Northern flying squirrel and boreal owl at the entrance to the same old northern flicker nesting cavity. The flying squirrel taken with a Nikon D3s digital camera and boreal owl shot with a Nikon F3 on Fujichrome film were taken more than ten years apart. The images illustrate the importance of the northern flickers, a keystone species. The flickers nest building activity increases forest biodiversity. Photographs were taken near my home in Slana, Alaska.
Alaskan flying squirrel peers out of an old northern flicker cavity just as darkness sets in.
Northern flying squirrels are more common in Alaska than most realize. They are found in coastal rainforests as well as the boreal forests of the interior. Flying squirrels are nocturnal thus rarely seen. I began to see them as I photographed the nocturnal activities of a pair of nesting boreal owls. As it turns out, boreal owls and flying squirrels share the same habitat preferences. They seem to prefer the big white spruce stands that grows along streams and other places where permafrost is not close to the surface. They share these places with the red squirrel. Red squirrels are active during the day and flying squirrels are active at night. But in the far north where it does not get dark for a several weeks during the summer, their activities overlap. Flying squirrels nest in abandoned northern flicker nesting cavities or other natural hollows.
A family group of tundra swans flies over Wrangell/St. Elias National Park in early October.
By mid October, open water becomes harder and harder to find and most waterfowl, ducks geese and swans, have already left Alaska. But the past two evenings, after dark, I heard migrating swans somewhere overhead. There were both tundra and trumpeter swans calling.
Tundra swans over the Wrangell Mountains. Continue reading
The last half of September brings Alaskan bull moose out of hiding. Bulls feed little or not at all for a couple weeks in latter September and early October. They have just one thing on their minds, cows.
Alaskan bull moose grunts as it travels in search of cows. Continue reading
Large male grizzly raids Deirdre Higgins kitchen in Slana, Alaska. To read the story how I got this photograph click on link below.
http://www.michaelquinton.com/picturestories/DeirdresGrizzly.aspx
Adult male is a night hunter and his prey consisting of small birds and mammals, such as this red-backed vole, are located by sight and sound.
Since nesting began, the male has been impossible to locate in the dark, damp forest near Slana, Alaska. But each evening he arrives at the nest site to deliver prey to the owlets. As the Alaskan days grow shorter, the male becomes active as twilight engulfs the stand of tall white spruce and poplar. He is the sole provider for the five owlets snuggled inside a hollow stub. The female abandoned her owlets when they were three weeks of age. They no longer needed brooding so apparently her role is complete. 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
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