Sitkinak Wildlife

 

For the first time, on this survey I brought a camera with zoom capabilities.  With the zoom I could 'get close' and take animal pictures.  Generally I bring a waterproof camera with a fixed focal length and forego the wildlife pictures.  

The lens was considerably bigger than what I am used to, and I did pay a 'packability' cost, but I think the zoom was worth it.  The camera still fit under my jacket in front - barely.  In the distant past I did take a camera on a river float survey of the Karluk River - but the camera barely ever came out of its waterproof case.  This time I had the camera and lens around my neck at all times.  To keep the camera package small enough to fit around my neck I had to get a small zoom so I was limited to a 28-200 focal range.  Nothing super powerful. But powerful enough to make a big difference.

Sitkinak has no bears - so no bear pictures.  Just a lot of deer, birds, foxes, horses, and lot and lots of cows.  The most common birds were swans and bald eagles, and what Chase called the 'drunk bird'.  I gather in Fairbanks where Chase lives the golden crowned sparrow (pictured above) also makes it distinctive 'oh dear me' call early in the morning.  He tells me that if he is revelling out and about on the town with friends they know it is time to go to bed when they hear 'the drunk bird'.

Patrick

Sitkinak Island Survey

 

Thursday I got back from a week long archaeological survey of Sitkinak Island.  This was the last extended survey of the year.  We like to do our surveys in the spring before everything gets covered with vegetation, and it has gotten pretty green of late.  On this survey we used a helicopter to get there and to survey some hard to reach locations, and then hiked about 40 miles over 5 days to cover the rest of the coastline.  

Chase and I started at the Northwest corner and, camping along the way, ended up at the Northeast corner of the Island.  We carried 8 days of food and at first our packs were pretty heavy but they got lighter and lighter every day.

There is a well-managed herd of cows on the island and they keep the grass short.  They also create nice hiking trails.  So the hiking was super easy.  Another topographic feature conducive to hiking is that all of the river valleys were created by roaring glacier rivers and have broad flat bottoms.  But most of the time we hiked the beaches.  The beaches are pretty remote and we found a lot of glass balls along the way.  We actually kept a running tally between the number of sites we found and the glass balls.  For a long time the glass balls were ahead, but a run on sites at the end put the archaeological sites on top.  Final tally was 30 sites to 24 glass balls.

So in total we found 30 new archaeological sites and checked on another 7 previously known sites.  A number of the previously known sites had already been completely eroded away be coastal erosion.  In blogposts to come I'll report in more depth on the hiking, animals we saw, the archaeology and other aspects of the survey.  So stay tuned.

Patrick

The sun is setting on the same point seen in the first photo as seen from the other direction!

Bode's sister?

 

Bode and Bode 'clone'

Yesterday on a Near Island walk in the rain we were walking back towards the car when a little black 'Bode' but with a red rather than blue collar came bounding along the trail.  The dog was so identical to Bode that I thought it was Bode.  Same ears, nose, neck 'ruff', tail and mannerisms.  And they immediately began to play and chase each other through the bushes beside the trail.

The owner of the other dog was struck by the similarity too and we took the picture above and talked to her a bit.  She had adopted the dog from a dog rescue outfit in Wasilla and she was born 'sometime around November 2021'.  And she too (like us - click here) had done a doggie DNA test.  And like us her dog was lab (around 30%), Alaska and Siberian Husky, and German Shepard.  We did not get into the exact details but the DNA appears eerily similar.

When I got home I contacted Aubrey our AARF contact who had gotten us Bode.  Could they be brother and sister?  Aubrey replied that it is entirely possible - the Wasilla dog rescue people and AARF both get their dogs from Bethel Friends of Canines which is where Bode came from.  And Aubrey tells that she knows that another litter mate of Bode's got adopted out but not through AARF.

Way back when we first were interested in Bode Aubrey sent us a picture of him with other dogs getting adopted from the same village.  There he is with his sister (who is a lighter brown) and some huskies from another litter.  Could they be re united on Kodiak?  Funnily enough at the start of the walk Nora commented that 'Bode is so unique that only his sisters and brothers are like him'.  This in contrast with Brewster who as a yellow lab resembles a number of other dogs.  

Patrick

Bode (black in middle) and sister litter mate - huskies are another litter

Skiing in short sleeves

 

Today it is pouring and it is hard to believe that Tuesday was such a beautiful day.  Tuesday afternoon Stuey and I took the dogs skiing on Pyramid.  I think the temperature in town approached 60 degrees, and Stuey and I did not need anything in the way warm clothing.  We rolled our sleeves up and enjoyed the warm weather on snow. Absolutely perfect spring corn snow ski conditions.

Patrick

May Skiing

 

These days there is no snow in town and really no chance of it even snowing in town.  But on high above 2500 feet it still does snow, and there is still more snow on the ground than there has been all year.  We are just past maximum snowpack.  It is the best downhill skiing of the year.  And yet since there is no snow in town people do not think to go skiing.  Inevitably when I tell people we went skiing they say, 'there is still snow?'

So there is practically no one else on the mountain.  Everyday we see just the usual suspects - the hardcore few.  This is actually kind of hilarious because in February when there is snow in town the snow on the mountain is often icy, or wind-effected, and there are usually all sorts of people on the mountain.  The skiing is often awful and you do not even know half of the other skiers.  Yet now when the skiing is at its best we have it all to ourselves.

Patrick

Typical clouds lately

Going to ski off of the summit!

South Bowl tele turn sequence - part 1

part 2

part 3

Nora climbs back up out of the south bowl

Dogs on Snow

 

Brewster chases down Nora

These pictures are from last week.  Lately I've been taking the dogs but skiing with us on Pyramid.  I do worry about the doggies' ACLs and, hence, try not to take them when the snow is too soft or deep.  I did not take them downhill skiing at all this winter until May.  But these days the snow has settled and is consistent enough to be dog friendly.

And they do love to go skiing.  Nora and Stuey like to ski with the dogs too.  I do worry about dogs getting clipped by the skis (it's happened to Brewster in the past), but both dogs seem to know to avoid getting too close underfoot.  `

It is the ultimate dog walk.  They go to sleep for the car ride home and are mellow all evening.

Patrick