In The Land of the Midnight Sun

September 3, 2013 grizjohnson 10 Comments

Hello Readers!

I’m just back from an exceptional three days at the Toolik Field Station (http://goo.gl/NlH6e6). My travels up north are a fulfillment of a childhood dream. This field station is located over the Brooks Range, on the North Slope Tundra of Alaska. It’s a 10 hour trip up the Dalton Highway from Fairbanks to this very remote location. The area had just had its first snow of the year which was slowly melting off the Tundra, but in my opinion it was there to stay in the mountains. Apparently, it’s typical for snow to start to hang around by the middle of September! Temps were dropping down to the low 20s at night, and were only raising up to about 35 during the daytime. Late fall and winter are already setting in this far north, and should be headed towards the U.S. 48 any day! The trip up there was part of my graduate orientation. I was accompanied by 7 other new graduate students. Our goal was to enjoy the arctic, understand the Toolik field station and get to know everyone in the group.

Toolik is located above the arctic circle which is 66′ 33″. This arbitrary line is determined by the latitude where the sun can be seen at midnight during the summer solstice. Hence, once you cross in the arctic you are officially in the land of the “midnight sun”. The dark nights are famous in this area and are very difficult for some to cope with. However, without further ado I’m looking forward to taking you along the journey up the Dalton Highway and to the Toolik Field Station!

P8310028 — The official crossing into the Arctic circle along the Dalton Highway.

P8310029 — My journey became official with my crossing certificate!

GEOLOGY and TUNDRA-ISTICS

One of the great pieces to this trip was the knowledge of the staff and personnel who were with us. I learned a lot about the geology of tundra features. One of the prominent features on the tundra were the Thermokarsts. These features are formed when permafrost (ie: ground that stays frozen) begins to thaw and collapse. Some thermokarsts are capable of sinking 10s of feet, while others may only drop several inches. The significance of this is that a large amount of carbon is released from the soil as it thaws and collapses. The released carbon can cause changes to the ecology, biology, and communities around the thermokarst. As much as 1/3 of the tundra across the world is made up of material that would collapse in a warming world. So, what do these thermokarsts look like? Here you go:

P8310065 — Active Detachment layer (Thermokarst)

P9010170 — Active Detachment layer (Thermokarst)

Each of the images that you are looking at are examples of a specific type of Thermokarst. They are “active detachment layers”. The active layer is the permafrost that thaws each year. In these spots the permfrost has thawed in the top layer and had begun to slide down the hillside. This landslide is occurring overtop of the still frozen soil below.

During a 6 mile hike up the Atigun Gorge we encountered another feature that were looking for. Geodes and fossils. The geodes found in the area ranged from golfball to watermelon sized. Once you cracked them open the crystals inside looked like many small diamonds! We also found an a shale area laden with fossils of shells from ages past. I have never seen a concentration of fossils like that!

P9010174 — Crystals inside of a large Geode found in the Atigun Gorge

PLANTS OF THE TUNDRA

Everything regarding plants happens slowly in the Tundra. Dwarf birch may stand 8 inches tall and be 50 years old! The trees in the tundra are limited by the growing season and nutrients in the soils. However, they still cover manyof the areas that you walk in. In the pictures here you can see the dwarf birch in the reds and yellows throughout the area. Hopefully it demonstrates the blanketing of these plants as well as the height. Notice the caribou antlers for Scale? These pictures were taken in Atigun Gorge, Finger Mountain and along the Dalton Highway.

Finger Mountain Pan — A panorama of the area around Finger Mountain. This area was used by hunters who like to sit high above everything else and watch for Caribou. Look how many trees ARE NOT there! It’s the Tundra!

P9010171 — Life and death on the tundra. This caribous died in the Atigun gorge and has provided nutrition (calcium) for many ground squirrels which have chewed on its antlers.

Another common species of tree is the black spruce. It’s the iconic tree of the boreal forest and is VERY slow growing. Fully mature trees may be only 6 inches in diameter and over 100 years old! Here you can see the different sizes of spruce. The growth rings on the tree are so tiny that I couldn’t even count them. Scientists age these tress while alive by taking a core sample of the tree. The plug resembles a skinny pencil.

P8310017 — Look at just how slowly this black spruce grows! The larges core is 72 years old, and the smaller one is over 50. Growth occurs at a truly snailish rate in the Tundra!

One of the common berries that we found were the low-bush cranberry. Some of you may be familiar with these berries from Minnesota in the bogs. These plants have a tart red berry which is loaded with vitamin C. I thought that the tundra berries didn’t have as much flavor as the ones that I found in bogs. Perhaps a research project in the making?? We also found cloud berry, blue berry, crow berry and bear berry. All of those berries are edible, but the cloud berries are by far the best! There is also several species of peas found in the tundra. I couldn’t find any with pods, but I guess they get them. The pea plants are found among rocky outcrops and are very low to the ground.

P8310023 — Pea plant in the tundra. only about 1.5 cm tall!

P8310026 — Bear Berry and low bush cranberry.

Cotton grass is aptly named for its cotton like heads. This grass is very common through the tundra, and during the right times of year will cause the tundra to look like a cloud with all of the fluffy white heads.

THE ALASKA PIPELINE

The Alaskan pipeline is HUGE. I’ll just start by saying that. It also is an engineering marvel. The pipeline is prevalent along the entire Dalton Highway and continues to to run north past Toolik another 120 miles up to Prudhoe Bay. The pipeline was built back between 1974 and 1977 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Alaska_Pipeline_System), it’s nearly 40 years old. It is earthquake resistant as well as cooled to avoid melting into the permafrost. Many of the poles have heat vents coupled with refrigerator coolent. These radiators keep the pipe from thawing the soil. The pipe is suspended on teflon pads, and the pipe can slide over the pads during an earthquake, which gives it a lot of security. In the case emergency a pump station can shut down the flow of the pipe in any given spot. However, spills are pretty uncommon, and the only one that anyone talked about was an incident involving a drunken man with a gun who managed to shoot a hole through the pipe. Most of the pipe is layed above ground, but there are certain sections that are underground. It’s also necessary for the pipe to cross many rivers, including the Mighty Yukon.

Alaska pipeline. Here you can see the radiators as well as the teflon pads.

The Alaskan pipeline snaking its way after just crossing the Yukon

Welcome to the Might Yukon River! — Welcome to the Mighty Yukon River!

LIFE IN TOOLIK FIELD STATION

The scenery never truly stopped no matter where you looked throughout the station. The TFS houses up to 150 scientists in the summer, but tapers of to 10 – 15 throughout the winter. The remote setting ensures that only a skeleton crew is left to man the needs of the researchers and facilities. The TFS sits to the north of the Brooks range and offers unprecedented views of the mountains. Wildlife abound in the area and yellow-billed loons live on the lake. Wolves, caribou, wolverines, musk ox, ground squirrels and many other species of animal may be found in the area.

This is the Brooks range as seen from the Toolik Field Station.

I could not resist taking this shot through the window of the mess hall. This is what we looked at as we ate our meals.

Sorry this panorama is so large, but it captures about 180 degrees of the view from the field station.

The sunset during our first night at the Station. Toolik Lake is in the foreground.

This is just one of the diesel generators that power the Station. They are loud and huge!

If you would like to read about one of the recent research projects from the Toolik Field station you can here: http://www.iab.uaf.edu/news/news_release_by_id.php?release_id=112

This research looked at the response of the tundra to fire. In 2004 and 2005 over 6 millions acres of Tundra burned which is an unheard of number! Black spruce, which may have been growing for 200 years were torched. The research found that the tundra actually recovered pretty fast, and that the amount of carbon released was the equivalent to the accumulation of about 30 years. So, overall it might have been worse. However, an increased fire regime is expected on the tundra due to the warming climate, so more fires like these 8 years ago may occur.

AURORA BOREALIS

We were incredibly blessed when we got there. The sky had just cleared off after nearly a week of foggy, rainy, snowy weather. The first night the Aurora appeared about 12AM. It started as light green haze in the sky and continued to intensify until ribbons of pink and green floated for miles around us. Areas of the aurora would build and fade so quickly it was hard to take it all in. As my eyes dashed about the sky there was always something else to see. However, it was almost impossible to comprehend. In some regards it can be related to a Rainbow because as you stand and look at it it connects to the earth and you feel there is a source to the light. However, chasing it would never yield a starting location. I’ve throught a lot about the best ways to describe how I felt the first night that it boomed and loomed over my head. Here’s some of the inadequate descriptions that I thought of:

Undulating Jelly fish
watermelon bacon
Overwhelmed
Temporary ribbons
Natural Psychedelia
Infinity

On the night we had a bonfire which can be seen in many of the aurora photo. Again, it started in a light green haze that continued to grow and become saturated. The aurora the second night was so much different that the first! Rather than the organized bands it saturated everything and damped out the skies. You can see in the ground that the snow was green from the surreal light above! Again, words truly cannot describe how these lights effect your senses, your mood and your heart. Everything in in your person is drawn to them and you cannot help but watch.

Want to do some technical reading about the Aurora? Head to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_Borealis)

Aurora borealis in the sunset over Toolik Field Station

Aurora Borealis over Toolik Field Station.

That’s all for now readers! I’ve included a few more images from the trip here that didn’t make it into the text. Thanks for checking in!!

Griz

EXTRA PICTURES:

P9010147 — What a huge wolf track! The wolves were common in this area, however we weren’t fortunate enough to see them. i think they were closer to the caribou herd about 50 miles away.

P8310044 — A nice sunny shot through some seeded grass in Coldfoot.

P8310008 — Fireweed is prevalent on the landscape and can be used to make jelly from the flowers. It’s seed now, and the curls and fluff appealed to me.

P9010166 — Some bearberry melting through the snow in the Atigun gorge.

P8310049 — Crossbill! Apparently these birds are hit and miss in Coldfoot where we were, so i was happy to have this one pose in front of me.

Alaska, Wildllife

3500 miles of Wow. Our Journey from Perham, MN to Fairbanks, AK

August 24, 2013 grizjohnson 12 Comments

Well Readers, it’s been a long time since I’ve put up a post here. And it’s not from lack of desire, rather lack of time. I’ve been Very, Very, Very busy. Capitalized “V”s are supposed to emphasize. Here’s the first part of our journey to Fairbanks. I have been involved heavily in RA training. I’m working at the “sustainability village” for the year and am very excited about! I’ll be the head of 16 residents that are dispersed amongst 4 apartment buildings. The buildings are hyper efficient, and residents that live here pledge to live sustainably (which manifests itself in many ways). My interests and past experiences in Northland College will fit me very well. Residents grow some of their own food (I ran the campus greenhouses for 2 years at Nortland) and are asked to bike, walk or carpool when necessary.

On top of my RA duties, I’ll be diving into my graduate work very soon, and classes start just after Labor day! I’ve actually been so busy that I didn’t have time to write it, fortunately, Kass could help out again! Without futher ado, here she is, with small interjections from me:

HERE’S TO ALASKA!!!!

Our planned trip to Fairbanks, Alaska was a total of 61 hours not including stops for fuel, food, or road construction! Then we added another 12 hours or so to head down to Denali National Park and to see Anchorage then head back to Fairbanks. It was a little daunting to think of all those hours in Ian’s pickup but we were up for the challenge!

Out west again…

We left Perham on the 8^th of August and headed to the first destination on the way to Alaska, 16 hours to Sandpoint, ID.

As you can see we were pretty heavily loaded. Ian planned to have his entire load of luggage on the trailer then we would “boondock” (park in random spots for the night, mostly rest stops or pullouts) in the back of the truck were we rigged up a bed instead of having to pull out a tent every night. Nice thinking Ian! He created the trailer from an old popup camper his parents let him use. He tore the whole camper off of it, leaving the strong frame and built it all up for this journey in the last few remaining days we had before leaving. (CRAZY!)

We drove about 12 hours that first day before hitting a rest stop, and then we finished the rest of the way the next morning to Sean and Jada’s house. We got to see the little man again and spend some quality time with the loved ones we miss rather dearly! We dropped off a few things for them, Ian’s kayak for them to use while he is up in Alaska, and a huge china hutch for Jada that was her grandmother’s, and some clothes for Dane from Darla. We spend all of Friday and a good piece of Saturday morning with them. It was a very nice spot to stop and rest up for the remaining chunk our journey.

As a side note, those of you who know Ian well enough, know that there is a part of his brain that just so happens to be a human jukebox. (If you didn’t know that, now you do ; ] ). This jukebox is always on random (well typically) and it rarely ever can finish a song before its attention has skipped into another piece of a different song. One of the many songs Ian often had on repeat during this trip was of course John Denver’s, Alaska and Me. He often sang, “When I was a child and I lived in the city I dreamed of Alaska so far away… somehow I knew that I’d live there someday.” It popped up more and more in the jukebox’s playlist the closer we came to Alaska. He typically ended almost shouting every time, “Here’s to Alaska!!!” Good thing I’m a John Denver fan! : ]

Canada

Our destination for Saturday night was Banff National Park. I have had the pleasure of visiting Banff before but this was Ian’s first journey there. Banff was only about five and a half hours from Sandpoint so we made it their easily. It started to pour as we got to the park and managed to find an overlook to pull off on and we boondocked for the night. Ian captured the rainy mood of the mountains the night before and then the subequent sunrise of the same mountain range. What a difference!

The next morning we rose and greeted the beautiful view once more before continuing up Highway 93 (Icefields Pkwy) that drives through Banff National Park in British Columbia/Alberta, and up to Jasper National Parks in Alberta, Canada. The highway was amazing! It led through the mountains, next to glacial rivers and lakes, all the way up to the glacial ice fields themselves! If you are ever in the area we highly recommend this drive! So awe-inspiring! The mountains continue to change a head of you showing new types of geological structures and chemistries. We stopped at the Athabasca Glacier, that had a trail up to it and even showed signs of where the terminal moraine used to be in decades of the past all the way back into the late 1800’s. We weren’t able to touch the glacier as I was hoping; the river at the end of the moraine was just too fast and wide (and probably freezing!) for us unprepared visitors in our sandals.

NOTE FROM IAN: This glacier was full of “Nerdy” glacial stuff. Here’s a little bit about what I learned while looking at this glacier!!

ATHABASCA GLACIER

The glacier has receded greatly in recent years. Here is a panoramic of the glacier:

Glacial recession has been going on for centuries, however has sped up in recent years. This glacier has retreated about 1.5 km (.93 miles) in the last 125 years!! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athabasca_Glacier). The location here had each 20-or-so year mark posted to you could see the progress of the glacier. What an eye opener! In fact, at the location (picture below) shown you can see the vegetation growth that has occurred since the glacier left that spot 105 years earlier. It isn’t much growth!

Glaciers play a key role in the landscape and the evidence of their movement can be seen everwhere. Here, the glacier has grown over the solid surface of the rock cutting into it as it recedes. This is a classic show of the power of a glacier. You can also see the typical glacial rocks in the area. Each of these shows the glacier in the background with some of its left over rocks in the front. COOL!!

Another piece of a glacier is the glacial moraine. This area is covered in silt and rock that has been ground by the glacier. In many instances it may look like land, however, we were lucky enough to see where the terminal moraine has shattered away exposing some of the ice beneath.

So there you have it, a little bit about the Athabasca glacier!

As we headed up the road and got closer and closer to the town of Jasper it was my turn to sing John Denver, “Up in the meadows of Jasper, Alberta, two men and four ponies on a long lonesome ride…” However we didn’t see any meadows, just lots of mountains, trees, and streams. It is so beautiful I can see why in inspired John Denver to sing about it. However the town of Jasper was completely PACKED! I’m sure it was a nice little town but it looked like rush hour in New York City! We couldn’t even get into a gas station, so we just drove right through.

I wanted to see Maligne Lake and Canyon so we took the little side road that led there and when we got to the canyon we couldn’t believe how packed it was! We got out and started on the trail and even made it to a bridge overlooking the canyon before we just couldn’t handle the amount of people. It was gorgeous but just too packed to truly enjoy. So we left the park and continued our drive northwards. That night we ended up boondocking in a the Walmart parking lot in Dawson Creek, the start of the Alaskan Highway, along with about a dozen or two other dockers.

Note from Ian: Boondocking is awesome! Here we are boondocking the Dawson Creek Walmart.

Monday arrived early; we noticed that the sun kept waking us up earlier and earlier if the truckers and other early morning drivers didn’t beat the sun to it. Another day on the road, we had an actual goal of where we were going to stop for the night though which made us anxious to get going. One of Ian’s coworkers in Maine suggested to we visit Laird River Hot Spring Provincial Park. With such a pleasant name to it and rave reviews we were excited to get there, which made time go rather slowly. To make time speed up and keep our minds occupied through the drive I got Ian to play “My cows” with me. This was a game my parents got my sisters and I to play when we were young and bored on the long car trips to my grandparents’ houses. Ian and never heard of it and maybe you haven’t either so I’ll break down the rules (or at least what I could remember) in the way I was taught by my parents. Every time you see a cattle or a cow you say “my cow” or if you are bored with the small amount of cows around, whatever the animal happens to be so “my deer” if I saw a deer etc. Scoring is rather up to whoever is in on the game or that’s how we used to play. So Ian and I decided (or mostly I decided, him being new to the game) the following.

	Points	Justification
Ravens	1	They were everywhere!
Cows	1	Common for a while in the bit of farm country that exisited
Horses/Deer	2	Rare-ish (horses should have only been 1 there were common)
Elk/Caribou	3	Hadn’t seen any yet but figured they would be more common than the following
Mountain Goats/ Big Horned Sheep	4
Buffalo	5
Black Bear	7
Grizzly Bear	10

Now typically when playing my cows anytime someone sees a graveyard they can shout out, “Bury Your Cows!” then all of the members playing the game start back at zero except for the observant player that spotted the graveyard. We figured we wouldn’t be seeing many graveyards in our drive through the mountains and boreal forests so we decided to cancel the burring of cows. 😉 All that is left before you start to play is deciding on a number that wins say first to 10 or even 21 animals. We played a few rounds over the next few days. Ian was very quick at catching on; I think he won most of our games.

Eventually we made our way to northern BC, the mountains came and went and the roads and construction got worse. We pulled over by a campground on Mucho Lake, which was a beautiful lake surrounded by stony mountains. I’m banking on Ian adding a picture HERE: 😉 If you drive this way make sure to slow down and you go farther north because the mountain rock comes all the way to the water and so do the Bighorn Sheep! Other notable species in this area were Caribou, and a little farther north were Bison and a Black Bear right by the side of the road!!!

NOTE FROM IAN : This goat has a satellite tag! I thought that was pretty cool. I’m assuming he’s being used to look at the movement of goats around the roads. He was right on it! He’s at MUNCHO LAKE, which can be seen here:

Finally after the last hour of excitement we made it to Liard River Hot Springs! It is a nice little campground which fills up fast during the peak season so get there early. The main spring was beautiful and super-hot! Over 110 degrees F, this is above my comfort level but Ian loved it right from the mouth of the spring. I had to go down to the next tier where the water was a little cooler. The water was a clear dark blue to green and lovely. The only problem was the smell of the sulfur, but well worth the relaxing temperature! Even more so after driving long distances every day, cramped muscles are able to loosen in that hot water.

That night at the campground Ian got up at 1am to take pictures of the slowing Perseid Meteor shower. I eventually got up to look at the stars as well, some of the brightest I’ve ever seen. Ian set his camera up to take more photos during the night with his intervalometer and we went back to bed. In the morning when viewing the photos we realized we had missed the Northern Lights by mere minutes, if it wasn’t already out faintly when we headed back to sleep. Shucks!

NOTE FROM IAN: The great thing about having the intervalometer set up was that I could timlapse it! Although it wasn’t set up ideally for capture, here’s my first timelapse of the northern lights (very short video <<<<CLICK HERE>>>) . Many, many more to come! Also, I didn’t manage to capture any meteors, however, I was able to capture a stunning movement around the north star, which I thought was very cool! It hasn’t been enhanced in any way beyond the original shot.

From here we decided to make it up to Fairbanks as soon as possible so we could still have time to spend in Denali and Anchorage before Ian had to move in next Monday. We managed to make it up to the Yukon and we stopped in Watson Lake at an information center.

At the center we were informed that you could win a 5 ounce or 10 ounce gold nugget if you participated in a Yukon passport challenge. If you visited 10 or 20 of the cultural sites while driving through Yukon and get your passport stamped at each site as proof you would be entered into a drawing when you hand the passport into your last stop. Most of these were on the way so we were gung-ho about winning some gold. However, our chances of winning when out the door a little while later in Teslin our second spot to pick up a stamp we were waylaid. We had stopped to find a museum and a gentleman came over to our car and asked us if we had enough room on our trailer to fit a BMW motorcycle. I was a little taken aback not understand at first, how would this be possible? He explained that his clutch had gone out and he had been waiting for hours hoping someone would come a long that would have enough room to bring his motorcycle to Whitehorse. He explained that he would give some compensation but the $700 to get a tow truck was too expensive for him to be able to afford. I was leery, as horrible as it is sometimes it’s hard to take people at face value these days. I figured Ian is a big guy we would have no qualms were I normally would balk at picking up a man I didn’t know, following the rules my dad had set down for me as a female driver in the past. The only thing left that worried me was that I wanted to know if the bike was really his. I asked if he had his title with him, he didn’t but he had his insurance and an ID. So no stealing a BMW bike here! We rearranged the trailer and with the help of Randy and his friend, Ian got the bike on the trailer. Randy had to sit in the jump seat of the truck but he didn’t seem to mind. The next two and a half hours to Whitehorse flew by with a new conversationalist joining in our little two person foray.

We got our first and only meal in a sit-down restaurant that night with the $50 Randy gave us for bringing him to Whitehorse. After eating we headed out of town a few miles and stayed at little a rest stop for the night. By this point I was getting rather tired of using latrines… Rest stops never seem to have good bathrooms once you leave the states. So hold your breath, put a good layer of toilet paper down, and make sure to bring lots of hand sanitizer!

Wednesday was all about getting to Alaska. We jetted down the road, stopping only briefly at gas stations. Ian picked up a book by Velma Wallis, an Athabascan native of Alaska, called Bird Girl and the Man who Followed the Sun (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_Girl_and_the_Man_Who_Followed_the_Sun). So I set about reading the book out loud for the rest of our journey to Fairbanks. I made the mistake of reading the back of the book incorrectly. It stated, “This story speaks straight to the heart with clarity, sweetness, and wisdom. When you’ve read this book, you will feel that you are a slightly better person that you knew you were.” –Ursula K. Le Guin. I got all excited for the book and then was disappointed. Don’t get me wrong the book was good, but it was very sad I thought it was going to be a pick me up. I looked at the back of the book again and it turns out it was a review for her last book, Two Old Women, not this one.

Thursday, we pulled into Fairbanks, we made it!! We dropped my gear off on campus and then headed south for the second leg of the journey. Blog to come!

NOTE FROM IAN:

So, how much does it cost to do a trip like this? Lucky for you, I kept almost all of the receipts and put them into a convenient table! If gas was purchased in Canada I put it into Gallon equivalent and if it was purchased in the US I put it into liter equivalents. All told we drove 3,500 miles between MN and Fairbanks, and this is the breakdown from those miles.

Still reading? Not too much else to read for now, however, here’s a few more images from the trip that didn’t make the blog. Thanks for reading!

In Minnesota, Life

A Short Documentation of Life on A Milkweed Plant

July 25, 2013 grizjohnson 4 Comments

During one of my forays with the Herbaceous Jellyfish (ie: thistles) on our land I observed one of the most bizarre bugs that I have seen. It had the head of a mantis and a long neck/thorax area that connected to claw like pinchers. From that point the body of the insect became wasp like with wings and a bulbous abdomen. It was orangish-red in color and had stripes. WHAT IS IT?!?! A google search at home by Kass for “bug that looks like wasp and mantis” quickly revealed that I had discovered a mantid fly. Unfortunately, at that time I didn’t have my camera with. So, a couple of days ago I made it a point to bring my camera up to the land and try to document these bugs. I soon found out that they were quite common throughout the thirty acres of pasture, and were obligatorily associated with the milkweed clusters throughout the pasture. Fortunately they were almost fearless and allowed me to get nice and close. So, before I go into my thoughts on these bugs I thought I would throw a few pictures out here first to bring your attention to the uniqueness that I’m talking about.

P7230170 — Mantid Fly on a Milkweed Plant

You’ll notice that it has pinchers just like a mantis. In an attempt to discover what this bug ate, I skewered a small deer fly on a 12 inch blade of grass and dangled it in front of the mantidfly. It struck out at the dangling fly and continued to back up and run down the stem of the milkweed. He wanted nothing to do with this large insect in front of him! In fact, my prodding caused him to use his wings and flee in flight. I’m assuming based on these results that the mantidfly focus on smaller prey such as fruit flies and aphids. In almost all cases these bugs were tucked underneath leaves or at least close to cover. I think they are afraid of being eaten. After examing many milkweeds I found two cases were a dead mantid fly was tucked against the milkweed stem. It seems they are also very territorial! I can only assume/guess that the carcasses were there because of homicide from another mantidfly. Here another pictures that displays the bizzare figure of this creature.

However, during my close examination of milkweeds I became fascinated with the number of insects that I observed using the milkweed. I took pictures where the creepy crawlies allowed me to demonstrate just how important milkweed is. One of the things I saw were these aphids clinging to a leaf. They numbered in the hundreds if not thousands.

P7230125 — Aphids clustered up for “farming” on a milkweed.

These aphids would be an easy snack for the predatory lady bug. It was hunkered just above them. I’m sure that he was sitting there after just having his big feast of tender, juicy bugs. I almost felt sorry the aphids, however, they were not without armor and defense!

