Ahoy! I’ve taken a break from the Alaskan weather and spring to visit my family in Northern Idaho and Minnesota. Northern Idaho is a gorgeous region, and Lake Pend Orielle provides a centerpiece for the surrounding mountains (pictures were taken from the top of Scotchman’s Peak during my visit last summer). During my time there I got to spend some great time with brother, sister-in-law, and nephew whom I had not seen since Christmas.
On a side note, this post falls on the 1 year anniversary of this blog. Thanks all for your support, I’ve really enjoyed writing it and photographing for it, but it wouldn’t be worth it if you didn’t read it. Just in case you are curious, my first post details a dopey porcupine who tried to escape up a short tree :). Thanks all!
Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge
A panorama from the auto-road at Kootenai NWR. Ponds, mountains, and ducks. A beautiful spot that is full of life!
One of the great wildlife retreats in the area is Kootenai National Wildlife refuge. Although much of the refuge is not accessible to people, the auto-road brings you back through ponds were you can get great looks at many, many varieties of waterfowl and other birds. I think on this day we saw over 12 species of ducks and a good smattering of other passerines. A first-of-year meadowlark was trilling loudly and several species of warblers bounced through the shrubs. One of the stark and beautiful ducks is the cinnamon teal. This bird’s red head and eye sure make it stand out!
Cinnamon Teal at Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge
Wooducks are notoriously elusive and shy. As soon as a camera appears they swim or fly away quickly. However, they are almost undoubtedly one of the most stunning North American ducks. Some may match them, but pretty hard to beat!
Wooduck at Kootenai NWR. These birds are ellusive and camera shy!
There were other winged and flowered wonders during our time at Kootenai NWR. The lilacs were just blooming and this western tiger swallowtail made sure to lick up as much as it could from them. It fluttered back and forth looking for whatever it is that butterflies look for. I was just reading that the Koyukon people of Alaska call butterflies nidinlibidza which means “it flutters here and there”. A fitting name and description!
This tiger swallowtail was feeding on the first lilacs of the year. They are stunning and beautiful!
We also stumbled on these beautiful daffodils. I think these daffodils must be a remnant of homesteading in the region – I doubt biologists are planting them for waterfowl habitat!
I’m not sure where these daffodils at Kootenai NWR came from. Certainly there is a homesteading past there, so perhaps a remnant from that?
During my whole time in Idaho I really enjoyed getting to see my nephew, Dane. He’s a little better than 2 now and is a box full of energy and entertainment. He is (as all little boys are) very curious about all that’s around him. I am sure his parents will continue to raise him outdoors. It was great to see the ‘next generation’ out in nature! I’ll put in my pitch and say if you have a chance to bring a kid outside you should make that a priority!
My nephew looks out over the wetlands of Kootenai NWR. Although he wasn’t interested in all of the birds, he loved seeing the baby geese!
The deer have just finished shedding their coats, and some deer are futher into their summer coats than others. I saw a spectrum of coat quality from smooth coated to scrubby deer, which makes you wonder why some are later than others. We also observed two moose at Kootenai, which was nice! I doubt the moose are enjoying the warm temperatures. Moose in Idaho exist at temperatures which are extreme to them, and do not extend much further south.
The deer have not quite finished shedding their coats look pretty scraggly yet. This one’s face says, “HEY!, what are you looking at?” 😛This moth was along the trail to Myrtle Falls at Kootenai NWR. I’m not sure why it was perched so still at the end this stick. The brown and tan banding sure is pretty when you get close to it!
Copper Creek Falls
Copper Creek Falls, especially in the rush of the spring melt, is one of the most stunning waterfalls I have seen. The drop is uninterrupted and pluges 160 feet to the bottom. However, with some of the smaller rapids, I think the total drop in the falls is 225 feet! A strong, cool, and moist microclimate around the falls is filled with glistening green moss. Further downstream we observed a varied thrush, which are often found in riparian areas.
