Alaska Sunday X

Our Last Day in the High Arctic

Deadhorse, Prudhoe Bay, and Surroundings

Our next to last day we were driving around Lake Colleen, a fairly large lake near the Arctic Caribou Inn where we stayed, looking for nesting Arctic birds. We had stopped and were scanning the edge of the lake and small ponds for birds, when we spotted movement under a feeder pipeline. It was an unexpected visitor to “town” - an Arctic Fox in summer coat. I almost tore up the car finding my long lens to get a photograph before he disappeared. I present Mr. Arctic Fox.

Arctic Fox – Altopex lagopus
Prudhoe bay oilfield in background,
possibly part of Pump Station #1

The Arctic Fox (Vulpes lagopus), also known as the White Fox or Snow Fox, is a fox of the order Carnivora. It is a small fox native to cold Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere. It is common in all three tundra biomes. It is a tough little wild dog of the far north. They have been spotted not far from the North Pole. They are solitary for most of the year with both parents, and sometimes another adult, caring for the young pups. Litters are usually 6 to 10 with up to 25! Dens can be complex underground networks, housing many generations of foxes. Young from a previous year's litter may stay with the parents to help rear younger siblings. The cubs are brownish and as they get older they change to white.

The Arctic Fox has evolved to live in the most frigid extremes on the planet. Among its adaptations for cold survival are its deep, thick fur, a system of countercurrent heat exchange in the circulation of paws to retain core temperature, and a good supply of body fat.

The Arctic Fox will generally eat any meat it can find, including lemmings, Arctic Hare, reptiles and amphibians, eggs, and carrion. Lemmings are the most common prey. A family of foxes can eat dozens of lemmings each day. During April and May the Arctic Fox also preys on Ringed Seal kits when the young animals are confined to a snow den and are relatively helpless. Fish beneath the ice are also part of its diet. When its normal prey is scarce, the Arctic Fox scavenges the leftovers of larger predators, such as the Polar Bear, even though the bears' prey includes the Arctic Fox itself.

We were most fortunate to see this visitor, since they rarely visit towns, even as remote and sparsely populated as this is.

Out on the Tundra

We took our Toyota 4Runner and drove across one of the gravel service roads, forded a couple of small streams, and arrived in butterfly - wildflower heaven near the beautiful Sagavanirktok River. For those that live in the high Arctic, this will seem commonplace for the summer. For an East Texas boy raised in Piney woods and Oak forests, this was like another planet. It is full of wildlife, beautiful, stark, and quiet except for the sigh of the wind across the tundra.

There is one small problem with observing butterflies in the high Arctic on the tundra. Either they have evolved to take advantage of the constant winds across the tundra or they are just downright shifty. It’s hard to get close enough to identify one with binoculars, much less net one for look and release. They pop up and fly with the wind (really fast !). Martha says this was a common and comical sight, “Troy in stealth mode hoping for one last, close look, before heading back to civilization”.

Sneaking Up
Franklin Bluffs in the background

Wildflowers are everywhere. I’ll eventually look these up and identify them. Of course, we bought a copy of every local wildflower book that we came across on our trip from Texas to Alaska. That’s a lot of books. When I was a kid, I thought Alaska was a place of snow, ice and igloos. Nothing could be further from the truth. Here is a sampling of the Arctic tundra wildflowers. If you can’t identify one, and wish to know more, email me and I’ll identify it as time permits.

WF1

WF2

WF3

WF4

WF5

WF6

WF7

WF8

WF9


We also saw evidence of caribou here
Lots of tracks

Here is their buffet
Reindeer lichen, moss, and grasses

Birds had been by also

It was a fine day photographing wildflowers and exploring.



And so the trip back to Coldfoot and Fairbanks begins….

The last day (6 AM) started nice enough. By the way, we considered the day to start at 5AM and end at 11PM. Breakfast was good as usual. They had great buffets with plenty of food and a nice variety. With breakfast over, souvenirs purchased, packing completed, we started. As we drove out of Deadhorse and visited our favorite ponds one last time, the wind picked up and the clouds started building rapidly. Storms in the Arctic can come up rapidly.