P7230118 — This lady bug is looking for an easy aphid snack. I bet it’s an easy dinner!

Ants, which covered the milkweed were defending the aphids and caring for them. I saw them interact with the lady bug several times and each time the lady bug recoiled from the ants. I don’t think the ants are able to hurt the lady bug, however, they can still help defend the aphids. So why, you might ask, would the ants defend the aphids? They would be a great, easy meal for the ants as well! However, ants and aphids are symbiotic and actually help each other! The Ants take care of the aphids in turn for the sugary liquid that is expelled from the aphid’s butt. You can see the liquid being expelled for collecting below! Also pictured are the number of aphids that covered the milkweed as well as the number of ants.

P7230129 — This ant is reaping the benefit of taking care of its defenseless aphids (sheperd and sheep). He’s sucking the energy rich excretion from the aphid.

P7230126 — There are a lot of aphids and ants on one milkweed flower!

I also saw many examples of spiders that inhabit the leaves and flowers a milkweed, however, only a couple of them hung around for pictures. Here is another example of life and death on the milkweek plant. This crab-spider has caught and is chowing down on an ant. I’m sure he has no problem catching as many as he needs.

P7230141 — It’s dinner time for this unknown species of grab spider. Ants for breakfast, supper and lunch!

I also saw several examples of this black-spotted red bug. If you happen to know the name of this one let me know! They are pretty unique.

P7230113 — I’m unsure of the species of these red bugs, but they were fairly common throughout the milkweed patches.

On of the great things to see was the amount of honey-bee activity happening around all of the milkweed patches. We have bee hives on our land and our pasture is a reliable source for the bees to get pollen, and they do us a favor by pollinating our flowers. The bees can be a bit aggressive however. I was stung on the day I took these pictures while standing 60 feet from the hives. I’m not sure what inspired the bee to jab himself into my back, but I was glad none of his friends follow suit.

P7230082 — Our land has hives on it and the milkweed were a predominant source for the bees at this time of year. There many flitting around each flower. One thing that was interesting was there were also many dead ones on the flower. I’m not sure if that’s a bad sign from inside the hive, or a natural process.

Another one of the insects to inhabit the milkweed patch were the dragonflies. There were several varieties ranging in colors of black to yellow and orange. And, in size from 1.5 inches to 3 inches. There were some really huge dragonflies. I have seen the large dragonflies take bumblebees before and I’m convinced that a large dragonfly will also cannibalize his smaller cousins and fellow species. While walking through pasture I felt one smack into the back of my head, picking a deer fly away from there in the process. The one pictured below is actually a different deer-fly kill than that one! Based on this evidence of two kills I think the take of deer flies by dragon flies must be pretty large! I hope it’s painful for the deerfly – they earned it. Note, this one wasn’t on a milkweed plant, but he was juxtaposed directly to a patch.

P7230095 — Redemption! I was thrilled to see this dragonfly happily munching on this deerfly.

One last random insect on the plants was this great/blue bottlefly.

Of course the one thing I haven’t hit on here at all was the number of butterflies that were using the milkweeds. There were many, but my lens didn’t have enough zoom to do many of them justice as they were skiddish and flighty.

The pictures here show a one hour glimpse of life on milkweeds. It’s amazing when you start to focus on the small things around you the details you will pick up, and there are many that you miss! Be sure to stay observant to your surroundings, and that means more than the physical. There are tiny details in the commons places of our world and personal relationships to entertain, teach and humble.

Uncategorized

“Fireflies trapped in that big blueish black thing” (Timonian Proverb)

July 17, 2013 grizjohnson 4 Comments

I’ll give some background on what I was trying to accomplish. Has anyone been watching “North America” on BBC? It documents many of the extreme climates, wildlife and places of North America. The footage that they’ve achieved is jaw dropping, and they start the episodes with a montage of sequences that includes a sunset and stars whirling over the mountain range. It is pulled off incredibly, and is something that I wanted to achieve. Challenge accepted. So, last night I set up my camera for a first attempt at this capture and photographed between 9:00 and 2:30 AM (5.5 hours of photography) in hopes of achieving a sunset and celestial movement. I cannot help but be reminded of Timon when I look at the stars. “Fireflies trapped in that big blueish black thing”. Hence the title of this entry. Although I enjoy thinking about the complexities of space, the simplicity of the description certainly serves it well!

It’s been hot here, really hot. And, rumor has it that’s how it is across the U.S. Anyone that wants to weigh in on the misery they are experiencing is more than welcome. I’m more than willing to lend an ear. I, for one, am experiencing lack of motivation, fatigue and general crabbiness due to these clingy conditions. It’s driven me to take cover in the daytime much like a lion on the savanna. However, my small rant on the heat is just preaching to the choir, and actually has little do with my reason for this blog entry, other than to compare the intensely hot conditions of the day to those of the night in my upcoming entry.

Now, back to the meat of the thing.

9:00 PM. When I stepped outside with my camera an impressive sunset was forming over Perham, MN. I was stationed south of town by about 7 miles and as I faced the sun a slight wind quartered between my left cheek and shoulder. The temperature was a mild 78 degrees, relief from the heat! The camera went on and the tripod and were off and running. Sunset : captured.
10:00 PM dew on the ground. It was cooling off fast. But my camera had died. Crap! A quick battery change and I was back online, but a small jump in the final video is how I payed for my mistake. The stars were out and a bright, half moon was slowly settling towards the horizon.
11:3o PM. One last battery change before heading to bed. And by 11:35 I was sleeping like a baby. The moon had dropped lower, and if you held your hand out in front of you it was three palm widths above the horizon.

The next morning I was very excited to collect my camera and process the results. I definitely found the gap created by the dead battery, and figure I lost about 10 minutes of shooting. However, the mixed colors of the stratus clouds were stunning as they moved overhead. The tree that I chose in the foreground was a great stabilizer to watch the movement of the stars. There are certainly things I will do differently next time I attempt this technique, however, I’m very happy with the first start! So,without further ado, the timelapse of the sunset transitioning into the nightly movement of the stars can be found below. I was fortunate enough to capture the moon setting in the lower left corner of the screen as it dropped below the horizon at about 2AM . It’s amazing how much the stars popped out once that light was gone! Credit to the Moody Blues for setting the tone!

TIMELAPSE VIDEO LINK HERE

If you have time: please comment on the ‘quality’ of the video. I don’t mean aesthetically, rather, how was the streaming experience for this video? I’m trying to determine if the process of hosting through my Google account is decreasing the quality of the video. I guess as a specific example, are the stars flickering in and out? They shouldn’t be doing that (should be a constant movement across the sky with no flickering), but I’m unsure if that’s a low video quality as result of my connection here or not. If hear for you all that the video quality is low I will update the blog to help fix that. Let me know!

Birds, Chapter 3, Travels in the West

Travels to the West: Chapter 3: 06/22/13 – 06/28/13 (Family, and, Headed East for the First time in 3 weeks!)

July 4, 2013 grizjohnson 5 Comments

So Ian is giving me the reins here to document the last leg of our incredible journey west. For those of you who don’t know me I’m Kassie, Ian’s girlfriend of 7 years. It’s been a long and wonderful relationship although most of it has been long distance but we make it work somehow, I suspect God has a had a big hand in that. : ] Ian and I are alike in many ways and that is probably why we get along so well, one of the best parts of our relationship is we both see God in the creation He has given us and there is nothing we enjoy more than being out in His creation.

I’ll give a similar disclaimer to that of Ian’s, I’m not the best writer or storyteller and I make lots of grammatical and syntax mistakes so please bear with me as this is not my strong suit! :S Also I have a feeling this will get rather long since we have done much in the last week, even if Ian said it would be a short one we’ll have to see how long it gets…

Ian left of last time with our stop at Allyson’s in Corvallis, OR. After that amazing stop we drove the left over 8 hours back to Sandpoint, ID on Friday. Sunday we went to Farragut State Park with Sean, Jada, and Dane. The boys played disk golf while Jada, Dane, and I did some biking and hiking. Dane, Ian, and I also played at the playground in the campground. Dane loves the swings and Uncle Griz!

That night we had some awesome venison shish-kabobs over the fire, they were a little messy but so good! It was Dane’s first camping trip and he did very well, we did have to drive him around in the car to get him to fall asleep that night but he definitely enjoyed the outdoors and the s’mores! Dane is 17 months, and has been running since he was 10 months!

