| Location: South Central (Anchorage, Prince William Sound, Denali, Fairbanks) area | Date: Fri. 30 July – Sat. 7 August, 2010 |
| Habitats: lakes, ponds, boreal forest, tundra, boggy woodlands, urban parks, low-elevation mountains, rivers, gravel riverbeds, roadside pullouts, marshes, seacoast | Time: generally 7am-8pm |
| Weather: variable (sun, fog, drizzle, warm, cool) | Wind: slight to none |
| Observer: TP, GI | |
| Summary of Natural Science Observations | |
| Birds Observed: |
| Loons | Sandpipers | Starlings |
| Common Loons * (UC) | Snipe (UC) | Euro Starling |
| Pacific Loons (UC) | Yellow legs, Greater | Kinglets |
| Red-throated Loon (UC) | Spotted Sandpiper (UC) | Ruby-crown Kinglet |
| Grebes | Yellow-legs, Lesser | Corvids |
| Red-necked Grebes (A) | Short-Billed Dowitchers | Gray Jays (UC) |
| Horned Grebe (UC) | Solitary Sandpipers (UC) | Steller’s Jays (UC, P) |
| Cormorants | Alcids | Blk billed Magpies (C) |
| Pelagic (poss) | Marbled Murrelet (UC) | Ravens (A) |
| Ducks, Geese | Kittlitz's Murrelet (UC) | N.W. Crows (FC) |
| Shovelers | Pigeon Guillemots (UC) | Paridae |
| Com. Goldeneye | Raptors | Boreal Chickadees (A) |
| Greater Scaup | Merlin (UC) | Black-cap. Chicadees (A) |
| Bufflehead (UC) | Osprey (UC) | Waxwings |
| Pintail (UC) | Sharp-shin. Hawk (UC) | Bohemian Waxwings (P) |
| Canada Geese (C) | Gyrfalcons! | Thrushes |
| White-fronted Geese | Bald Eagles (FC) | Hermit Thrush (UC) |
| Green-wing Teal | Golden Eagles (UC) | Robins (UC) |
| Widgeon | Marsh Harriers (UC) | Warblers |
| Mallards | Kingfishers | Yellow-rump Warbler |
| Barrow's Goldeneye | Belted Kingfisher (UC) | Townsend’s Warbler (UC) |
| Gulls/Terns | Grouse/Ptarmigan | Northern H2Othrush (UC) |
| Herring Gulls | Wilo Ptarmigan (P, UC) | Yellow Warbler (C) |
| Blk. Leg Kittiwake (A) | Woodpeckers | Orange-Crown Warbler |
| Western Gulls | Flickers (Yel. Shafted) | Emberizids |
| Mew Gulls* (FC) | Downy WP (UC) | White-crown. Sparrows (A) |
| Tern, Arctic? (F) | Hairy WP (UC) | Song Sparrow (H, P) |
| Jaeger, species? | Flycatchers | Fox Sparrows |
| Cranes | Alder Flycatcher (FC) | Savannah Sparrow |
| Sandhill Crane | Nuthatches | Lincoln Sparrow |
| Red-breasted | Dark Eyed Junco | |
| Fringillids/Finches | ||
| Common Redpolls (UC) | ||
| White-winged Crossbills | ||
Several unidentifiable birds, including raptors |
||
A: abundant. H: hear. sev: several. C: common. UC: uncommon. sp: species. P: probable ID. (?) ID questionable. S: singing. F: flying. M: male. F: female.
! : Unexpected. * With young/immature
| Mammals | |
| Moose | Potter Marsh, Anchorage |
| Grizzly Bears | Denali National Park (formerly Mt. McKinley NP) |
| Caribou | Denali National Park |
| Mt. Goats | Roadside cliffs, near Whittier |
| Steller’s Sea Lions | Prince William Sound |
| Arctic Ground Squirrel | Potter Marsh, Anchorage |
| Beaver | Ester Marsh (near Fairbanks) |
| Sea Otter | Prince William Sound |
| Red Fox | near Healy, north of Denali NP |
| Muskrat | Potter Marsh, Anchorage |
Fish
King Salmon, Pink Salmon, very large (several other fish species probable, many jumping in lakes and ponds)
Herps
Wood Frog Byer’s Lake, near Denali
Insects
Occasional butterflies (cabbage, ringlets?), many dragonflies near lakes; mosquitos minimal, no biting flies
General Botanical Observations
Beyond the outposts of civilization, there were endless boreal and conifer forests as far as the eye could see (spruce, pine and other conifers; birch, and near water, willow and alder thickets). There were many species of wildflowers, such as fireweed (everywhere), several lupine species, and others unknown to me. I was reminded of Maine and Vermont woodland (and to a lesser extent, the California Sierras) forests many times.