Copper Creek Falls drops 160 feet to the bottom. It is an incredible rush of water!All of us posing in from of Copper Creek Falls before rushing away from the cold mist fall on us 🙂
I will leave you with a peaceful morning in the Sandpoint Region. The morning fog over the lake was changing and undulating rapidly. How fog forms is fascinating to me! I have no included any music in this timelapse (which documents about 30 minutes of time), but imagine birds chirping and watching deer feed in the field hundreds of feet below you 🙂
Spring is in the air! In Fairbanks the trees are leafing out and the days are long and warm. Even now there are only several hours each day that are dark. 150 miles north of here, Fort Yukon is just starting to wake up for the season. I got to spend some time up there (it was much different than the last time I was here) and I made it a point find some of the things which represent spring. All around birds, plants, and humans are celebrating the season.
As an avid birder I am interested in the new migrants which arrive in the spring. The Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge was set up to harbor waterfowl; they flock there by the 10’s of thousands. The small ponds dotting the landscape are ideal for brooding and raising chicks. My waterfowl list for the trip included a dozen species. Passerines like yellow-rumped warblers and dark-eyed juncos were abundant. These two species (e.g. yellow-rumps and juncos) are some of the first to show up for spring, and are a great indicator the season is here for good!
A canvasback salutes the sun and stretches its wings near Fort YukonA pintail duck takes flight around Fort Yukon. AKA yellow rumped warbler around Fort Yukon, AKDark-eyed Junco around Fort Yukon, AK
Waterfowl are pursued by Subsistence Hunters as they migrate north. Each spring it provides a new source of meat (in a region that depends on 85% of its meat from the wild) to replenish stores until the salmon arrive in July. In particular white-fronted geese, canada geese, and snow geese are shot. When I was touring around the village I found a place where the birds were plucked. An unusual (for the region) strong north wind blew the features onto the trees and ground. It looked like a massive and violent pillow fight had been staged there. I got to share in the bounty of goose soup, which was delicious!
A strong north wind blew up these goose feathers from the beach where they were plucked. During the spring migration, Subsistence users taken many types of waterfowl.The results of subsistence users. In the spring time geese are actively hunted, I got to share in the bounty with some delicious goose soup!
The breakup for the Yukon River is a celebrated event by all who live on it and depend on it. River travel is fast, and gives residents access to some resources which have been unavailable since the previous fall. Although the Yukon has been clear for over a week large chunks of ice on the banks demonstrate the power it took to push them there and are a testament to how thick/resilient the ice can be! Over 8 feet of ice in some regions.
The Yukon River broke up in early May, but huge slabs of ice still cover the shore making boat access difficult in some areas.The power of the Yukon River pushed these ice chunks onto shore where they are still slowly melting away and feeding the river.
The leaves have not appeared on the trees yet, but spring pasque flowers, and willows have started to bloom. The bright yellow stems of the willows caught my eyes and were at stark contrast with the surrounding gray bark of the aspens. Especially eye catching was the contrast of the yellow stems and the blue sky! The base of the willows were dirty and marred where river water had washed over them just a few days earlier.
These yellow willows are a beautiful contrast against that deep blue sky!
A newly bloomed pasque flower in the sunlight in Fort Yukon, AKPasque Flowers are the first flower to bloom in Fort Yukon, AK. Here they have just emerged on 05/15/14
Spring is certainly in the air in Fort Yukon. Overall, it’s one of the ‘last’ springs to arrive in North America. I leave you with a still, spring sunset in one of the river braids of the Yukon. I hope you are having a great spring!
The sunset on a beautiful evening in Fort Yukon. It will not be long before the sun doesn’t set at all!
