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
Boreal owl with red-backed vole.
I have been continuing to keep track of the little boreal owl in Slana. Its calling is falling off. I no longer hear it in the daylight hours though my friend still reports hearing it during trips to the outhouse late at night. Less calling means it is much harder to locate but I am still finding it in the thick dark woods by searching an area of about one hundred yards by two hundred yards. This small area seems to be its preferred daytime roosting area. Slowly walk back and forth through the spruce and poplar forest and scanning every tree I find it about 30 percent of the time. Once I was guided to its location by the calling of a couple upset boreal chickadees. It is never in the same perch. Continue reading
I got a tip a couple years ago about a lady who had complained about being kept awake at night because the snipes were making too much racket. But it had been too early in the season and I had a sneaky feeling it wasn’t snipes that were keeping her awake.
So, when I paid them a visit a couple weeks ago, I pulled out my I pod and speaker and asked if this is what she had heard. “Oh yes”, that’s it she insisted. “I could never forget that call. And they’re back! I have been hearing them again almost every night. ”
This was exciting news to me, because the call I had played was not the display flight of the common snipe. Instead I had played the territorial call of the boreal owl. She was quite surprised that it was a small owl she had been hearing. Continue reading