Mushrooms/Fungi
I was surprised and delighted to find mushrooms of every shape and color in the forests, such as boletes, russulas, amanitas and many other forms. (This must be a result of frequent fogs, rainfall and snowmelt; ie, the almost constant presence of water, frozen or free-flowing.) Many cushions of sphagnum moss in the woodlands seemed to be highlighted with one or another form of mushroom. The legendary Amanita muscaria was present at several locations.
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Narrative Summary
This was my first trip to Alaska, after a lifetime of reading and wondering about the "land of the midnight sun" from the days of my childhood. There are so many associations in the American imagination with Alaska: Jack London and the Gold Rush of the Klondike; immense caribou migrations; the aurora borealis, Eskimos and igloos; the snow-capped mountains of Denali National Park; polar bears; treeless tundra landscapes stretching to the horizon; the Alaska pipeline, the salmon fishery of the Gulf of Alaska; great brown bears— these associations generally comprise images of nature in its most sublime and overpowering form. Or men and women pushed to the limit trying to cope with an environment far beyond human scale.
For me, these associations comprised a lifetime of almost randomly reading picture books or watching films on Arctic landscapes from grizzlies to glaciers, Eskimos to eagles, polar bears to whales, or listening to the stories of friends on cruise ships that visited Juneau or Sitka along the Inside Passage. Over the course of a lifetime, therefore, many expectations were built up in my mind as to what I'd see when I got there. (My expectations, like everything else about Alaska, were also huge!) I must say Alaska lived up to these –almost unbounded-- expectations for the most part, although not completely.
However, I found that the images above gave me less insight regarding Alaska than the first few days of actually traveling around the region near Anchorage in the first few days of our trip. Imagination is no match for the reality of the Arctic. You need to actually stand in it to understand at least a small part of its power and immensity.
I would say Alaska, even the small amount that I saw, with its juxtaposition of great mountains, glaciers, vast conifer forests and oceans, is clearly a land apart from what I have seen of the rest of the U.S. It is a separate country in all but political affiliation. It is part of a natural realm – that is, the Arctic – of vast scope, the like of which is not easily experienced in the Lower 48.
Where We Traveled
My birding partner and I traveled to Alaska near the end of the summer, 2010. At this time, southern Alaska has relatively mild weather (even if it was foggy with drizzle some of the time, much as the Bay Area coastline at the same time). During the summer it is light 18-20-hours per day (depending on how you define daylight, but almost never completely dark). Even with mild temperatures, light that never completely "went out" and flowers festooning the edges of the roads, the landscape was almost completely wild. That said, the area we traveled through, south-central Alaska, along the Parks Highway, is also the most inhabited part of the state ("inhabited" is of course a relative term, since this vast area has less than a million people).
We saw only a tiny portion of the great state, although we traveled almost 1300 miles. Therefore our observations cannot necessarily be taken as typical of the whole state, or even typical of the wildlife or birds of where seen. (However, in general, from what I have read, the birds and wildlife that we saw were typical of each area we drove through, if not at all complete.)
Our travels took about 10 days, and the itinerary was as follows: we spent several days in and around Anchorage, took one boat trip (from nearby Whittier) through the Prince William Sound, went up to Denali (formerly Mt. McKinley) National Park and spent several days in and around the park (staying at nearby Healy). We drove in one day to Fairbanks and returned to Healy for the evening. We then returned to Anchorage for a day or two. We took no flights within the state, although this (and coastal marine travel) is the only way to get to most areas; only a small portion of the state has roads! If we had more time we might have driven further north, and would have observed the tundra stretching to the Arctic Ocean. (This would have allowed us to observe many more species of birds and other wildlife.) Exploring the Kenai Peninsula south of Anchorage would have been a great experience also. What we did see of Alaska, however small in relation to the whole state, was vast, fantastically wild and visually stunning.
Imprecise Expectations
My goal in visiting Alaska was to experience this wilderness to the extent that I safely could in about 10 days. To see first hand the glaciers, mountains, grizzlies, moose and eagles that had excited my imagination for decades. To see nature in its most pure form, "unedited" by man -- a somewhat romantic quest? Perhaps, but romantic or not, our trip was successful, since I (and my fellow birder Grant Itokazu) saw all of the above.
However, my primary interest in wildlife is of course birds, and given that it was Alaska -- an utterly raw and wilderness environment -- I hoped that I would see unusual birds everywhere. Every time we stopped the car, every time I took out my binoculars, I had the vague expectation of seeing species I had never seen before – such as jaegers, golden plovers, hawk owls, auklets, whooper swans, kittiwakes or redpolls (depending on the environment, of course!) These birds were exciting, mysterious and unknown to me, except through field guides.
As our list above shows, we saw about 70 species of birds, some previously unknown to me, and many that were impressive, beautiful and seen in large numbers. Among the most exciting I would include was the Black Legged Kittiwake colony in Prince William Sound, the White Winged Crossbills, Boreal Chickadees, (probable) Gyrfalcons and Golden Eagles at Denali, Bohemian Waxwings near Denali, Red-necked Grebes (everywhere), and several species of loons seen on lakes throughout our travels. And of course being in Alaska and seeing them in this dramatic setting – that made almost every observation memorable. Most exciting was that seeing the birds were part of "being in Alaska." This intangible "something" could not be quantified, but it was the natural scaffolding, the geology, the climatic regimen, the sine qua non, of every sighting, birds or not.
I had researched somewhat the distribution of various birds throughout the state; of course not all birds could be found everywhere. For birding in new areas, you of course plan your trip according to where the birds are. (The ABA guide to birding Alaska is very helpful in this regard.) This process had shown me that many birds I hoped to see could not reliably be found in the areas we expected to travel through.
Prior to leaving I had been warned by a photographer friend who had recently been to Alaska that, as he put it, "the birds aren't everywhere." He told me that, for whatever reason or set of reasons, birds were not necessarily where you expected them. Despite what appeared to be pristine habitats, suitable nesting areas and abundant food supply, birds were simply not encountered dawn to dusk, or in immense variety everywhere. (He contrasted this with tropical countries, where birds frequently seem to be active and visible all the time, wherever you are.) And indeed I found this to be true; we frequently encountered vast open spaces, marine landscapes or boreal forests, that were quiet, with nothing moving.
Thus we rode through seemingly endless miles of magnificent boreal forest (such as on the Parks Highway to Denali or Fairbanks, and heard or saw nothing, no animal or bird life at all. Or we could drive past miles and miles of shoreline that seemed perfect habitat or feeding grounds for thousands of shorebirds, and see no bird life of any kind. After miles and miles of this you had to adjust your expectations, or it became very disappointing. I had vaguely hoped, despite my friend's warnings, to see birds, bears or moose more or less every time I stepped out of the car. After all, I reasoned, this was Alaska, wasn't it? One of the few places in North America where nature was in its most pristine, least-tampered-with form. Where one could see Pleistocene America, America as it was before humans reached the continent. I was to find that this statement was generally true, but not precisely as I had imagined it.
Given our route, the amount of time we had (nine days), the season, and lack of native guides, I'm happy with our wildlife sightings. We saw about 70 species of birds, some in enormous numbers, in many breath-taking settings.
In Alaska you realize that birds are only a small part of the total wildlife to be seen in the landscape. In such an environment, mammals, and very large and exciting mammals, are part of the experience. We saw grizzly bears, Mt. Goats, caribou and moose among the numerous animals we encountered. On our cruise through Prince William Sound (not far from Whittier, just south and east of Anchorage) we also saw Sea otters and sea lions, in large numbers. In Potter Marsh, standing on a little bridge at the entrance of the marsh, we saw scores of three-foot salmon pouring through the water, right under our feet.
The conifer forests were everywhere, dense, in many scraggly shapes and shades of green, and stretching to the horizon. Wildflowers of many kinds, particularly fireweed, dotted the landscape. In the woodlands surrounding a small lake near Denali (Byer's Lake), I had my first sight of Amanita muscaria, the legendary psychedelic mushroom -- just as I had seen it in many illustrations. (It is scarlet red with white cottony dots on the cap.) A day cruise on a large and well-appointed ship through the Prince William Sound gave us a whole new sense of the beauty of the seacoast. On the cruise we passed through untouched areas of great mountains, glaciers and woodlands coming down to the sea.
I realized that on any trip to the Arctic, birds are only a small part of the overall experience of nature. It will include sights of a great variety of wildlife. Whatever one sees, it is all in the context of a great wilderness experience, seemingly greater than the sum of its parts.
Philosophical Reflections
In traveling through the wilderness of Alaska, it is impossible not to reflect on the human place in the order of things. Here are a few of my thoughts.
Virtually all the time, as we returned to the highway outside the occasional village, you could feel the extraordinary power of the landscape. Great mountains, high cliffs sinking directly into the sea, great bodies of water, forests unbroken to the horizon, no human presence anywhere; this was not the "nature" found in your local park or shoreline. I felt this stark power again and again; it was a continual revelation. The only appropriate response was silent contemplation. There were no words to utter what I felt or saw.
It is not an original observation, but I will repeat what appears to me obvious from my travels in Alaska. That is, we need great stretches of wilderness (such as Alaska) to show us this truth – that humanity is a part – perhaps an important part, at least to itself – of nature, and not the other way round. In this sense, Alaska is a great lesson for the soul. This wilderness contains insights that cannot be found at the theater, regardless of the author, or in front of a super-computer, regardless of the gigabytes. Truly wild life is exciting to see and enriches our lives. The wild lives contained in this wilderness provide us with a unique way to understand our own personal nature.