Yesterday I got a chance to observe some mothering and sibling rivalry. Bears in the Anchorage area have emerged, and mothers with new cubs are welcoming in the warm temps. Jonathan is filming bear behavior in the region for the BBC and needed a second man for that ‘just in case’ scenario that a bear became aggressive. Incredibly, Jonathan was able to find this sow bear and her two new cubs. Although you’ll see tags in the ears of this female, she has no tracking device – it was very lucky to find where she called home!
As we came up to the tree area it was very important that Mom knew we were there. We talked and walked up to the site, pausing to ensure she had seen us. Once we were settled in she paid little attention to us.
Momma bear hanging close to home and watching the frolicking cubs.
There was lots of opportunity to shoot video of some very classic and cute bear behavior. Check it out! 🙂
The cubs were a constant source of entertainment. The would scramble along logs and tumble off them, fight each other in miniature mock battles, and pester their mother who would sometimes pester them back. The bond between the bear cubs and the mother was evident – there certainly is some truth to that old adage!
The two cubs were always wresting with each other, you’ll see this playful see in the video in this post 🙂Two cubs playing ‘cub scouts’ up the tree trunk.The limb to the left of this cub was their favorite part. They would climb up to it, rest for a bit, and then shimmy back down the tree.A cute shot of the cubs. One trying out tree bark and the other checking me out.This cub looks deep in thought… wishing he was a bird?
Through all of the cuteness there was still a stark reminder of the fragility of life as a small bear cub. These two were meant to have one more sibling. One cub was laying dead outside of the den, and Jonathan had seen it earlier. We experienced the mother eating the dead cub. I can assume this is for two reasons, the first is that she can use the protein. At this time the mother cannot leave the den and feeds little. Second, the rotting body may attract predators or another bear and put her surviving cubs at risk. The mother ate the cub by tearing small chunks of flesh, even though it seems she could have swallowed it in one bite.
We experienced the mother bear eating the remains of her deceased third cub.
Overall I do not know if I could experience more joy in watching wildlife. Watching these two cubs enjoy the spring weather, and the tenderness of the mother was endearing. I feel privileged to have experienced it!
Well, it’s no secret that we had a lunar eclipse the other night. Alaska was just on the edge of the full eclipse zone, and the skies were crystal clear; we were in for a great show! It did not disappoint, the transition of the moon from silver to red was spectacular!
I took my equipment out to Murphy Dome. It was also one of the hardest shoots that I’ve done for time lapsing because the moon moves very quickly! In 10 seconds it would shift a noticeable amount in-frame, making it exceptionally hard to timelapse. Secondly, the transition from a very bright moon to a dark one was difficult to work with. In order to control the highlights of the moon, I had to sacrifice the dark part and to get the reds I had to blow out the highlighted, white part. Third, I was shooting at 300 mm, and the longer exposures were getting jostled in the wind. I spent some of the night huddled on the upwind side of the camera to protect it. With all that said, I’m not complaining one bit, I had a great night out 🙂
So, the video I’ve compiled here is from the phase transitioning to dark. I had to go in post-shot and crop each to match as closely as possible. I developed a technique of centering my cropping grid on a crater to get it as close as possible. A bit time consuming, but I find image editing kind of therapeutic. Still, there is a small waggle of the moon- I hope you don’t mind :).
One of the perks of being back in college is spring break. Kassie and I took the opportunity to head to Rio Grande Valley, South Padre Island, and Corpus Christi regions of Texas for some birding. Why choose those regions? Well, during the year over 400 species of birds and half of North America’s butterflies can be found in this region, which borders Mexico. There are brilliant tropical birds and northern migrants. March marks the time when the migrants are starting to move, and many of the winter residents of Texas move out.
All told we observed 120 species of birds and were able to enjoy many habitat types throughout southern Texas. We birded ‘hard’ for 5 days through grasslands, estuaries, sand dunes and beaches; our time outside gained us some red to cover up the Minnesota and Alaska ‘white’ from the winter. My skin definitely had not seen the sun for awhile!
