O-H-I-O

So, I made it back home in Ohio! I arrived home Sunday afternoon and I have been busy sleeping, visiting friends and family, and editing photos since I got home! I hadn't updated my blog much on the way home because of a lack of internet access!

On the way home we drove through the Yukon Territory, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and finally Ohio!

A gorgeous Swainson's Hawk!

Through the Yukon and British Columbia, we saw a wide variety of animals, including many black bears, stone sheep, caribou, a herd of bison, a moose and more! In Alberta, we stopped in the Calgary area. I know two people from Calgary and I was able to get a hold of them in advance. Logan Gibson directed me to his Great Gray Owl location where he gets some amazing photos. We spent a few hours searching for the owls but they weren't out the night we tried. The next day the other person I know from the area, Laurie Rutter, took us to some of her local birding hotspots and we saw some great birds! I saw two more life birds, bringing my total for the trip up to 80 new species! The two were Black-necked Stilt and White-faced Ibis!

White-faced Ibis

In Minnesota we stayed for a night in Duluth. I had a chance to meet up with my friend, Erik Bruhnke. We had dinner at a local restaurant and he recommended some spots at Sax-Zim Bog for Margaret and I to look for some more birds! We ended up hearing two Connecticut Warblers, and I saw a Boreal Chickadee and Grey Jay among some other nice birds!

Erik and I in Duluth, Minnesota, of course in nerdy bird shirts :)

I am in the process of putting together an album of some of my favorite pictures/moments from the trip, on the recommendation from a friend! I'll post the link here within a few days probably, so check back!

Also, although I started this blog to record my trip to Alaska, I have had some friends suggest that I keep it up! So I will periodically be updating with interesting birding articles that I find, and reports from other trips that I will most likely be taking in the near future!

Thanks so much to everyone who followed my adventure across the country!! Also, a huge thanks to Margaret Bowman for making the whole trip possible!

Heading home... I just typed up a post and it somehow got deleted in the publishing process... I will update as soon as I can! We have been heading home since July 11th and are currently in Calgary, Alberta!

American Black Bear cubs!!

Bison herd (some of probably 100+)

Stone Sheep

I BANDED A BOREAL OWL!

Banding a Boreal Owl chick with Dave Russell in Fairbanks, Alaska

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Day!!

Yesterday was the best day of the trip yet! We birded Creamer's Field in the morning where we saw 60+ Sandhill Cranes and a pretty nice sized flock of Common Redpolls. In the afternoon, we met up in Fairbanks with Jill and Dave Russell and Aaron Anderson who research Boreal Owls up here. We went out with Dave and Aaron to check three nest boxes. At the first box, one of the two chicks was peeking out of the hole. This was a life bird for me and Margaret. The near-fledging chicks were taken out, weighed and measured and I got to hold one of them! At the second box, the chicks were much younger. They were so cute! Two of them got banded and one was still too small to band. Along the way we saw a cow and calf moose crossing the road and a BEAUTIFUL Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk soaring! At the third nest box both chicks needed banded, and I got to band one of them!!! We went to the Russell's house for a wonderful spaghetti dinner made by their daughter, Amanda, and then had a fun evening drinking "the best ever" margaritas and discussing birds, birding and big years! Here are some shots of the owls!!

A nearly fledged baby Boreal Owl peeking out when we arrived!

Getting weighed

Mama Boreal Owl

Getting measured

Today it was rainy almost all day so we did some grocery shopping, stopped at the Fairbanks airport ponds for some birding and went to the University of Alaska Fairbanks Museum of the North. It was a wonderful museum with a lot of local natural history information and artifacts. There were also exhibits of Denali/Mt. McKinley climbs and the Aleut evacuation. It was extremely interesting!

Some Mammoth and Mastodon bones and skulls!

The University of Alaska Museum of the North

Denali National Park!

Today was awesome!!!

