Taking a peek into a tributary of the Copper River in Alaska’s interior reveals a rarely witnessed but prehistoric cycle of life. Traveling nearly three hundred miles up the Copper River through a soup of glacial silt, sockeye salmon have reached their gravel spawning beds.
Since leaving the ocean and entering fresh water, sockeye salmon undergo dramatic changes. Their silver skin turns to crimson red and their head becomes green. The male sockeye develops a wickedly hooked jawed, an aggressive attitude, and a one track mind to reproduce. Continue reading →
Dolly varden are not trout but a species of char. In northern Alaska “dollies”can grow to thirty inches and twenty pounds but the dwarf varieties in small interior streams (above) rarely exceed ten inches. Continue reading →
Adult, male Steller’s sea lion on the prowl in Prince William Sound. Pink salmon, the most numerous of Alaska’s five species of salmon are schooling by the thousands just offshore. The pink salmon returning to their freshwater spawning streams are dogged by a gauntlet of predators including, harbor seals, bald eagles, killer whales and sea otters as well as Steller’s sea lions. Continue reading →
A northern hawk owl perched atop a dead, black spruce overlooking its preferred hunting grounds, an Alaskan muskeg wetland.
The northern hawk owl is named after its hawk-like hunting behavior. Like hawks, the hawk owl hunts by day using its keen eyesight to spot small birds and mammals. The red-backed vole is by far the most important prey species. But the hawk owl is an opportunist and other species of voles and several species of shrews are also caught. During those years when snowshoe hares are plentiful, hawk owls will add these much larger prey species to their list, as will many species of birds from the tiny, common red-poll to birds up to the size of ptarmigan. Continue reading →
Adult male northern hawk owl is active during the day.
For a few weeks I have been photographing a pair of northern hawk owls that have nested in a stand of tall white spruce. Hawk owl populations are cyclic and for the past three years they have been rare in my part Alaskan interior. Over the past twenty years, I have been trying to capture their little known life history. In those twenty years I have found only six or seven active nests. Continue reading →
On a recent trip to photograph humpback whales in Alaska coastal waters my plans were foiled because of bad weather. High winds kept our small boat in the harbor. But these same winds presented an unexpected photo opportunity. Rough seas brought a couple dozen sea otters to a small protected bay for shelter from the storm. At first the sea otters were shy and stayed out of reach of my telephoto lens. But by hanging out in plain sight for hours each day they grew used my presence and would sometimes drift in close enough for photographs. Continue reading →
Fred Rungee, everyone’s favorite mountain man in these parts, passed away on March 27, 2015 after spending more than 70 years in the Alaskan wilderness. He was ninety-three. After retiring from the BLM as a fire management officer, he moved to a remote valley near Slana, Alaska and built a cabin. His cabin, “a short two and a half mile hike up the creek and then another half mile of side-hilling along the lake”, kept Fred fit and ever young at heart.
Fred’s beloved Lake in winter. He loved the solitude of those long winter months.
Fred’s’ cabin, perched on a bench of bedrock overlooking a wilderness lake, is bear-proof and beautiful.
One of Fred’s’ final days at his wilderness cabin.
The old cross-cut saw kept the bears out of a small outbuilding.
Fred’s bear story. To listen to the audio clip, click on left side of the bar. Volume on right side.
Fred loved his gray jays.
Walking the trail near his cabin.
“Sit down and have something to eat.” Guests were always welcomed with a bite to eat. Living mostly out of tins of food, Fred claimed to have “traveled several miles” around the tops of those tin cans with a can opener.
Red squirrel has cached black spruce cones in an old flicker hole.
RED SQUIRREL
I am still on my backyard safari. This is where I do some of my favorite work. I have had professional photographers scoff at the mere suggestion of doing in-depth work with such “insignificant” species as the red squirrels, voles and the like. But I happen to enjoy photographing all species of wildlife including red squirrels. The idea of a backyard safari is to give one the incentive to compile a complete coverage of the wildlife in your immediate surroundings as well as gaining experience turning photographic potential into great photographs.
Red squirrel pry the scales off a spruce cone and feeds on the tiny seeds.
Red squirrel jumping.
The red squirrel jumping straight on is a tough one. I found a place where the squirrel routinely jumps form one branch to another. The distance is just over three feet and it takes less than a second. The problem lies in the tiny amount of depth of field with the 560 mm telephoto lens. I use a Nikon 200-400 lens with a 1.4 tele-extender and pre-focus at about 4 meters. There is less than one inch that will be in sharp focus. I manage to get off about three frames each time the squirrel jumps and only about one in fifty photos will be in focus. What that boils down to is about one photo every four days will be a keeper. I could increase the percent of successful shots by adding a trigger which trips the shutter as the squirrel crosses a beam of infra-red light. Maybe next week.
TRACKS
One of the few sets of snowshoe hare tracks I have seen in the backyard this winter. They are currently at the low-end of their population cycle.
BOREAL OWL
The male boreal owl is still calling from the flicker holes but not every night. I suspect he is also singing his territorial songs from other possible nesting sites in the area.
The male boreal owl begins his territorial songs just before dark.
AURORA BOREALIS
The aurora borealis usually begins with a band of green, glowing light in the northeast.
.All week I have been on safari, backyard safari that is, trying to sniff out a few photographs. I continue working with the pine grosbeaks and red squirrels but they have proven tough subjects. Yes even squirrels can be very challenging especially when you try for something new. Last night a fantastic aurora show kept me busy for a few hours after midnight. The unexpected beauty made up for those frustrating red squirrels.
For the past couple weeks a boreal owl has been singing after dark. I had developed this situation by placing a couple of ladders within camera range of his singing posts. He sings his territorial song while sitting at the entrance of a couple of old northern flicker nesting cavities. On top of the ladders, I mounted ball heads so I could climb and place my telephoto lens and flash bracket quickly and quietly. As I photographed the aurora borealis the boreal owl was singing from both of the flicker cavities. During lulls in the aurora activity, I approached the cavities to see what was going on. At one cavity there was no owl at the hole and I could hear the male singing from the other cavity. Just for fun I scratched the tree trunk and to my surprise the head of a boreal owl emerged. There were two boreal owls! The male had attracted a mate. That was exciting news. Perhaps they would choose one of the cavities for their nest.
Male boreal owl stares out from the northern flicker cavity.