Our stops along the way on our Southern Texas Birding Trip
This was a birding trip, so naturally there were a lot of birds. In order to keep this post a reasonable length I have included a full gallery of birds at separate page. It has a bulk of the photos in it. You will find it by clicking here the or the following link: .
The rest of this post is dedicated to highlights of locations and some of the things we saw/did there. Also, just a tap- clicking the location name will bring you to a Google map of it.
Bentsen was my first look into the “Texas style” of birding. They say everything is bigger in Texas, and their birding blinds fit that bill. By walking into a birding blind you can observe species at close distance thanks to a small, habituated trust of humans and the wooden wall between you and the birds . At these stations variety of Rio Grande Beauties can be observed.
Green Jay
Bentsen is close to the Mexico border, and it’s pretty normal to see border control and helicopters flying through the area. The region in general is a blend of Mexico and the United States and the mixing of cultures show through the housing and lifestyles of its residents.
This park focuses around wetlands. As a birder you can expect a variety of ducks, wading birds. This location provided our first look at white ibis. The bird pictured here is a juvenile, but will become stark white as it ages.
White Ibis – Estero State Park
Estero was also home to this wee-little Sora and Common Gallinule. Sora are a very shy species, so after spotting them it’s important to be patient as you wait for them to reappear from the cattails. Gallinule are the exact opposite and I think some would consider them to be ‘dumb birds’ because of how close you can get. However, I think they realize there is no threat from us in this location.
Common GullinuleSora
One of the INCREDIBLE bird species in this location are the Common Pauraque. These ground-dwelling birds have camouflage so good that even when you know where to look you have to look twice. Can you see him?!
Common Pauraque – can you see it??
Estero is also home to some impressive gators. Stay on the trails and you’ll be OK! 🙂
The Alligator could be found in a variety of wetlands across southern Texas, just keep your eyes out!Alligator – Estero Llano Grande State Park
The highlight of Salineno was seeing both a Hooded and Altamira Oriole. These orange beauties are sought after users of the feeders.
Hooded OrioleAltamira Oriole – Salineno, Texas
Salineno is very, very close to the border. Can you see Mexico from there? You bet! Just look across the river!
Welcome to the mighty Rio-Grande River! Mexico on one side, the U.S.A. on the other!
Near to Salineno was a far different landscape than the lush river valley. An arid landscape was brought to life by the windmill which still dripped water. Cacti, succulents and mesquite were the predominant vegetation on the landscape.
Llama!This mill still pumped some water which provided a spark of life for the birds in this mostly arid spotThis demonstrates the habitat around the “dump” road just outside of Salineno. Scrubby mesquite and succulents were dominant on the landscape
Meep Meep! Falcon State park brought hopes of the mighty and fabled roadrunner. Although we did not see any empty crates of ACME or a The Wiley C. there we were graced by the roadrunners which were truly running on the road.
Greater Roadrunner – Falcon State ParkThe roadrunner Falcon State Park
The other species that were great to find were the pyrrhuloxia. These birds are similar in sight and sound to cardinals. I’m not sure which habitat is preferred by this species, we found them feeding on the ground as seen here as well as in the shrubs.
pyrrhuloxia – Falcon State Park
While you are walking around the sand dunes there is a common feature on the landscape in the form of small funnels in the sand. These were not made by water drops or meteors, but instead, the vicious ant lion! These predators live in the bottom of their sand pits waiting for prey to fall in. They flick sand up at it before dragging it into the sand for consumption. Remember seeing that movie Tremors or Enemy Mine? Kinda like those. Check it out the video of ant lion vs prey
This ant lion has been removed from his native nest. The bulbous part of his body is at the bottom and the jaws grab insects pulling them into the sand
At the World Birding Center of South Padre Island (SPI Birding and Nature Center) a small wetland marks what is left of the once diverse island habitat. Here, many shorebirds, ducks, and warblers pile in every spring and fall on their migration route. One of the most memorable moments from the trip was when this scissor-tailed flycatcher landed a just a few feet from us. These birds use their “scissor tail” to do wild acrobatics to catch insects. In front of us they swooped and stooped catching unseen winged invertebrates.