There’s a storm Brewing

Heading out of town
Ahead of the Storm

Like all good Adventure Serials………..

To be continued Next Week.

Photos by
Troy and Martha

Alaska Sunday is a collection of photographic remembrances of our driving trip from Texas to Alaska.
18,000 miles, 16 weeks, 16 western states including Alaska and four Canadian Provinces.
No chronological order, just anything of interest that got in front of our cameras.
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Columbian Ground Squirrel

Camera Critters

Who Me?
You Talking to Me!

Columbian Ground Squirrel
(Spermophilus columbianus)
Click on the Photo for an Up Close and Personal Meeting

Look at My Fine Profile,
See My Steely Gaze.
Notice My ‘Ready to Pounce’ Stance,
And My Long Razor-Sharp Claws.
Don’t Mess With Me.

Photographed at Two Medicine Lakes in Glacier National Park.

The Columbian Ground Squirrel is common in the interior of the Northwest, in mountain meadows, prairies, and farmland. Sometimes it becomes a pest in agricultural fields. Normally very social, except when giving the Clint Eastwood 'tough guy' pose and 'Robert De Niro' quote. Males defend their individual territory within a colony setting. It has different alarm calls when it spots aerial predators, than for those on the ground. They may store food in the burrow during the summer for use when emerging in the spring from hibernation. They are large, dark gray above, quite reddish below and on the face, forelegs, and near the tail. Martha and I thought they were quite beautiful.

Camera Critters is here. Come along; you’ll see some unusual stuff.
Join in; We would like to see your critters. Click here to join.

Troy and Martha

Scroll down for Skywatch Friday
in the Mojave and Death Valley

Scroll down 2 for Outstanding Yosemite Sunset
by Martha

Scroll down 3 for Photography
at Midnight in Coldfoot
in the land of the Midnight Sun

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ABC Wednesday "Q"

Quadruped

The Dall Sheep (originally Dall's Sheep, sometimes called Thinhorn Sheep), Ovis dalli, is a wild sheep of the mountainous regions of northwest North America, ranging from white to slate brown and having curved yellowish brown horns. There are two putative subspecies: the northern Dall Sheep proper (Ovis dalli dalli) which is almost pure white, and the more southern Stone Sheep (also spelled Stone's Sheep) (Ovis dalli stonei), which is a slaty brown with some white patches on the rump and inside the hind legs.

Thinhorn Sheep (Ovis dalli stonei)
King of All He Surveys
(Click to see the King up Close)

Photographed in Alaska
Across a Canyon

Research has shown that the use of these subspecies designations is questionable. Complete colour integradation occurs between white and dark morphs of the species with intermediately coloured populations, called Fannin's Sheep (Ovis dalli fannini), found in the Pelly Mountains and Ogilvie Mountains of Yukon Territory. Mitochondrial DNA evidence has shown no molecular division along current subspecies boundaries, although evidence from nuclear DNA may provide some support. Also at the species level current taxonomy is questionable because hybrdization between Ovis dalli and Ovis canadensis has been recorded in recent evolutionary history.

The latter half of the Latin binomial dalli is derived from William Healey Dall (1845-1927), an American naturalist. The common name Dall Sheep or Dall's Sheep is often used to refer to the species Ovis dalli. An alternative use of common name terminology is that Thinhorn Sheep refers to the species Ovis dalli, while Dall's Sheep and Stone's Sheep refer to subspecies Ovis dalli dalli and Ovis dalli stonei.

The sheep inhabit the subarctic mountain ranges of Alaska, the Yukon Territory, the Mackenzie Mountains in the western Northwest Territories, and northern British Columbia. Dall sheep are found in relatively dry country and try to stay in a special combination of open alpine ridges, meadows, and steep slopes with extremely rugged ground in the immediate vicinity, in order to escape from predators that cannot travel quickly through such terrain.

Male Dall Sheep have thick curling horns. The females have shorter, more slender, slightly curved horns. Males live in bands which seldom associate with female groups except during the mating season in late November and early December. Lambs are born in May.