The next day, Sunday, it was a rainy morning so we found a picnic shelter to hide under and made a breakfast hash of potatoes, eggs, cheese, and tomatoes. Then we took a couple of short hikes around Lake Pend Orielle before it started to downpour. Ian got nice pictures of a Rufous Hummingbird and a Black-chinned Hummingbird (see chapter 2, https://ianajohnson.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/p6240135.jpg, https://ianajohnson.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/p6230042.jpg) and managed to get this cute picture with Dane before heading back to Sandpoint.

The next morning we went back to the Pend Oreille Wildlife Area Oden Bay, as our last morning birding trip in Sandpoint. Again the little Calliope Hummingbird was guarding his little patch of land and Ian was able to take those amazing pictures in chapter 2 of him (https://ianajohnson.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/p6250012.jpg).

Tuesday we went to Round Lake State Park with Dane and Sean. It was a beautiful little spot. We took the trail around the lake and Ian got some great pictures of a female Goldeneye. i’m not positive if it was Common or Barrow’s they are so similar but here she is with her young of the year. (NOTE FROM IAN: I was walking on ‘solid’ but muddy ground along the lake shore when I went into waist deep mud on the next step. Fortunately, saved the camera!!! :S. Once that happened I decided I enough pictures of the lady with the red head.)

I was pretty excited when I saw them, never having seen a female Goldeneye, I thought it was some species of duck I’d never seen or a hybrid… I got Ian pumped up to until Sean ruined my parade after looking at the pictures he knew exactly what they were… Oh well, still nice to see the little family.

Wednesday, It was time to say good bye to the Johnson family and head eastward again. It was a sad morning but also a bit exciting for the next leg of the journey.

We headed out for Great Falls, MT so we could hit up Benton Lake NWR that night and the next morning. We had a spectacular birding time out there, it was a great site. We saw over 33 species of birds in 2 hours the first night we visited it. Some highlight species for us were Cinnamon Teal, Chestnut-collared Longspur, Upland Sandpipers, Black-crowned Night-Herons, White-faced Ibis, Black-necked Stilt, Ruddy Duck, and Marsh Wrens.

NOTE FROM IAN 🙂 We were treated to an explosive sunset over the hills of the refuge. I, for one, have a preference for sunsets with clouds in them. The oranges, purples and blues were spread for almost 180 degrees. One last meadow lark was singing for the night silhouetted against the array of colors. Pretty!!!

The rest of Thursday was spent driving to Washburn, ND.My old stopping grounds. 🙂 When I was a sophomore in college I spent my summer out at Cross Ranch as a Piping Plover Technician through The Nature Conservancy. Ian and I went to the John E. Williams Preserve by Turtle Lake and walked around some of the lakes I did my research at. It was sad to see how high the water had risen this year! There were hardly any areas with enough beach for the plovers to nest. We saw around 10 pairs on one lake that still had some beach left, but only one chick was spotted. I hope next year will be a little easier on these beautiful little birds.

While the water was too high for plovers it was great for some species of birds I had never seen in this area, a couple of them being Black-crowned Night-Herons (BCNH) and Black Terns. We saw around 30 BCNH in about 2.5 hours! They just kept flying over us from East to West, I’ve never seen so many in my life! Some other noteworthy species were Marbled Godwits, American Avocets, William’s Phalaropes, Willets, Upland Sandpipers, Common Nighthawk, Northern Shovlers, and Northern Pintails.

**NOTE FROM IAN 🙂 : The common nighthawk flying around in the daylight was a real treat! on top of just seeing one in the daylight, he complied with picture taking by flying right over head! The red-eyed bird (you can’t miss it!) is an eared grebe. Their red eye was so intense that it was actually really difficult to photograph because of the saturation.

The warning calls from the shorebirds (NOTE FROM IAN: INCREDIBLE), specifically American Avocet, Marbled Godwit, Upland Sandpiper, and the cute little Piping Plovers brought me back to a summer of being yelled at as I walked and surveyed these lakes. At times it was a bit much to take in when you are being dive bombed by Avocets but I can say I stood tall and never actually got hit by one of those sharp beaks! (They were all pretty good about flying up at the last second ; ] )

After birding we went back to Washburn and stayed with one of my previous supervisor’s, Chris Gordon. We stayed up late chatting and reminiscing with Chris and Karen, we had such a great time! The next morning Ian made crepes and Chris took out some walleye civeche which was amazing. We then had to say good buy as Ian and I headed out to do some more birding this time at TNC’s Cross Ranch Preserve. Before we hit the trails we got to visit with my past boss Eric Rosenquist before heading out. It was so nice to be back in this part of North Dakota, I miss this area with all of its natural beauty, its wildlife, and its down to earth residents. While hiking the trails at the preserve we were hoping to see a Baird’s Sparrow and a Spragues Pipit which have been spotted in the area before but no luck. However, Ian got pictures of a Clay-colored Sparrow and some beautiful Prairie Lilies!

And finally we hit up the last leg of our journey home, about 5 hours back to Perham. We have about a month to relax (and do some summer school here for me) before we head out to another long road trip but this time to Alaska! (NOTE FROM IAN : Looking forward to the AK TRIP! 🙂 🙂 🙂 )

Thank you all for your time I hope you enjoyed Ian’s amazing photographs! More soon!

Chapter 2, Travels in the West

Travels to the West: Chapter 2: 06/14/13 – 06/21/13 (From the top of Bonner County, to the Redwoods of California)

June 26, 2013 grizjohnson 7 Comments

Well, it’s been an adventuresome last 10 days! However, I’m actually writing this blog entry on my final night in Idaho. It’s been an unbelievable trip, but Kass and I will be starting back to the East by heading through Benton NWR in Great Falls, MT, Cross Ranch SP and the Little Missouri Grasslands. I’m looking forward to being back. However, without further ado, I’d like to share some of the exciting events, stories and sights from the last week!

Also, a re-note on notes 🙂

NOTE: it’s kinda long blog entry, but I hope you’ll take the time to read through it all. Please feel free to comment and let me know what you think or what you might like to see for next time!

NOTE 2: I’m not much of a proof-reader when it comes to non-critical things as a blog entry. SO, please ignore and work around any errors. THANKS! 😀

A QUICK NOTE ON THE CALLIOPE HUMMING BIRD, BLACK CHINNED HUMMINGBIRD AND RUFFOUS HUMMINGBIRD

We were fortunate enough to see three species of humers while on our travels.

The Calliope humming bird is one of the smallest migratory birds in North America. Kass and I were fortunate to find this dominate male at Oden Bay Wildlife Management Refuge. I was able to stand very close to this bird has he offered both pictures, memories and insights into the world of a hummingbird! He flew post to post as he staked out his small territory, often fending off other males. He was likely defending a female on eggs. He kind of looks angry, doesn’t he?!

This full male ruffous hummingbird also sports an incredible throat! And, although less showy, the black chinned is also a very cool bird!

SCOTCHMAN’S PEAK

Scotchman’s peak is tallest peak in Bonner County, ID and the trail up the mountain was described in our book as “a heartless ascent”. They were right, it was absolutely brutal! A 15 to 20 % grade had my lungs burning as we cooked through the first mile in about 30 minutes. On our way up we encountered Indian Paintbrush. This has been a pretty common flower throughout our trip in the west, however, this was the first time I had taken the opportunity to photograph it. Its a plant normally associated with open areas, (in this case a sunny, mountain hillside) or more often in prairies.

One of the mammals that we found on the way up was this little Pika! These little buggers are herbivores and stockpile food throughout the summer. This one didn’t hang around long, but he sure did a nice little pose!

We were also treated on the way up by this mountain bluebird! He was a big down the slope from us, so you can see how the heat coming off the mountain is warping the bluebird as well as the scenery around it? Although it’s not the best shot of a mountain bluebird, I sure like the artistic effect! The deep blue of these birds was shocking to me. We actually found some great mountain bluebirds at Farragut State Park, so I’ve included this one twisting into a pose on top of a mullen.

Also on the birds of the peak, you’ve seen them before, but the western tanager is always stunning!!

Now here is one of the iconic animals of the mountains! The Mountain Goat! These goats are notorious for scaling impossible slopes. When we first reached the top we spotted this one peaking over the edge of the mountain at us. After reaching the summit he walked across this snowy flat (After Memorial Day!!) across the mountain top. COOL!

After reaching the summit at ~6800′ we were greeted with unprecedented views of 4 different mountain ranges. Here are panoramas of each of them as seen from Scothman’s. I present to you the tail of four ranges.

The first range is the SellKirk range. These are the distant mountains seen to the north of the Scotchman’s Summit.

To the south of the summit are the purcells. They are the distant mountains seen here in this panorama.

The southwest summit was the Monarch mountains. These were the lowest of the surround ranges. Notice, no snow!

And finally the Cabinet mountains! This range contains the Scotchman’s peak summit. Can’t go wrong with those summit conditions!!