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher – South Padre IslandScissor-tailed FlycatcherScissor-tailed Flycatcher
South Padre Island is highly critical to one species in particular – the Redhead duck. It is thought that 80% of the world’s redheads over-winter here. Although the vast rafts of 1000s of birds had moved out by the time we got there, some of the hungover ducks were still sleeping off their winter blues.
Roseate Spoonbill and Redheads
The showiest bird was undoubtedly the roseate spoonbill. These filter feeders use a large spoon shaped bill to sift through the shallow waters for invertebrates and small fish.
Padre Island National Seashore is marked by windswept dunes and long, long, long beaches. At this location, after miles of beach combining we discovered something truly amazing, and it’s not bird related! The butterfly clam shells which was up here can be found alive and well just inches under the sand. They are tossed up in the surf and a scoop of the hands will bring up hundreds. They come in many colors, all of them beautiful! Not sure what I’m talking about?
One of the great discoveries at the Padre Island National Seashore were these butterfly clams. Their old shells were scattered up and down the beaches. By digging a few inches into the sand you could pull up vast handfuls of these live beauties!
Port Aransas
Never have a seen a more docile duck. I’m not sure what was ‘in the water’ so to speak but it was truly incredible to be mere feet from Blue-winged Teal, Northern Shoveler, and Green-winged Teal. This location also contained an uncountable amount of Black-crowned Night-herons which roost there day.
One of the other firsts for me in this location was the Nutria. These invasive rodents from Eurasia were brought here for the value of their fur. However, once here it was discovered there was no market for these wetland destroying terrors. Nutria breed rapidly and are renowned for stripping native wetland vegetation bare.
This spot is a cool juxtaposition of sculpted gardens and wild-wetlands. There was a good variety of ducks and waders to be found in this area. However, one of the highlights was their blooming orchid greenhouse which has varieties from across the continent. Incredible!
This stop was the last of our trip and yielded an unexpected (but exciting!) bird. Behold! The black skimmer. This feeding specialist has a bill that allows it to fly next to the water and skim small fish and invertebrates from the surface. We got to watch these birds feed up and down the coast. On top of that dowitchers, godwits, a variety of ducks, laughing gulls, spoonbills, a crested caracara, and many other species were found along the board-walk.
Black Skimmer – Corpus Christi, TexasBlack Skimmer – Corpus Christi, Texas
I hope you have enjoyed the birds! I wanted to leave you with one last thing. Bird-watching is all about seeing bird behavior. Throughout the trip I took video of bird behavior. I have compiled just some of it here. I hope you get a feel for what it’s like to see them!
Yesterday Kassie and I made it to Sax Zim Bog (http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/sax_zim_bog_iba.html) to go look for some of the boreal bird species that move in for the winter. In the region there are northern hawk owls, great grey owls, boreal chicadees and black-backed woodpeckers – of course there are many, many more!. Our goal was to beat the cold snap we are having in Minnesota right now – in fact due to the cold Governor Dayton called off school for Monday on Friday! That hasn’t been done since 1997. Although with windchill values exceeding 60 below for Sunday and Monday night I think it’s warranted. Amazing that I can experience the same intense cold in Alaska and Minnesota.
Cold temps in Perham this week!!
Sax Zim bog is located just south of Buhl, Minnesota on the ‘Iron Range’ (http://goo.gl/7mBiuM). I actually spent quite a bit of time up there as a kid, my dad is from the Hibbing region, and attended high school at Buhl.Here is the description of the area from the DNR website : ” Level to gently rolling topography are characteristic of this region. The largest landform is a lake plain. Soils include extensive areas of peat over both fine-textured and sandy lacustrine deposits. This site includes sledge meadows, lowland brush and hayfields. There are stemless lady’s slippers and other species of bog vegetation including sundew, pitcher plant, leatherleaf and bog birch.This well known wintering area for Great gray owls, Northern hawk owls, and Rough-legged hawks is an ideal habitat for more than 240 species of migrant and breeding birds.”. The opportunities are indeed great there! For more information on the area and the opportunities there visit : http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/sax_zim_bog_iba.htmlhttp://sax-zimbog.com/http://sax-zimbog.com/birding-festival/http://www.saxzim.org/
One of the northern migrants in Sax Zim are the northern shrikes. These birds are classified as song birds, but are carnivores. The eat insects and small rodents. They are known as ‘butcher birds’ because to cache food they impale their prey on sticks, thorns, or even barbed wire! The northern shrike below was stooping over the field hunting an unknown prey. I was able to capture the bird as he stooped into the blustery winds as and perching on a nearby branch.
Northern Shrike stooping in the blustery winds at Sax Zim BogNorthern Shrike at Sax Zim Bog
Even with the condition of blustery wind we had some great opportunities to see some cool birds. Boreal chickadess are a migrant here we found a couple at the feeders there. Gray jays and a red-breasted nuthatch were also found at the feeders.
Boreal Chickadee at the feeders in Sax Zim BogGray Jay at Sax Zim BogRed-breasted nuthatch at Sax Zim Bog
As we were driving along the roads looking for owls Kass spotted a ruffed grouse sitting in the trees. She thought it was an owl right away, and so did I!!
Ruffed grouse at Sax Zim Bog
At the end of the day we never did see any owls. The windy and cold conditions kept the owls hunkered down. However, I didn’t want to leave you without some pictures of them! Part of the reason we went up there was Erik Bruhnke, who runs Naturally Avian. Naturally Avian is his bird tour, education, and photography business and I absolutely encourage you to check out his Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/NaturallyAvian). If you enjoy birds and just feeling happy subscribe to his page, his posts and photography are both incredible. By visiting the page you’ll be able to see a lot of the birds that we ‘dipped’ (did not see) on. His pictures of boreal, great grey, and northern hawk owls are honestly second to none and are award winning. By visiting the Sax Zim bog website you can see great photography of the owl species and the boreal migrants.
We were fortunate enough to have clear skies here a couple of nights ago coupled with a good Aurora forecast. So I took my gear over to Murphy Dome just outside of Fairbanks and set up for some shooting. It was my goal to create a time lapse and honestly thought I had it nailed until I got back to the house and imported my pictures. There were definitely some issues with this shoot, so lots of learning to be done! Here’s what I found out:
It was -10 degrees that night. I tried to help my camera out by wrapping it in tinfoil and adding some hand warmers. It was not enough and the images showed the sensor in my camera struggling in the cold. The predominant issue was the loss of one of the colors that left a purple tint on the foreground. I had to correct for that. I am going to be creating a wrap and heating system for my camera for future shots.
The sensor issue (cold) led to underexposed shots at settings that should have been well exposed
I shot at 3200 ISO so that I could shoot shorter exposure (6 seconds), but the result of that was very noisy shots that made it hard to correct for the issues listed above
In a non-camera related a close, low spruce tree in the shot for the ‘art’ of it, I wish I hadn’t done that! :p
However, with all that being said I have a product that might give you the desire to see the Lights up here! :). It’s not just a picture, make sure watch the video! There will be more northern lights timelapse photography as I implement new strategies.
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:
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!
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
I’ve seen a lot of Ruffed Grouse in my time, but never had I seen such a “ruff” display. Incredible!
Ruffed Grouse
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.
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
Here’s the view of Mount Katahdin from the Dacey Pond road. See the snow on summit?!
A Panorama of Mount Katahdin
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!
Sitting at Big Niagra Falls, Baxter State Park with Carl Anderson