During the summer when food is abundant, the sheep eat a wide variety of plants. During the winter diet is much more limited and consists primarily of dry, frozen grass and sedge stems available when snow is blown off, lichen and moss. Many Dall Sheep populations visit mineral licks during the spring and often travel many miles to eat the soil around the licks.

The primary predators of Dall Sheep are wolves, coyotes, black bears, and grizzly bears; golden eagles are predators of the young.

Dall Sheep can often be observed along the Alaska Highway at Muncho Lake and at Sheep Mountain in Kluane National Park and Reserve, as well as near Faro, Yukon (Fannin's Sheep).

To play, visit ABC Wednesday, mrsnesbitt's place. Click here.

We saw all 3 types on our driving trip to Alaska. You need to have a really good reason to want to go to Faro, Yukon. It's a beautiful drive but out of the way.

I probably should have saved this for Skywatch Friday because you have to watch the ridge line to see them silhouetted against the sky.

Troy and Martha

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Seward, AK - Small Boat Nature Tour - Part 2

I am not going to have time to post this in the morning. So I am posting "Alaska Sunday" tonight.
Don't peek until tomorrow. Click here to see Pt. 1. Some of the best photos are there.

This is Part 2 of the "Captain's Choice" trip out of the Small Boat Harbor in Seward, Alaska, to Kenai Fjords N.P. After agreement among all of the passengers, we decided to go to Bear Glacier 1st and then to the Chiswell Islands.

The trip started down Resurrection Bay to Bear glacier and then out through the Harding Gateway into Blying Sound (open seas) which is a part of the Gulf of Alaska. From there we proceeded to the Chiswells, which are directly out from Aialik Bay. The water was about 600' deep out from land and in the center of the bays for most of the trip .

On the other side of the Kenai Peninsula and to the southwest is the town of Homer (Halibut fishing capital of Alaska). It's a long way back around to Homer. We had set up our camper on a long spit of land only a few hundred yards wide that ran out into the Bay. But that is another story.

Click on the photos to enlarge them
Be sure to scroll down on the enlarged photographs to see the bottom

Pulling Out

Looking Stormy

Did we put enough patches behind the ear?

Whale Sighted

Everyone rushed from the cabin.

Typical Whale Photo

Most photos catch only the splash.
Click here to see Pt. 1 of the story to see an exciting 'whale breaching' shot.

Common Murre Raft.

Notice the streaked flanks on the Murres (identifying characteristics).
Can you find the five Puffins? (You'll have to click on the photo to find them)

A Sister Boat

Filled with landlubbers looking for wildlife.

Sea Lions on the Rocks

Notice how high they are out of the water. I was wondering about this and noticed the tide line on the rocks. I just now took out my Palm Smartphone with "Tide tools" on it. I checked the date and time of the photo and entered them into Tide tools and found that the tide back then in Resurrection Bay was 3.5 feet and dropping. It had been at 10.5 feet earlier. They must have climbed out of the water when it was 7' higher at the top of the brown tide line. Maybe my detective work is all "wet". Maybe they just jumped up there. ;0

Eagle Sighting

It's sure to make the boat tilt when all the passengers rush to that side.

Pretty Foggy at Times

Pray for clearing

Entrance to Bear Glacier Arm

The Glacier sort of makes its own weather. Cold ice, cold water, warm air....Fog.
I really like the reflections.

Harbor Seal

They like to climb out on the ice floes.
The fog is clearing. Prayer works.

Blue Ice

Bears on the Shore

I guess there are bears at Bear Glacier.
The little black specks on the shore.
(Are you remembering to click on the photos to enlarge them?)

Iceberg Calving

If you hear the crack of the ice and splash, it's too late to photograph the calving.
You have to watch and be ready.
That cracking sound really carries over the water and is pretty cool to hear.

Parakeet Auklets

We got lucky and found some on the way back.

Alaska Sunday is a collection of photographic remembrances of our driving trip from Texas to Alaska.
18,000 miles, 16 weeks, 16 western states including Alaska and four Canadian Provinces.
No chronological order, just anything of interest that got in front of our cameras.

Troy and Martha