And finally, to summarize the hike, here is Sean and I on the summit of the peak, overlooking Lake Pend Orielle the the west. I love the old-timey feel of this shot!

KOOTENAI NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE AND SNOWCREEK FALLS

Kootenai NWR is located about 30 miles out of Sandpoint on route 2. It’s a managed area for mostly ducks and deer, however, we also saw a moose while there!

I think the fledgling Great-horned owl pictured below was the highlight of the birding at Kootenai. Those eyes are intense and beautiful! There was actually a pair of fledgling owls, but the second, which was closer to us, flew off before any pictures could be taken.

This bald eagle was overlooking the Koonenai river.

After leaving KNWR we headed to snow creek falls. I will start by saying if you ever get the chance, take it! The trail is tucked back up some gravel roads and is very nice. It leads you through across a hillside about a mile before you arrive at snowcreek falls. There are two falls in this area. The lower, which is in my opinion the more specactular is a misty haven shrouded in green moss. You are able to be right at the waters edge and breathe in the moist air. The sound penetrates through you.

Pictured here is the lower falls, the combination of sunlight, mist and noise (which you’ll have to imagine) was delightful!

After moving from the lower falls we meandered up to the top were managed to pose for a pretty nice group photo. The top falls were gorgeous, but their primary function was to feed the lower falls and crash onto the rocks below. There is really nothing more mind-clearing than a waterfall! Next time you are at one stand close to it for as long as possible and then report back to me on what was going through your head as the sound resonated in your bones… I’ll be surprised if it was anything!

TO THE WEST, OREGON, WASHINGTON, THE REDWOODS OF COASTAL CALIFORNIA

Kass and I started on our journey to California by heading to southern Idaho and doing some birding. Pictured here are a western kingbird and mourning dove. I feel like MODOs are underrated. They are really a strikingly beautiful birds. I caught this one in the act of batting her lashes and me and blowing kisses my way. Sorry, MODO, I’ve already got my chick! 🙂

After moving on from southern ID I was stunned at the similiarity of the landscape to North Dakota and the Plains regions! There was a fire burning on the distant horizon and windmill spun lazily throughout our drive. Even the dry wheat and grass fields along with grazing cattle in the sage were a famililary sight! Here, we captured a few of the landscapes from our care window.

And then, after 12 hours of driving, we were THERE! And let me tell you, the redwoods are even bigger than Imagined! Everything is big there. We found horsetail (aka ‘Indian Tinkertoy’) that was above my head! The first were lush and huge and spread throughout the forest. Within the woods was silence, which an important contrast to one of the scenes I will demonstrate later. After walking a ways you were simply dumbstruck the trees that were all around you. Here I’ve climbed up one of the largest trees in Stout Grove and I look like an ant!

Below is a side view of just one of the ferns throughout the woodlands. And along side of that is a rhododendron. Many people imagine these plants being yard ornamentals, however, they are native to CA, and are very beauiful! They often stand 12-15 feet tall and have many of these large blossoms.

But, anway, back to the trees. Really, it was all so amazing there I’m having a hard time writing about it without small anecdotes! (ie: fern above) Here are just some more pictures of me trying to convey just how big some of the trees are! These trees are up to 33 feet in diameter and over 2,000 years old. They are able to grow there because of a humid climate which happens to be stable to boot! (of course… that is until CA falls away from the rest of the United States).

I wedged this penny into the sawed, 3.5 foot diameter section of limb for perspective. These trees DO NOT grow fast! Imagine how many of these rings fit into a 2000 year old tree! Actually, that’s a bit of a joke, because the answer is 2000.

We also were able to have some fun on one of the fallen trees, which I have dubbed as the “Dance of the Redwood Fairies” :). Note the fairies here are about 15 feet off the ground, so it was no small feet getting them to dance like this! A rare sight, indeed!

After moving from the redwoods we headed to Crescent Beach for the tidepools. I had been to tide pools in Maine, but I had never seem them like this before! Green anenomes teamed throughout them and star fish hung onto the rocks, waiting for the tide to return. Crabs and small invertebrates crawled everywhere. Hopefully just these two pictures will speak for themselves here! I wish I had more, however there was a camera debacle. I had the brilliant idea to wrap a ziploc bag around my lens and then submerge the lens under the water for underwater photography. That actually pretty well, but my safety measured didn’t account for a small wave that came over the top of the camera. 5 minutes later I noticed bubbling and oxidation coming from my flashport. OOOOOOHHH NO! So, I turned the camera off, took out the battery cleaned it, said a prayer and put it all back together. When I turned it back on a small black smoke rose from the flash port and there was a singe of burning electronics in the nose. So, with that story in mind, my tide-pooling pictures were cut short!

One of the most incredible areas (other than the redwoods) that we experienced at the park was the Kalmath River Estuary.This area was teaming with birds and mammal life alike and was a high contrast to the deafening silence of the redwoods. Pelicans, ospreys and cormorants relentless fished for small bait on the incoming tide. However, it was the Stellars Sea lions that were the most incredible to watch! These gracesful and huge mammals were feeding on lamprey (pictured) and other fish. Several times Kassie and I observed them tearing apart large fish by brutally thrashing them on the surface. Of course, if you were a sea lion you wouldn’t have opposable thumbs to grab and pull with, so thrashing would be the only acceptable way to tear apart meat! The osprey were apparently also fishing the lamprey, as one flew overhead with one! The pelicans mouth can hold more than his belly can (like helican!! :D) and this pelican has just come up from a successful dive, see a few of the fish in his pouch??

Also, the black oyster catchers pictured here were a VERY cool bird to see! On top of these amazing animal encounters was a rocky jutting coastline and gray whales feeding and blowing in front of the river mouth!

One of the well known mammals, which came as a surprise to me, were the Theodore Roosevelt Elk. As the name suggests these elk were transplanted from TNRP (see Chapter 1) into the park to re-establish the populations which had been hunted to extinction. Here are just a couple of the ones that we observed!

I honestly could go on, and on about our experiences at the park. But, in order to save my fingers, and you a bit of a reading time, I thought I would just do a picture ‘dump’ from some of the other things observed that need little explanation.

ON OUR WAY BACK THROUGH CORVALLIS OREGON TO VISIT ALLYSON (and BEN!)

On our way back north we stopped by the humble household of a friend and PhD student, Allyson. She was generous enough to take us out birding and show us one of the coolest birds of the trip. The Acorn woodpecker! These birds are known for drilling holes into trees and then stuffing the hole tightly with an acorn as a winter larder. They often need to fend off the squirrels, and the sequences of that can be seen in the new documentary, North America, be sure to check out the episodes on TV, as they are truly stunning!

Also pictured here are a song sparrow, scrub jay and barn swallow:

And here we are! The reunion.

So folks, that chapter 2, hopefully 1 more chapter in the making! I think it will be a shorter chapter, but will include the journey back to MN, and with a little luck burrowing owls!! I hope you enjoyed!

Chapter 1, Travels in the West

Travels to the West : Chapter 1 : 06/07/13 – 06/13/13 (Teddy Roosevelt NP, Glacier NP and Idaho)

June 13, 2013 grizjohnson 6 Comments

Since my last entry I have departed from Maine and driven to Minnesota with my dear mother. She was willing to tolerate me (and I her? 🙂 ) on the 1800 mile journey between those two states. After reaching home I spent a few days there before leaving on a sabbatical/vacation/adventure for the west with my Girlfriend, Kassie Pesch. This trip has a few purposes including seeing the west, birding, being a naturalist and visiting my brother in Idaho for a few weeks. I am struggling on the best way to display some of the many images taken on this trip. Group them by location? by activity type? by species? By genera? After a lot of consideration I have decided to display them chronologically or by species groups. I’ve also done my best to show my pictures which I feel demonstrate the region where they were taken.

NOTE: it’s kinda long blog entry, but I hope you’ll take the time to read through it all. Please feel free to comment and let me know what you think or what you might like to see for next time!

NOTE 2: I’m not much of a proof-reader when it comes to non-critical things as a blog entry. SO, please ignore and work around any errors. THANKS! 😀

TEDDY ROOSEVELT NATIONAL PARK

Teddy Roosevelt National Park (TRNP) is located in the western side of North Dakota. It can be seen here (MAP LINK). The land is divided into 2 ‘units’. The north and the south.

Spotted Towhee are one of the common birds found throughout the praire lands of North Dakota. Here a spotted towhee is sitting above the painted canyons.

And, speaking of the Painted Canyons here they are! These are extenstion of the Badlands of South Dakota, to which many are familiar. If anyone every drones on how flat and boring North Dakota is… it’s probaby because they have not been far enough west! These painted canyons are beautiful in any light, but when a sunset or sunrise pours over them the lights up in reds, browns, grays and and greens that twist together into one of the most memorable scenes you can have. These lands are aptly named by the ox-cart travelers. They cannot be farmed or easily traversed.

