Planes, glaciers, and berries, oh my!

Two more days of rain and low clouds kept us from finishing surveys this week, so it is back to Admiralty Island Monday to finish up. I had my first float plane experience which was enjoyable. Of course, considering we flew out because of weather, visibility was limited, but the views were still amazing (I left the camera in my bag that got stowed in the rear, so no pics).

Cathy introduced me to salmonberries. Fantastic berries in the same family as raspberries (Rubus - for the science nerds among us), a bit larger and what I would describe as a wonderfully sweet taste, but not as sweet as a ripe raspberry.












So we made a quick and simple dessert with angel food cake, whipped cream, and salmonberries sprinkled with grated Mexican chocolate. Quite tasty!





I took a short hike to Mendenhall Glacier just outside of Juneau. A glacier is a breathtaking thing to see, even from a distance, I can only imagine what it would be like to be on one. What I really noticed is how much it has shrunk in the eight years since I saw it last.

Halfway through our surveys

We made it to Admiralty Island early Monday morning, and after a safety briefing got right into the goshawk surveys. Southeast Alaska temperate rainforest is made up of towering hemlocks and spruces providing a canopy for an emerald world of mosses, ferns, skunk cabbage, blueberries, and the menacing Devil's club. Up until this point, my experience with Devil's club has been limited to a few encounters in the Pacific Northwest. The plant does an amazing job of protecting itself by covering its stem and palmate leaves with endless brittle spines that, despite our best efforts, find their ways into our hands and legs.



In addition to the hazards of Devil's Club, travelling between our designated calling points has proven challenging for numerous reasons. The temptation is to follow the straight line the GPS provides. For the most part, the topography allows that. What makes it impossible at times is the dense understory. Numerous times we have belly-crawled over and under moss ridden downed trees, cautiously scurried through tunnels of vegetation formed by well worn game trails, and inched our way up a valley slope only to be turned back by an impassable tree fall or vegetation so thick it looks like it was purposely weaved together to halt even the wind. But, we have always managed to eventually find a way to the next calling point.

We have yet to encounter a bear, but have seen plenty of sign. I am guessing we have been seen, or at the very least scented, by at least a few. Everything about the bears here is big - the population, the scat, the grub holes, and the tracks (one made my 10 1/2 boot look rather tiny). Part of the protocol for the surveys require us to be quiet for a five minute interval after we broadcast our recorded goshawk calls; these five minutes have proven to be quite long and we all keep our senses peaked.

Up until today the weather has cooperated - at least as far as survey protocols allow. Rain has been a constant, but light for the most part. We did pull out of the field today because of a mix of rain and low clouds, figuring visibility is reduced enough to hamper sighting any potential birds. Depending on weather, we plan on finishing up this round of surveys on Friday.

As far as the status of the surveys, we have yet to see any signs of goshawks.

In Alaska

I am spending a couple of months in Juneau, Alaska helping my friend Cathy with wildlife surveys for her environmental consulting business. It has been a couple of days since I left Wisconsin so I will take this opportunity to catch up.

After a bumpy landing I arrived in wet and windy Juneau on June 12. Apparently as we were throwing my gear in Cathy's truck the wind swept the parking stub out of the cab never to be seen again. Although Cathy was parked for less than an hour, the lost ticket charge of $35 was implemented. Obviously, I am hoping this was not a sign of things to come for the rest of my Alaskan adventure.

I actually don't begin surveys until June 21. So, I have a week to explore the Juneau area. Unfortunately, I tweaked my back moving a boulder the day before I left WI and am therefore limiting my exploration until I am comfortable that I will be 100% for the surveys next week. Age seems to be slowly catching up to me.

The surveys next week will take Cathy and I to Admiralty Island. It is the seventh largest island in North America and has a human population of approximately 600. It also has the denotation of having the highest density of brown bears in the world - one bear per the island's 1600 square miles.

The only brown bears I have seen have been in numerous nightmares as a kid; enough sleepless nights to convince me I was destined to die in a bear attack. What is especially ironic about this is that the nightmares began after watching the subcult film "Grizzly" while living in Saudi Arabia. I was also convinced someone was going to run a hose through one of the windows of our transitional trailer (located in the desert) while my family was sleeping, and fill the trailer with piranhas - after watching the film "Piranha" of course. I did stop watching movies of that genre and did get over the fear of piranhas. I am curious (yet, eerily excited) to have my first encounter with a non-cinematic or sleep-induced brown bear.