Kids find fun in the simple things. Seaweed catches the curiosity of a three year old while a group of big Stellar’s sea lions snooze at low tide. Kids offer the photographer a great opportunity to hone their craft. Photographing kids require all the skill and attention to detail as any other subject. Pay attention to back ground, foreground and be sure to avoid distracting elements that can ruin a good photo. Be ready for those wonderful moments when kids are just being kids.
The mosquito is the worlds most dangerous insect. Luckily, none of Alaska’s three dozen species or so is known to transmit disease. Though not deadly in the far north, they are none the less very troublesome. Here are a few other facts about Alaska’s mosquitoes. Only females bite. Some species prey on cold-blooded wood frogs. Some species live around 8 weeks as adults. The snow mosquito over winter as adults and may live a year. Populations can move 25-50 miles. Larva and pupae live in water. Continue reading
Female boreal owl peeks from her nesting snag to see who is there.
For over a month I have been monitoring the female in the nesting cavity. A couple of times a week I would walk into the dark spruce woods and scratch the bottom of the dead poplar snag making a sound like a red squirrel climbing. Instantly her round head pops out and she stares down at me. Continue reading
For more than two months this male northern flicker and his mate maintain a territory centered around their nesting cavity in an Alaskan black spruce forest. Flickers are the most common woodpecker in Alaska’s interior. Continue reading
Ole Bates checks fish wheel at Slana after Copper River rises from heavy rains.
We got our turn on the fish wheel this week. The fish wheel floats along the shore of the Copper River just downstream from the confluence of the Slana River. The salmon have spent several years feeding at sea and now they are returning to spawning streams in the Slana River drainage. Most of the salmon are sockeye or as they are locally called, Copper River Reds. Continue reading
The Sea Life Center in Seward, Alaska is one of our granddaughter’s favorite places. She loved the Steller’s sea lions, the harbor seals and the sea ducks. Watching a king crab eat a fish, and getting to feel the anemone tentacles and watching it feed were exciting too.
But what fascinated her the most was that “scary thing” scraping the scum from the sea lion tank.
Stellar’s sea lion.
Grizzly boar.
What happens in a close encounter with a grizzly bear is dependent on a lot of factors. What you do is important but the most important factor might boil down to which of the local bears you have just run into. Not all grizzly bears are the same. In fact they are all individuals, with different habits and temperaments. Sub-adults, lacking experience and confidence, often travel with a sibling for extra security and status. Females with cubs don’t like close surprises. Sows with cubs attack people more often than other classes of bears. These defensive attacks can be very serious but rarely end in death. Continue reading
Yesterday I climbed a ladder twenty feet up to a natural hole in a decaying poplar within the boreal owl territory. I had found the male inside the cavity once, so I had always thought it was a likely place for a nest. I took a quick look inside the cavity with flashlight and mirror but there was nothing inside. A single gray, downy feather clung to the bark on the outside. The owl must have been spending some time there, I thought. When I looked around I was surprised to see the little boreal owl glaring at me from about ten feet away. It was clearly agitated that I was at the hole. A few minutes later as I photographed the owl from the ground, I suddenly heard the rapid calling of the male. But it wasn’t the owl I was photographing. There are two boreal owls here!
This morning just after six a. m. I returned to the owl territory. As I neared the poplar the cavity seemed to have vanished. Through binoculars I could see the female was at the cavity entrance peering out at me. What perfect camoflauge. It has been fifty one days since I first located the little male boreal owl. Well, it seems that all his persistant singing has finally paid off.
Female boreal owl in cavity.
Male northern flicker on spruce snag.
By the end of May one pair of flickers I had under observation had settled into a routine. After their first egg was laid in the cavity the male no longer called from the nesting snag. Now the calling and most of the drumming was taking place at another dead snag about a hundred yards to the north. Continue reading
Male northern flickers call to establish a breeding territory and attract a female.
This week was spent working on northern flickers which have shown up on our homestead. I have worked these beautiful woodpeckers extensively in the past yet there are still great shots to be had. I concentrated on getting the best shots I could of the opportunities that presented themselves. The leading off photo of the calling male was one shot I needed to improve on. This kind of shot presents a challenge because normally the eyes will be in focus but the long bill is not. I shot this at F16 to give enough depth of field. Continue reading