Painted Canyons, Theodore Roosevelt NP, Panorama

Here they are, the mosaic and color of the Painted Canyons! These clay balls become like grease when wet. They colors meld together into the painted landscapes that surround you on all sides as you hike through them.

This bird is unidentified, however, I just throught it was amazing how big of a meal he was able to find in the wilderness of the prairie. Dinner is served!

This American Crow may be one of the most common birds that people remember. They are known for the intelligence and social behavior. This one obviously knew that I was not a threat, and allowed me to approach him quite closely!

Here are just a couple of the flowers that you’ll find in the prairie and painted canyon lands of North Dakota. The pink flower on the left is a rock rose and the flower on the right is prairie smoke. It certainly is well named. I can see both the red-fire of it’s flower and the smoke of the seeds poking from it!

Bison are the ICONIC mammal of the plains of ND, WY and SD. These mammals once numbered in herds that numbered in the millions, but were hunted to near extinction by pioneers and settlers throughout the course of the history in the early west. These days there are stable populations of these great animals throughout the plains. However, one thing that is hard to convey in a picture is just how enormous they are! Here, on the left, I’m hoping that the picnic table gives scale to this large bull who was scratching his beard on it. The bull on the left may have been even bigger! He had littler concern for us as we passed by.

Here are another famous mammal of the canyon lands. The residents of Prairie Dog Town! These rodents are known for colonizing large areas and often spend their days chewing grass. The advantage of being in such a large colony is that many eyes see coyotes, raptors and humans much better than few! The young prairie dogs shown on the left were about half grown. They were always the first do disappear when the warning “CHURRIPS!” were sound across the Town.

And, since we are on the mammals of Theodore Roosevelt Nation Park here is one the most sought after, mystical and famous. The ‘wild’ horses of the plains. These horses are not truly native, but are feral horses who range throughout the plains eating grasses and raising young. The thought of them being feral doesn’t take away from their beauty! They are often seen at sunset or in the dusky hour grazing in roadside areas. On the left they are shown on a distant ridge-top silhouetted against the waning sunset. On the right a group of horses are harboring two foals as they graze along.

There are naturally many birds that are throughout the painted canyons and TRNP. On this trip we did have some that we absolutely wanted to see, and here are a few of them! On the left a red-headed woodpecker browses through its favored cottonwoods. Unfortunately it was an overcast day when this photo was taken, because he’s such a beautiful bird! In the middle a lazule bunting sounds out to all the single females around him, hoping to find a mate. And on the right an orchard oriole sits up in the evening sun. One other oriole not pictured here, but was a ‘lifer’ (one that I had never seen) was the bullock’s oriole. Maybe next time I’m in TNRP I’ll get the opportunity to take pictures of them!

The sunrise of over TNRP in the morning was truly a treat, and was a great way to start the end of our stay at TNRP. The fog, sunlight, cottonwoods and canyons were a delightful combination!

Although tent caterpillars are never a welcome site, you cannot really deny their uniqueness and beauty. Based on the number of tents and emerging worms that were seen I think that it will be a bad year for the trees, but a good year for the birds! I predict it will be a prolific year. My grandmother, Phyllis, once told a story of these caterpillars being so thick when growing up in northern MN that the trains were unable to stop due to the slickness of the tracks! Here the tent worms are shown dappled in the sunlight.

MISSOURI NATIONAL GRASSLANDS

The Little Missouri National Grasslands (LMNG) are vast, and beautiful. They house many birds and animals. If you have have the opportunity to watch a thunderstorm roll over these plains, be sure you take it and enjoy it! It is powerful to watch the distant rain and thunder arc between sky and land. Our tour of the LMNG brought out many of the classic grassland birds. Here are just a few!

This marbled godwit was actually a bit pesky! It was so intent on protecting its nest it stood in front of the car and tried to shoo us away. You do not always think about the shorebirds of the Great Plains, but they are there, and plentiful to boot! Another interesting example is included below.

This is a Wilson’s Phalrope. One of the most interesting things about this bird is that the femals are colorful and the males are drab! In this species the male actually determines which of the females he thinks is the most fit and beautiful! They are a pint sized bird and I believe they are smaller than a robin. Here these two females are shown wading and foraging.

There are many, many types of blackbirds in the prairie! Here, a yellow-headed black bird looks on while perched on a cattail and a bobo-link trills perched on top of this fencepost. Fence posts are actually a great place to observe many of the grassland birds as it offers them a vantage point for predators and a high visibility location for likely mates to see them. Below are a few more of the examples birds that like to sit high on the posts.

This horned larked (left) was sitting on his vantage point. I’m not sure if he was just enjoying the sun or watching for predators. However, the savannah sparrow (right) had a purpose for his high post! Sing and show off for the ladies. This sparrow sat on top of his post and quivered his wings sporadically and held poses before signing to anyone would listen. When we departed 5 minutes later he was still intent on wooing a mate!

Below is another of iconic birds of the grasslands. The eastern meadowlark is known for its beatiful voice and striking yellow breast. They will often sit as high as possible, but are often very skiddish to approaching humans.

GLACIER NATIONAL PARK

After leaving grasslands of the Little Missouri we were off to Montana and Glacier National Park (GNP) which can be seen at this link here: MAP LINK . Montana is known as the big sky country, and rightfully so! Our trip to Glacier was filled with grand views and grasslands. We skirted to the south of GNP and then came into the west side of the park, where I had never been before. About 8 years ago I had the opportunity to do some backpacking in the east side. One of the great parts of the west side, as I found out, is that many of the roads are maintained as gravel for cultural reasons. The terrains and means of getting to it are rugged. We stayed 2 nights at the Bowman Lake Campground, located on the south end of Bowman Lake (MAP LINK) . I will put in a shameless plug for this area now and say if you get a chance to visit it, please do!!

However, before we made it up to Bowman Lake we had a few other things in Mind. Here, a river rages into the north end of McDonald lake, one of the biggest lakes in West Glacier. Our hike to this spot yielded a varied thrush, a lifer for me! We also had a special duck on the brain when visiting this area. Did we get him?? You bet! See below!

Harlequin ducks are one of the most unique ducks I can think of. They remind me of clowns. Harlies breed in the river areas of mountains and feed on invertabrates. On the left two males are shown looking for larvae and crayfish. I thought it was simply lucky and incredible to catch this male with his head in the water while looking straight at me. Look at those eye spots he has!! The female in the middle is drab compared to the males, but a very cool duck. On the left a male takes a rest on the rocks in the middle of the river. There was a significant event in GNP in regards to these ducks this year. Biologists now know that they get OLD! In short, a banded duck was found that is a minimum of 17 years old. For the full story you can visit here: STORY OF 17 Y/O HARLIE DUCK

You have never seen night until you experience it in an area with no lights except the stars! The number of stars in the sky is truly unbelievable. Here, three different starscapes were captured. On the left the starts were captured looking straight up through the ponderosa pines. In the middle the stars are captured looking to the north over Bowman Lake. And in the image on the right an 8 minute exposure shows the celestial movements that never cease!

The next morning we headed out the the Numa Lookout Fire Tower. The climb to the tower moved up 3000 feet and ended at 6900′. The trail was well graded throughout and I would recommend it to anyone! The view from the top was beautiful, see for yourself! Here, the panorama of the mountain top show as well as a Glacier Lily set to a mountainous landscape in the rear.

We also found several birds to look at throughout the day. Some of the highlights included ruffous humingbird ( not pictured), pine siskins (left), WESTERN TANAGER, McGillvary’s Warbler, Dark Eyed Junco (oregon phase) and townsend’s solitaire. Of course, of all of these birds the tanager is the visually most stunning! I’m a bit disappointed that the light was so dingy when we saw them, but I think you’ll get the point!

Our way up and down was also graced with may types of flowers. One of the most dainty and beautiful is the fairy slipper, which is pictured below. Can you imagine a fairy wearing it??!

Up and down the trail there were also many stalks of bear grass. It looked as though thousands of of tee-balls were stacked throughout the woodlands waiting for a couple of teams of players.

Were also found a wild form of clematis , Western virgin’s bower. Clasping-leaf Twisted-stalk which reminded me of soloman’s seal and the Glacier Lilies, which I’ve featured again.

Our next morning yielded a foggy, moody morning over the mountains which had been layered in stars just two nights earlier. Again, I can’t emphasize just how breathtaking EVERY moment was here!

SANDPOINT, IDAHO

And finally, a few of the pictures of the instigation and reason for this trip, family! The reunion of my brother, sister-in-law and nephew is sweet indeed! Here we are on our hike up a portion of Mt. Mickinnick

On our trip up the mountain we came across quite an array of flowers! One of the most unique to me was the Coral root, shown here.

