Day One in Anchorage

I flew into Anchorage yesterday on a plane that had mostly government employees heading into town for meetings and trainings.  It was the roughest plane ride I have been on to date.  The descent into town, rocked and rolled and bounced the little plane all over the place.  The guy behind me said when we touched the ground said he needed a beer.  I was just thankful to be on the ground.

I asked Craig what he wanted to do first after renting our car and checking into the hotel.  He chose going to a bookstore.  So off we went to the rental car service.  We are driving a chevy malibou and it sucks.  The roads are snow covered and mostly glare ice, so when I try to stop the car the anti lock brakes kick in and we slide all over the place.  I hate anti lock brakes.  We found our hotel.  We are on the 12th floor with a few of the ocean.  Not a pretty view, we get to see the freight docks, but the town is surrounded by beautiful snow covered mountains. 

We were off to look for a bookstore.  We knew Anchorage had a Barnes and Noble but it took us two hours to find it.  While searching we stopped at a mall where we had salespeople try to stop us and show us their wares.  Both of us looked at each other and said "Don't miss that."  Next we stopped at a Walmart.  We got to the dairy case and milk was a $1.99 a gallone.  We just sat and stared as it is $11.00 in King Salmon.  On through the grocery isles we went amazed at the low prices and then we saw the ice cream all.  A whole isle with nothing but ice cream.  WOW!

Finally we found the store we were looking for.  It was as good as I remembered.  But my first overall impression of Anchorage is "not impressed".  May be today will be different but I have eight hours of meetings to attend before I can do any more exploring.  But I do miss the quiet and peacefulness of my little bush village.

What the Women of King Salmon Do During the Winter.

Yesterday I was invited to a Stamp It Up party.  For those of you that don't know, it is a party where you can buy all the things you will need to make your own greeting cards.  This is a huge thing here.  The women get together eat and make cards.  We all got to make a Christmas card yesterday, ate vegetarian lasagna and cheese cake and did a lot of talking.  I was told about all the fun things that you can do to make your own cards.  There is another party in two weeks and the Saturday after thanksgiving there is a card making bonanza day where for just $15 you can make 10 cards.  This is suppose to be great fun.  So I ordered my first $35 worth of card making supplies and it will arrive at my office within a week.  Would I like to host a party.  Seems like this might get to be an expensive endeavor.

Today I am off to Anchorage.  Not sure I am ready for the big city.  I like being away from the hustle and bustle and the simple life here.  I am however hungry for ice cream and a trip through the stores.  I will also get to see my husband which will be fantastic.  Then I am going to see if the stories are true, is Anchorage where you go to see a moose?  So don't worry I am sure there are adventures in Anchorage besides eating ice cream and looking for a place to park the rental car.

Their Tracks Are Everywhere!

Yesterday we got snow.  Enough snow that it covered the ground, trees and bushes.  On the walk home from work I decided to take the trail through the woods.  I haven't seen a hare anywhere for weeks.  But there in the snow were tracks of a hare.  Then more tracks and more tracks.  They were everywhere.  With each new set of tracks I tried to see if I could find one as they will be turning white for the winter and I would love to see them in the new coats.  But I could not find one but someone did or should I say something.  Next to a set of hare tracks were a set of lynx tracks.  Both tracks looked as if both creatures were running.  They lead into a thick area of alder which I decided not to go into.  That would be a place you just might walk into a sleeping bear.  One of the neighbors had one in her front yard a couple of days ago.  So some of them are still around. 

The snow made the area shine and sparkle.  But like all good things it came to an end.  The temperature warmed up and the rain fell, melting away all the beautiful snow.  It was sad.  But today I am getting ready for my first trip into town.  I am making my shopping list and trying to decide what to take with me to carry food home in.  I am totally excited.

A Walk in the Dark

Yesterday I gathered my gear and headed out the door.  The sky was dark.  It was littered with a thousand of stars.  All the light I had to see to walk by were the stars and my amazing flashlight.  I started down the road.  It was quiet.  There was no breeze whistling through the trees.  I walked on just thinking to myself.  Then I heard it.  A sound coming from the tree tops.  I turned my flashlight towards the tops of the trees but I saw nothing.  I started to walk again when I heard the sound.  I searched again this time more thoroughly but still I saw nothing.  The beam of my flashlight showed only empty branches.  I moved at a slower pace but kept my eyes searching.  Then there it was again only this time it was answered by another.  Again I stopped and searched the trees.  I could hear the calls more frequently now but still I could not find the creature making them.  Their voices echoing through the stillness.  I continued on my way and as I walked more voices cried out into the night, first three called, then four, and then I heard the call of six different creatures.  They were all around me but I could not see a single one.  As I got closer to the creek the calls became more distant.  I heard one last Whoo- hooo-hooo.  The calls came from Great Horned Owls calling as I walked.  Was I walking through the woods?  Nope!  Just on the highway going to work.

