Arctic Renewal

We have drifted from spring into summer and a rapid  renewal has been taking place.  The tundra is now covered with many different flowers and the ground is getting a nice green tinge to it.  With the warm days, the butterflies have  been busy  flitting from flower to flower getting nectar.

Most of the birds have hatched so there are many young about, either in our yard or around the edge of the lake by the house.  Several broods of both Snow Buntings and Lapland Longspurs are now around the feeder out the kitchen window.  With the 24 hour daylight, they go through lots of seed, especially when we have a cold foggy day and the parents have a hard time finding bugs to feed the hungry little ones. 

  On the left a young Snow Bunting  (  Plectrophenax nivalis) with its short tail and a few tuffs of down on the head.

  On the right is a group of white avens (Dryas integrifolia ).

 

 

 

With access to the nest boxes we put up on the various buildings, the Snow Buntings are the first to hatch, followed closely by the larger geese.  Since the Snow Geese only need 22 days to hatch, they are the first to start hatching, followed closely by  Brant and White-fronted Geese.   The last part of June sees a flurry of hatching activity as the shorebirds, ptarmigan, longspurs,  and some of the early duck species hatch.  The hatch continues into the first part of July with eiders, scaup, Long-tailed Duck, swans, loons, and late shorebirds finishing up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snow Goose (Chen caerulescens) brood left, and a Black Brant brood (Branta bernicla) moving through the yard.

 

  Greater White-fronted Goose (Anser albifrons) hatching out.

Even as the hatch is taking place, there are signs that this is a place of a short growing season.  The geese that didn’t nest or failed early on have moved out of the area, headed off to one or more of the summer moulting  areas.  This frees up the limited food  in the brood rearing areas for the young that need lots of good forage to be ready to migrate south in less than two months.

 

 

Willow Ptarmigan  ( Lagopus lagopus)  family feeding in the grass around the house.

The shorebirds are also starting to flock up and non-breeding and extra adults will be starting their migration  south in the nest few days. Usually one parent stays with the chicks till they are flegged and then they are pretty much on their own.  The Semipalmated Sandpiper is our most common shorebird that nests on our island and we usually have at least 10 nests near by our house.  By late July the yard is full of Juvenile Semi’s of various sizes, and all the adults have already left on their southbound journey.  Summer activities must progress quickly in the Arctic.  Time is of the essence.

I will end this entry today with a photo of a young Caribou taken next to our house last week.

Early Spring Catch-up

I have been trying to get back to posting, but seem to be to easily distracted with other projects.  The long nights of winter have given way to spring and the time of long daylight hours.  

For most of the winter the only birds seen were Common Ravens as are able to find enough to eat  even in the coldest time of year.  The population in our area has increased from only one pair in the early 1980’s to over 45 individuals these days.  most of the increase has been from all the added  buildings and pipelines in the area that now give the ravens a place to nest.  The  flat tundra was never home to many ravens.

We enjoyed having the muskox herd continue to winter not far from us and we could watch them from the house with the spotting scope.  I also made a couple snow machine trips to film the winter herd.

 

 

 

 

Winter Muskox in the glow of  a low sun January

April brought our first new birds, our local nesting population of Snow Buntings started arriving.  To us spring has arrived when you can step out the house and hear the lovely song of a Snow Bunting.  The other April bird I saw was a male Rock Ptarmigan (Lagopus mutus) on a short snow machine trip up river from the house. 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                              Male Snow Bunting

 

  Rock Ptarmigan Male

April also saw the end of our Polar Lights viewing as the night were becoming to light and only extremely bright ones could be seen by the middle of the month.   And of course the sun started to have some strong solar activity which we weren’t able to enjoy.

                                              Pulsating Polar Lights over our home.

Early May brought a couple highlights for me. First I found my first local Raven’s nest on one of oilfield bridges.  The nest showed that the raven was using all the products around to line its nest from traditional to modern, caribou hair, moss, and fiberglass insulation.  She had four greenish blue, speckled eggs.

                                                              Common Raven Nest & Eggs.

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                         

 

                                      

The other event was getting to see a couple of very small muskox calves playing on a bright sunny day. Still plenty of snow and we were still having night temperatures dropping down to –20F.  Little muskox are tough being born at this time when we are still having such cold temperatures and winter type blizzards.

 

 

 

 

 

               Muskox Herd Early May- Small Calves Dashing About.

Fresh Snow

The seasons are changing again, a light snow is falling and covering the rust and red colors of the fall tundra.  The soft flakes are of a mixed size, but it isn’t coming down hard enough to completely cover the ground yet.  As I look out the kitchen window in the early dusk of the coming morning , I am treated to the sight of the cow and calf muskox sleeping in our yard and partly covered in the falling snow.  They are not in a hurry to get up and start feeding, as both have gotten up, walked in a circle and then laid back down.  At times they were stretched out full length sleeping , while the more normal position has them resting with their head up, as to keep a watch on things in between naps. 

 

It is hard to grasp that this gentle snow fall with its big flakes is not a common sight for us during the winter.  Most of the time the snowflakes are well rounded and small by the time they reach the ground in our windy climate.  I’m sure that during some stretches of  winter we see the same snow several times, as the wind whips it back and forth and the drifts of winter deepen.

 

The lake has ice around the edges this morning and the red pendent grass (Arctophila fulva) is either weighted down with the fresh snow or frozen in the fresh ice, which doesn’t extend much past the grassy area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Willow Ptarmigan are glad to see a bit of snow as they are starting to stick out in the rusty colored tundra since they are almost all white now.  It makes them very nervous and take flight at the first sign of a falcon or snowy owl.  They like to swoop in and hide in and around the buildings where it is harder for a bird of prey to make a diving run to catch one. 

       Large flock of Willow Ptarmigan taking flight.

One afternoon several years ago I watched as a snowy owl and a flock of 30 willow ptarmigan played keep away.  The owl had the birds cornered at the base of  an old wire bird cage that was 10’ square and 8’ high that I wasn’t using anymore. The owl was perched up on top and when it moved from one side to the other the ptarmigan would quickly run to the other side staying right up against the pen.  This maneuver didn’t give the owl enough room to swoop down and grab one of the ptarmigan. This went on for about 45 minutes before the snowy owl decided it would have better luck some place else.

With the days of fall getting shorter, we now can enjoy the Aurora Borealis again as well as watch the constellations swirl overhead.  It looks like it will be a good winter for sky watching the as the sun has been putting out lots of solar activity that translates into good viewing conditions.

  Aurora Borealis reflecting in the lake.

Windy May

May came in on a strong wind and it has continued on the windy side with 12 of the first 19 days having winds of 20 knots or more.  Besides being windy, most days have been overcast with blowing snow, creating many whiteout days.

Today we are into "day four" of the latest wind storm, with visibility less than a mile in blowing snow and mist.  The temperature over the past 24 hours has been pretty steady with a low of +26F and a high of +28F.  With all the drifting snow and temperatures below freezing the tundra is still 100% snow covered and almost no grass above snow level. 

Despite the storms, birds have been working their way north.  The southern part of Alaska has been having very warm temperatures and it looks like this has prompted some birds to continue north sooner than they should have.  The worst species to be hit hard (that we know about at this time) are some of the eiders.  We started finding King and Common Eiders weak and dying as early as the12th of May, and most have been females.  Perhaps these are birds that were migrating on east to northern Canada, but ran out of body reserves and perished in our area.  We wouldn’t expect King Eiders that are going to nest in the Colville Delta to arrive before the last couple days of this month or first few days of June.

 

Roosting Willow Ptarmigan-Male just starting to get summer feathers on its neck and head.

 

 

Here on the homestead our first migratory birds (Snow Buntings) returned on the 17th of April as I reported in “They’re Back” in April’s blog.  Earlier this month some of our Willow Ptarmigan showed up around the house, even roosting outside our bedroom window for a couple nights.

  Short-eared Owl that passed through the yard in the early morning hours.

Today even with this wind we have had six new species arrive: a Savannah Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Lapland Longspur, Hoary Redpoll, Short-eared Owl and a Sanderling.  Only the owl and Sanderling kept going, the others were happy to find food and shelter out of the storm, joining our Snow Buntings and Ruddy Turnstones at the feeders. The Savannah Sparrow and some of the female Longspurs seem quite weak and after eating from the feeders, took quick naps before going back to refuel on more seed. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Resting Savannah Sparrow

 

 

 

 

 

Sparrow preening after eating, getting ice off its     feathers.

For most of these species, this is an early arrival date, some by over a week.  Also, we would expect to have only male longspurs, in the beginning, with the females trailing 4-5 days behind them. Today we have 6 females and only one male at the feeder.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Male Longspur

 

 

           Female Longspur – good view of long hind claws

 

 

As hungry as these birds have been, it makes me wonder about all the ones that didn't find our place with shelter and food and how many will perish from this late spring storm. Combine this with the many birds coming north too soon, and it is a sad picture of many lost birds.

Warm Sunny Day

What a difference a day makes as we went from -25F to a balmy +26F in about twenty-four hours.  The weather had been colder than normal for this time of year, so it was an extra special day to be so warm with bright sunshine.  With the added reflection off the snow, it was so bright out that it made me squint even with sunglasses on.  It also has been a snowy winter and we have a deeper snow cover than we would on average.  Even with all the wind storms to blow snow away, most of the tundra lies buried and this has likely contributed to the fact that we have very little bird life around the house yet. 
I had hoped to see a few willow ptarmigan around the local area by now, but with the deeper snow cover they seem to be late moving this far north.  They are most likely still further up-river where the willows grow tall enough to reach above the snow and provide willow buds and left-over leaves on which the ptarmigan can feed.  Down here by the house our willows are only inches tall and one variety, the snow willow, grows flat along the ground.  For this reason, it doesn’t take much snow cover to make feeding hard for the ptarmigan.
I decided to take advantage of the nice day and take a snow machine trip, going up river a few miles to  see if I could find some  ptarmigan to photograph.  In 38km of travel, the only bird I saw was a raven about 2km from home.   After about an hour of wandering about 14km around the delta and seeing only a snowy landscape, I reached the south end of a large island that we can Ptarmigan Island.  It is good habitat for ptarmigan most seasons but today there wasn’t even a track or any sign that any birds had been feeding in the area in recent times. 
No birds here but I did find one lone cow caribou in one of the vegetated sand dune areas.  She was lying down chewing her cud when I first spotted her, and she finally got up as I neared her location. 

She let me get within 100 meters, then started moving off, with me following along for a short spell, taking pictures as I went. 

 

          Resting Cow Caribou

 

When I stopped following her, she went on for another 400 meters or so and went back to feeding.

Caribou Watching Me Take Its Picture.

As I turned away from the caribou, I spotted a red fox watching me on down the island a ways.  I drove towards it to see if I could get close enough for pictures. 

It didn’t seem too frightened and let me get with 120 meters, and when I stopped the snow machine, it turned back and worked closer to check me out. 

   Red Fox on a Bright Sunny Day.

There were signs that a seismic company had been doing work earlier in the winter in this area, and some of the crew probably had been leaving food out for it. Thus she worked downwind to see if there was any food smells about. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Pair of Red Foxes, Female on Left, Male on Right.

After about 10 minutes she decided to continue on down the ridge, going in the general direction of the feeding caribou.  I continued on my way in the opposite direction and as I drove over the top of large dune there was another fox out in a flat area.  I headed over in its direction and stopped about 75 meters away.  It was following along one of the old track vehicle trails, sniffing here and there, perhaps getting a few old food smells.  

Sunglasses Needed!  Both Foxes and the Caribou Kept  Squinting in the Bright Light.

As it turns out, it was the male and he came within 20 meters of me, checking to see if I might have something of interest.  After taking several pictures we heard the female barking and he headed off in her direction.  I followed along hoping to get pictures of them together.  I did get a few long shots of them together but they kept moving rapidly along the ridge and finally separated, so I let them go their way and I continued on my travels to see what else I might find.

They were the last game seen on my travels this day, although I did see a lot of pretty country and it was great to just be outdoors enjoying such a bright day. 

I stopped on top of a Pingo* to survey the surrounding area, looking for game. All I saw there was a set of fresh white fox tracks, but never saw the fox.

*A pingo is a mound of earth-covered ice found in the Arctic and subarctic that can reach up to 70 metres (230 ft) in height and can only form in a permafrost environment. They are essentially formed by ground ice which develops during the winter months as temperatures fall and cause the ground to push up.

 

A Close-up of the Caribou’s Face Showing Her Reacting to the Bright Sunshine.

Snow Buntings

The cold weather continues with a strong winds and snow out of the west.  Temperatures have fallen and now stay below freezing through out the day, with the low around +12F the past two nights.   With three inches of fresh snow, all the melted-out tundra ridges from the first of the month are now bright white. 

I haven’t seen a glaucous gull since the 8th, but the white-fronted geese keep making a swing around the area looking for an inviting spot.  They don’t stay long and are soon headed back to the east or farther up river where there is more melt water, as all the overflow around here has frozen over hard again.  We did have a flock of around 60 willow ptarmigan spend the night bedded down by the house. It was the first large flock seen this spring and most were males with various amounts of brown in their heads and necks. 

Teena made a trip to Deadhorse yesterday for mail and supplies and she saw several hundred White-fronted Geese, 50 Canada Geese, 20 Glaucous Gulls, 60 Willow Ptarmigan, a few Snow Buntings along the gravel road system, and the high light of the day for her a Rough-legged Hawk migrating east.  Many of the geese including the Canada’s were seen where the road crosses the Kupurak River, which was running in places from melt in the foothills.

The snowy weather hasn’t slowed our snow buntings down. They are busy defending their territories from other males and displaying for their females.  The cold has stopped any nest building activity, but that will resume with the first warm sunny day.