We left Trapper Creek this morning and drove to Denali National Park! It was too cloudy to see Mt. McKinley, but it was sunny to start out (a rarity up here) so I went for a hike! Margaret was not feeling up to a hike so I went out alone and chose a "moderately strenuous" trail through a spruce and birch forest along the ridge of a mountain! I was probably not in shape enough for a 400ft elevation change with 15% grades, but was beautiful and a ton of fun!! And hiking through the spruce trees, I was able to find a SPRUCE GROUSE!! Another life bird for me! It didn't take long while I was hiking for the blue skies to turn to poofy grey clouds that quickly began pouring rain. I got soaked, but it was a lot of fun anyway, and the rain even helped keep the mosquitoes away! Below are some photos from my hike!

After we left Denali, we drove though Healy and saw THE Fairbanks 142 bus that was used in the Into the Wild movie! An exact replica of the one that Chris McCandless actually stayed (and died) in. If you don't know what I am talking about, go read Into the Wild, and then watch the movie! It is an excellent book, and I don't even like reading. A little farther down the road, we actually passed Stampede Trail!!! The road that he hiked into Denali on and where he stayed in the bus for the summer. When I first found out I would be coming to Alaska, I hoped I would be able to see some of the places Chris McCandless was, like Denali and Fairbanks, but I NEVER imagined seeing the bus from the movie or seeing the actual Stampede Trail! I wish I could have hiked down that way a little bit but it was raining, and getting late anyway.

On the way to Fairbanks we saw a moose with a calf and then as I looked out on a little pond at some ducks, I saw ANOTHER moose getting a drink of water! Tonight and tomorrow night we are staying in Fairbanks. Tomorrow afternoon we will head out with some researchers who study breeding Boreal Owls. We will even get to watch them band some chicks out of a nest box!! I can't wait!

Of Birds and Mosquitoes

Yesterday we didn't do any driving, we relaxed in Soldotna, walked around town, and birded some at Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. We went on what was supposed to be a guided hike with he NWR naturalist, but since it was only Margaret and I and since the naturalist's husband is an ornithologist, it turned into a bird walk down an off-trail path to see breeding Aleutian Terns.... LIFE BIRDS for both Margaret and me!! While we were looking at the terns and completely drenched in deet, thousands of mosquitoes were buzzing around our heads, bouncing off our arms, landing on our jackets, and biting my legs through my pants! Totally worth it :) Aleutian Terns are pretty distinct and pretty awesome!!

Braving the mosquitoes for a life bird at Kenai NWR!!

Today we drove from Soldotna over to Seward and then headed north towards Denali. We made it as far as Trapper Creek, AK. On the way though Seward, we stopped to bird along a road that was right on the edge of the water. We saw another harbor seal along with six Marbled Murrlets, a Black Oystercatcher, and   lots of Harlequin Ducks, including at least 3 males in breeding plumage!!

Marbled Murrlet in Seward, AK

Tonight we are at mile 114.6 on the Parks Highway and Mt. McKinnley was supposed to be visible from mile 115.6 so I walked down the road once we set up camp but all I saw was trees and no mountain view of any kind. It was nice to get out and walk anyway and even though the sky was totally blue to the north, I made it back just before the hail started from the storm coming in from the south!

Pretty scenery along the roadside

330 Year Birds for 2013!

Here are some trip numbers:

I have been gone for 23 days
I have seen 225 species of birds since I left Mansfield, Ohio on June 12th
72 species have been Life Birds!
84 have been new 2013 year birds
I have added birds in 8 states
and 2 Canadian provinces.

These have contributed to me seeing 330 species so far in 2013 and 362 life birds!

Today we left Homer and birded at a few locations between Homer and Soldotna, where we are staying tonight. We didn't see anything new or especially exciting,bird wise, but we did see another Harbor Seal and another Moose! I got out of the car to walk down a trail to try to see the moose better but it had vanished. I did see some evidence of a moose being around though!

My size 7.5 shoe with a fresh moose footprint!

We drove through Anchor Point, Alaska today, which is the most western city in the US that can be accessed from a highway! We also went to the most expensive grocery store I have been in yet, in Soldotna. I spent $29.08 on apples, bananas, a loaf of bread, and a Halibut filet. I cut the filet in strips and breaded and fried it tonight for dinner! It was caught in Homer, so I'm assuming it was fairly fresh and it was DELICIOUS!! It was the best fish I have had yet!

The view from the campground in Homer where we stayed last night!