Amazing Citizen Scientists

When I arrived at Brooks Camp for my first official week as the biologist I discovered a long lost program where we asked visitors to document bird and animal sightings in the park during their visit.  This isn't just for the visitors.  It is also for the staff members as they travel the park.  With 4.1 million acres I can't be everywhere at once.  I have yet to see over half the park.  This program gives me a chance to see what others are seeing.

Today I spent the day writing the end of season report on the project.  I learned some interesting things.  for instance a lot of our visitors may come to see the bears but they also do some birding as there were 287 sightings of birds.  A few of the birds were rare findings in the park which is fantastic.  One species of duck, Garganey has only been seen in what is marked as accidental.  That means you might see one every fifty years.  We saw four of them in the spring.  Another species, the black-backed woodpecker isn't even on the area species list.  We saw three this year on the falls trail.  Next year I will have to see if their nesting here.  Speaking of nesting, we found out that there is a nest of golden-crowned kinglets in Brooks Camp.  Another first as no one knew their were nesting here.

Reports show wolves located in nine different areas of the park.  How many packs are out there?  In 1912 Novarupta blew leaving hundreds of feet of ash.  Next year will be the 100th anniversary of the eruption.  Needless to say that the wildlife are not numerous out there.  But life is returning and for the first time two different people saw a hare at Novarupta.  We would have never realized that with out our citizen scientist. 

I am hoping to expand the program next year as it was such a success this year.  So if your planning a visit to Katmai National Park in the future.  Stop at the visitors desk and tell them you want to help me out and be a wildlife observationalist.  All you have to do is take your form along with you and fill it out as you visit the park.  If you were one of the very helpful people this year.  You are terrific and thank you very much.

Crazy Weather

Yesterday was one crazy day of weather.  It started out as a heavy rain.  I had bundled all up for the walk to work and was thinking this is one day when I wish I had a car but then my neighbors pulled up and I decided to op for the ride.  Once at work in my cubicle, I don't have a window so the weather isn't much of a thought but at 10 am I went to the kitchen to fill my water bottle and was surprised that it was still dark outside.  A little while later one of my coworkers yelled it snowing.  I jumped right up to see the sight.  There were very large flakes of snow swirling around in circles.  It was beautiful.  I could have watched all day but I had work to do.  Every so often I would think of some reason to find a window.  I love the snow and was beginning to worry that my husband in North Dakota was going to get measurable snow before we did. 

By the afternoon the weather was right on the border of rain and snow.  I was hoping for a snow shower to walk home in but I got rain.  And wind.  The wind was howling through the trees and my cheeks got very cold.  We had gotten a lot of rain as there were large puddles everywhere.  A couple hours after arriving back to my warm house the rain again turned to snow.  I sat on the couch and watched for awhile.  Then it stopped.  In the western part of the sky, the sky was lit bright orange.  It was amazing.  It just glowed.  Then as time went by it turned pink and then faded into night.  It was so totally different than a normal sunset.  It gave everything a golden glow.  It was an amazing day of weather.

Raptor Research

Now that the field season is over it is time to work on data and decide what things to look at in the future.  I have a few ideas that I am studying and going to write proposals for.  One thing I would like to see done is a raptor study on the coastline of Katmai National Park.  The peregrine falcon being one of those raptors.  There has not been too much work done in this field.  In 1993 there was a study that looked at the peregrine falcon.  In 1989 the exxon oil spill occurred and people always here about Prince William Sound being hit hard, what they don't know is that the Katmai Coast got most of the oil.  But being the Katmai coast is hard to get to, it did not get much attention.  Today there are still traces of that oil spill on the coastline.

After the oil spill, raptor studies were performed above and below Katmai but no one looked at our coast.  I would like to get some kind of baseline on our raptors before another big incident happens so that we will know where things stand.  Peregrines, the bird of focus of discussion today, eat sea birds.  The coast line has many seabirds so we should be able to find peregrines on our coast.  In the 1993 study only one peregrine falcon was seen.  Was this from the oil spill?  No one knows but I hope to see what our coastline has now. 

A raptor study of a rocky coast would consist of helicopter surveys, and time on a boat traveling parallel to the coast looking for eyrie, the name given to a raptor nest.  Doing this kind of survey will take money so I have asked the avian person at the US Fish and Wildlife Office to team up with me. She is all excited.  So next step write the proposal.  It may not be exciting now but if we get the funding it will make the next field season pretty exciting.