two white-winged crossbills. Kate wants to post about them, so I'll just give this one picture from last week.
Magic snow falls from the tree as we watch the birds breathing in -30° F weather.
Then there was the moose encounter at school. Let me start by saying that moose temperament is different out in the woods by our house than it is around buildings and a lot of people. They don't care about me at the house, but they definitely don't like lots of people and people stuff.
This bull charged Jason and I even though we were keeping our distance. Then it ran at Manbharat and a few other students that were watching it by their doors. He wasn't overly aggressive, but he definitely made it known that we were in his personal space. Right before he charged me I got this shot that looks like he is watching his reflection in the window. He's actually just looking at that plant with leaves on it down below him, but it was funny anyway.
Once he got to a place where he didn't feel cornered by the building his focus returned to eating and not on what we were doing over by the parking lot.
Magic snow falls from the tree as we watch the birds breathing in -30° F weather.Then there was the moose encounter at school. Let me start by saying that moose temperament is different out in the woods by our house than it is around buildings and a lot of people. They don't care about me at the house, but they definitely don't like lots of people and people stuff.
This bull charged Jason and I even though we were keeping our distance. Then it ran at Manbharat and a few other students that were watching it by their doors. He wasn't overly aggressive, but he definitely made it known that we were in his personal space. Right before he charged me I got this shot that looks like he is watching his reflection in the window. He's actually just looking at that plant with leaves on it down below him, but it was funny anyway.
Once he got to a place where he didn't feel cornered by the building his focus returned to eating and not on what we were doing over by the parking lot.
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