And, here, in no particular order, are some of the others! I do know their names, but for now, perhaps just the visual will do?

So, that’s the first week of my 3 week trip to the west! Please check back in for parts 2 and 3 of this blog which will include conquering the daunting Scotchman’s peak, trips to Kootenaie NWR and to the Redwoods or California! I will leave you with this one last photo of an osprey feasting on a Kokanee salmon in the Kootenai NWR. COOL!

Birds, In Minnesota

Un-static Time

June 5, 2013 grizjohnson 3 Comments

I really haven’t been around my home here in Minnesota for over 7 years. My time in college drug me away from here in 2006 and the ponds, roads and woods where I tread as a wee lad haven’t seen my toe prints in quite some time. However, today I went out and walked behind the pond, one of my favorite spots, and was rewarded with birds and wildlife. A grouse was drumming, but was too smart for me to get close and watch him. I did encounter the green below. He was bit skiddish, but posed in the back of the swamp for a bit.

On my way back I encountered the Minnesota equivalent of a Cicada hatch. The fish flies were hatching in vast numbers and a north wind was pushing them off of Big Pine lake and onto the mainland in front of me. The cedar waxwings, possibly a hundred or more, were dining, scoffing and pigging out on the crunchy flying wings. I sat and watched with my Mom for 15 minutes as waxwings gleaned in front of us. It’s amazing to me how everything we see is such a snapshot in time! If we had been there tomorrow we would have never known that such a large collection of bugs and birds had gathered. Below, I caught this waxwing going for the fishfly, which got away!

As we rounded down our gravel road we came upon a Hoary Pacoon (below) growing in the ditch. This prairie remnant was the only one blooming in an area that I recall having many along with prairie smoke and other prairie species. How long would it be before the small, wooded lot I watched the cedar waxwings in would suffer the same fate as these species? When I return 7 years from now, will there be any more hoary pacoon? Should I be saving the seeds and re-planting them somewhere else? But then, I walked by, sensing the fruitlessness of any interaction.

One bird we saw was a welcome sight was this Tree Sparrow. These birds are defined by the lone black spot on their chest. This one obviously has a family on the brain!

I do still see many of the things that are familiar to me. The forget-me-nots are in bloom, and these delicate flowers are always welcome around the house and in the garden! They remind me of growing up and going to my Grandpa’s, where a fast, ocean colored field of blue out back was always a contentious point between my grandmother and he. When to cut the lawn? Could the lawn be cut before the FMN’s were done blooming? YES! Said one, while “NO!” said the other. My grandmother always won, and the lawn wasn’t cut until the flowers stopped blooming.

So, it’s no secret, but time isn’t static. However, don’t lament in it, or feel bad for yourself. Instead use it as incentive to be out doing what you enjoy, knowing that it will never look the same twice!

Birds, In Maine

Rare-ducks, rare mornings and rare views. Acadia National Park!

June 3, 2013 grizjohnson 1 Comment

I have to start out this post with a description of trials and tribulations. My mom (who had just flown in from MN) and I wanted to head to Acadia National Park one last time before making the drive from Maine to MN. To sweeten the deal we decided to leave early for some black-bellied whistling ducks that had been hanging around the MDI highschool. We left early, and on the way experienced car trouble. The clutch dropped out of my truck! Ever pulled up to a toll plaza and had no ability to downshift? It happended to me… once. So, we had to call in a flat bed and got towed into Augusta. There we dropped the vehicle off and picked up a loaners. All within 60 minutes. GREAT! We arrived in Bar Harbor in time for our scheduled Whale Watch tour and were standing in line when the cancellation announcement came through. It was shocking, seeing as the sky was clear and there was no wind, but I guess the offshore fog was just too bad! After the cancellation of the whale watch we decided to head for the BBWD’s and were rewearded! They are shown below.

We also were rewarded with new life throughout the pond. There were goslings and ducklings in both of the ponds. In both cases it’s plain to see Mom and Dad watching out!

From a little birding it was time to command and conquer! We had a Cadillac Mountain Summit in our future and on our brains. We took the West Face trail up the mountain which starts at Bubble Pond. If you have had the opportunity to climb this mountain and this trail, good on you! It’s straight up the mountain and is a bit grueling at times, but you can’t miss the summit! Here you can see a panoramic shot of the mountain.

We headed back down the mountain and went straight for the Wild Gardens nature area. There we met up with my coworker, Tim Divoll, to do some bat trapping. One of the main pieces of the work at Biodiversity Research Institute is its bat monitoring and research efforts. As you may know bats have been hard hit by white-nose syndrome which has killed an estimated 5.5 million bats. This disease, along with deforestation and other habitat loss have been some bad species in a critical state. The objective of the bat trapping in Acadia was in collaboration with state, federal and university individuals to help understand the immunology, mercury and population dynamics of small-footed bat in Acadia. These bats are very small – one that was captured this night weighed in at a mere 3.2 grams! The picture below shows a small-footed bat with its characteristic black mast. The wing pictured is Tim Divoll checking this bat for scarring, which is an effect of white-nose syndrome.

The next morning at Acadia was indeed a rare, and beautiful one! We drove to the summit of Cadillac Mountain where we watched the sunrise. From this vantage point we are one of the first to see it in the US! I did a time-lapse capture of the sunrise, which can be viewed:

HERE <<- CLICK!

After taking in that rolling fog (did you see it?), passing planes (did you see it?), lobster boats (did you see them?) and of course, the sunlight and changing landscape we headed down to Jordan Pond for a walk. The highlights of the trip were many, but included few people, expansive views and incredible weather! I’m told pop-overs at Jordan house are a necessity, unfortunately we missed those.

Here is the view from the south end of Jordan pond (see the sun to the East?). There was blooms coming from the cottonwood trees and lazily floating on the surface.

Wildlife was abundant through our 4.5 mile hike around the pond! here you can see black-throated green warbler gleaning insects, a red squirrel digging for some insects behind the birch bark, a black-and-white warbler, a peregrine falcon flying a long the ridge-line and a common yellow-throat warbler. Of course my camera can only capture so many things! It didn’t capture the sounds of blackpolls, redstarts and black-throated blues. Nor did it capture the small minnows in the water.

Once we hit the north end of Jordan Pond the views were still there (they never left). The rocks in the picture below are only a few inches in diameter. Don’t be fooled by perspective!

From the north end of the pond I found the highlight of the trip. This may fly had just hatched. Most likely he spent the year growing and growing, this is his moment to shine! He posed in the sun, soaking it in before taking off in front of my camera. Thank you for your Time and Beauty!

So, that’s my trip to Acadia National Park. I hope you enjoy!

Ian

Birds, In Maine

Baxter State Park : Flowers, roaring water, wide vistas and Quintessential Spring

May 28, 2013 grizjohnson Leave a comment

Sometimes you have to aim a bit lower than you want. If you were to head to Baxter state park you might have a Katahdin summit on the brain. I know I did! However, snowy conditions at the summit (on Memorial Day!) as well as high winds ensured that I wouldn’t be taking to the high-roads. So, Carl Anderson and I stuck to the lowlands for some birding and sightseeing. We covered some ground, about 5 miles, and it was perfect! Below are some of the pieces of spring in BSP that lead to an incredible experience.

Painted Triliums were a common forb along the trails and bogs. These flowers are delicate and beautiful! It was my first experience with these type of trilium. Very cool!

Painted Trilium - Baxter State Park, Maine — Painted Trilium – Baxter State Park, Maine

I’ve seen a lot of Ruffed Grouse in my time, but never had I seen such a “ruff” display. Incredible!

One of the northern breeding ducks, Ring-neck ducks are often confused with scaup. Here a female (above) is sunning herself on the rocks of Grassy Pond. Below a male preens himself while a female looks on.

These white trillium are a bit of a mystery to me. If someone is reading this blog happens to know… are these white trillium a white phase of the painted trillium? Or are the a separate species?

A roarining waterfall at Baxter State Park

A lifer bird for me this Swainson’s thrush was bouncing around the streamside at Abol Campground.

Swainson's thrush during a migratory fallout at Baxter State Park — Swainson’s thrush during a migratory fallout at Baxter State Park

Here’s the view of Mount Katahdin from the Dacey Pond road. See the snow on summit?!

Carl and I agree, Big Niagra falls (Above, Below) was instant Zen. How many times have you listened to the waterfalls and cleared your mind? I can guarantee, if you take the time to sit next to a waterfall, that you will not remember anything that you were thinking about! The sound, the smell, the vibrations in your chest, the sights all clear inundate and clear your mind!

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