HAPPY 4th!!!

I haven’t had reliable internet recently so that’s why you haven’t seen any posts from me. It has been an eventful few days though!!

Two days ago we mostly drove and didn’t do any real birding. Even still, I saw some Common Redpolls while I hopped out to take some pictures at a rest stop!! They are one of my favorite winter birds and I saw my lifer Common Redpoll on my birthday this year, I saw them again in the Upper Peninsula and finally had one on my feeder in March!!

Yesterday we drove through Anchorage to Homer, Alaska. Alaska is SO beautiful!! (Not that I doubted it would be!) We stopped outside of Anchorage to bird at Potter Marsh after we passed a MOOSE on the highway munching on leaves!! Potter Marsh was beautiful and I saw some nice birds! Probably the best were the pair of Artic Terns with their fledgling!! I watched (and took photos) as one of the parents continually caught small fish for the baby. The baby begged but the adult must have been trying to get the fledgling to eat on its own because instead of feeding the baby, it just dropped the fish in front of the baby! The baby continued begging and the adult continued dropping fish on the rock next to the baby! I also saw some fuzzy baby Mew Gulls!

Notice all the fish on the rock left by this fledgling Arctic Tern's parents!

Last night we stayed at a campground right on the Homer spit. I wandered along the spit and looked at lots of amazing artwork being sold by local artists. After I was bored with shops and people, I walked along the beach back towards the campground. I was talking to my mom on the phone and I nearly dropped the phone while grabbing my binoculars when five birds flew above my head… Brant geese!!! I knew what they were before I got my binoculars but they were life birds for me so I wanted a good look!! I got a great look and I was excited because these are geese that I had been searching for last fall in Ohio!!

This morning we went out on a boat to look for sea birds and other marine animals! It was a TON of fun and I saw several new life birds and mammals! I even saw a sea star, which hopefully one of my marine biology friends will be able to identify for me! My favorite animals of the trip were Tufted Puffins and a Harbor Seal!! So awesome! I also saw sea otters, pigeon gillemots, common murres, black-legged kittiwakes, pelagic cormorants, bald eagles, black turnstones, glaucous-winged gulls, a few herring gulls and a common raven! I even got to see one of the young bald eagles get a pigeon gillemot!

Common Murres on Gull Island 

An immature Bald Eagle right before its Pigeon Gillemot dinner!

Sea Otters hanging around Gull Island in Homer, Alaska

After the boat trip, we went birding at Wynn Nature Reserve. It was a beautiful park with a pretty nice trail system! Although, at one point we accidentally started following the trail maintained by the moose instead of the trail maintained by the park and ended up turning around when we reached a bog! I didn't see any moose, but I did see plenty of moose turds and I picked up some moose fur! Moose fur is hollow to keep them warm. I never knew that! (Or if I did, I forgot!)

Some type of Lupin in Alaska

Another lovely glacier view, this one is from Wynn Nature Reserve in Homer, Alaska

Alaska at Last!

I AM IN ALASKA!!!

I am currently sitting outside at the Sourdough Campground in Tok, Alaska, enjoying a Gray Jay in the tree next to me! I think he wants a snack, but unfortunately, I have nothing with me. I did enjoy Caribou chili in a homemade sourdough bread bowl for dinner! Here's a picture of a Gray Jay that I saw this morning...

We arrived in Alaska yesterday afternoon and stayed at a campground in the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge. There weren't many birds around but we learned that there was a very late (major) snow storm in mid-May that occurred once many of the birds had arrived or while they were still arriving. It likely killed a lot of passerines and waterfowl that were coming in had no place to land because all of the lakes were still totally frozen. Surveys that will occur later this summer will be able to show the real damage from the storm.

In addition, when we arrived in Alaska, we were informed that there were fires in the area. Climate change has been causing increased fires in Alaska. Hotter and drier conditions make lightening storms deadly. There are currently 90 fires burning in Alaska. Thankfully, we haven't come across any yet, but we did see smoke settling in a valley where a fire had been burning.

In the hotter weather yesterday, I swam in Deadman Lake! The water was super clear and it didn't seem at all like I was swimming in a lake. Here's a picture of the lake: