"Keen Eye" Birding at Palmer Creek

Since I arrived here in Alaska, I've been really interested in learning "how to bird". I know many people go birding in their backyards, and they haven't necessarily learned a method to birding. I fit that description- watching for whatever comes to my yard, to the feeder, or whatever happens to fly in front of my while out and about. Only this past semester have I really gotten interested in seeking out birds to study them.

 

I was told by many that Alaska is a great place to bird, especially in the early summer when I got here. I don't get to spend a ton of time on the coast, hardly at all actually, so I haven't seen too many of those kinds of birds. But interior waterfowl, gulls, and perching birds are readily available to see here.

 

I've been spending a lot of time by myself, going out after work, to sit with my binoculars and Sibley's Guide to Birds book and Bird Tracks & Sign (Elbroch & Marks) and trying to figure out what I'm seeing. I also have this awesome book called Alaska's Kenai Peninsula Wildlife Viewing Trail Guide.

 

 

That gets old though, and you can only go so far with it. So I surfed around the WWW a bit one night, and sent an email to the bird biologist at the refuge that I live on, and he suggested I get in touch with this birding club.

 

I spoke with Ken Tarbox, the president, and was welcomed to join the next club outing, which happened to be the next day!

 

I met the club early in the morning at a local grocery store, and we carpooled out to Hope, AK. Which was a several hour drive, partially because we stopped a few times, and also it's really far out in the middle of nowhere!

 

'A' is where I came from, 'B' is the "town" of Hope. Hope was once a booming gold-mining town. The original structures from 100+ years ago still stand. Well, some of them...in 1964 a huge earthquake hit the area and half of the town sank 6 feet into the Turnagain Arm, flooding. It's kind of dried up, but has a lot of character.

 

We took this road called Palmer Creek Road which is described as "climb[ing] from a Lutz and white spruce forest only a couple miles from Turnagain Arm into alpine tundra and brush" (AKPWVTG). It's a 10 mile dirt road that winds it's way up through the Kenai Mountains, gaining thousands of feet in elevation as we started very near to sea level. If you've ever been to Glacier National Park, and taking the Highway to the Sun, it's like that. About halfway up the mountain side, and winding around each mountain. Every bend reveals a new landscape to stare at in awe...it was so gorgeous up there!

 

Mile 6 brought us to this campground. We stopped for a potty break, and to check out the trees to see if any birds would show themselves.

 

Wilson's Warbler (Wilsonia pusilla)

 

Wilson's Warbler (Wilsonia pusilla)

 

Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus)

 

After a few cool sightings, we moved on past the campground. This road is an old mining/logging road, and it's STRONGLY recommended that your vehicle is high-clearance and has 4WD. I've never been to Africa...but this is what I would imagine a safari tour would be like. Bouncing over the road, and the higher in elevation we got, the vegetation cleared out, so we could see a long ways.

 

 

 

Every so often we'd stop and get out and call for birds. Ken, the president, is at the right.

 

Along the way I took some pictures of the wildflowers that are in bloom. They are absolutely gorgeous right now, and I'm trying to learn my local flowers!

 

Fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium)

 

Pink Clover (Trifolium sp.)

 

Broad-leaved Starflower (Trientalis borealis ssp. latifolia)

 

Chocolate Lily (Fritillaria camschatcensis)

 

Alaska Columbine (Aquilegia formosa)

 

Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum)

 

Ok, I know there's more pictures of plants than birds at this point...flowers are just easier to get pictures of!

 

We eventually hit a spot in the road that narrowed, so we had to ditch the cars and hike the rest of the way in. This used to be a road that was used to cart in/out mining gear...and perhaps gold?

 

The higher we got in elevation, the more SNOW there was! For my Lower 48 friends, it is July 14th, 2012 in this picture. Yes, I know I'm in Alaska...it's just strange for me to be standing on snow in the summer!

 

Just as we got to the "bowl" amidst of all these huge mountains, the sky cleared and made for some phenomenal pictures...

 

The headwaters of Palmer Creek- ICY cold, and very refreshing! I've never drank directly from "wild water" because I'm scared of getting giardia (beaver fever), but this is so high up and quickly moving...I would be surprised in there are many (if any) contaminants in it.

 

Taking a moment to reflect...

 

 

 

Then I found...

 

PTARMIGAN SCAT! Not sure if this is Willow or Rock Ptarmigan...but it's a very cool find nonetheless. For some more information about the Ptarmigan check out the Alaska Ptarmigan Facts and Photos web page.

 

The next bird I was able to get a picture of was this Golden-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia atricapilla)...

 

 

 

Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis)

 

I'm not sure of any of these species of plants...but I wanted to share this picture- I think it's gorgeous!

Below is our final group list of sightings and "hearings"...I didn't see or hear all of these, but I was able to add a bunch of new birds to my "Alaska List" :)

1.  Spruce Grouse X
2. Common Loon X
3. Osprey X
4. Bald Eagle X
5. Spotted Sandpiper X
6. Mew Gull X
7. Herring Gull X
8. Glaucous-winged Gull X
9. Arctic Tern X
10. Olive-sided Flycatcher X
11. Gray Jay X
12. Black-billed Magpie X
13. Northwestern Crow X
14. Common Raven X
15. Violet-green Swallow X
16. Black-capped Chickadee X
17. Red-breasted Nuthatch X
18. Pacific Wren X
19. American Dipper X
20. Ruby-crowned Kinglet X
21. Swainson's Thrush X
22. Hermit Thrush X
23. Varied Thrush X
24. Orange-crowned Warbler X
25. Yellow Warbler X
26. Yellow-rumped Warbler X
27. Townsend's Warbler X
28. Wilson's Warbler X
29. Savannah Sparrow X
30. Fox Sparrow X
31. Lincoln's Sparrow X
32. Golden-crowned Sparrow X
33. Dark-eyed Junco X
34. Pine Grosbeak X
35. Common Redpoll X
36. Pine Siskin X

Thanks to the Keen Eye Birders for having me along! It was a great day with knowledgeable people. This will definitely be a favorite memory of mine from Alaska!

Tracking Hidden Lake & Kokanee Otolith Removal

...I couldn't come up with a better title than that, sorry! But that's pretty much what this entry is going to be about in a nutshell.

Before I begin, let me tell you that this is going to be another gory posting, so avert your eyes if you don't like blood.

Also, I'd like to define 2 terms:

1. Kokanee: Another name for a land-locked sockeye salmon (More Info)
2. Otoliths: The 2 "ear bones" of the fish, which aid in stabilization within the water column, and other various sensory input.

Over the past few weeks I've gone out with Jim (biological science technician), and Ken (fishery biologst) to track previously tagged lake trout. I'd rather not get into the nitty gritty of that project, so I'll keep it extremely brief:

This is looking towards the bow of the tracking boat, and that vertical pipe is the hydrophone, which "hears" or receives the signal. And this is acoustic tracking, for those "in the know". I wish I could do a whole entry about the different methods of tracking fish, but at this point, I'm not learned enough about it all.

Anyway, here's Ken, watching the software recording the strength of the signal being given off of nearby tagged fish.

Apparently there have been comments from anglers of this lake over the past several years-->decade, that the size and quanity of available lake trout has decreased. Research is being conducted with tagged fish to determine where and when they're spawning. About once a week we go out to track the 13 tagged fish, and also once a week (a different day), we go out fishing for lake trout to tag new fish.

My office. Seriously!

As a side project, kokanee are being collected, if caught, to do some work on determining where the stock is coming from. As the definition above says, kokanee are just land-locked sockeyes, which can and do occur naturally on the Kenai Peninsula. And they even occur in Hidden Lake as well. The confusion is that a kokanee can and will leave the lake system to spawn upstream. Some of the kokanees in Hidden Lake are not leaving. They grow up, spawn in the lake, and then die. The thought is perhaps some of the kokanees found in the lake are hatchery fish. The biologists called hatchery-raised fish "stupid". They do some weird stuff, because they're not wild. They have the intuition to carry out their biological duties, but not the perspective to know when/how/where to do it.

Apparently the kokanees (and other hatchery raised fish) are marked in several ways. In my CON 102 Fish & Wildlife class, we learned that if it has an adipose fin:

...it's in the Salmonid family (salmon, trout, char, freshwater whitefish, and graylings). Well, hatchery-raised Salmonids have their adipose fin clipped off when they're very young, so they can be distinguised later in life. The adipose fin seemingly has no purpose, and the fish can manage fine without. Yes, I'm sure it does "hurt" them to a degree to have it clipped off, really removing any part of ones body (unless it's dead tissue), can hurt. But I imagine it's no different than tagging the ear of a bear, or sticking a PIT tag under the skin of a squirrel. It's superficial pain.

The second way they can be marked is to go through some kind of thermo-treatment. I probably should have asked more about this, and I will, before writing this entry. What I understand it to be, is some kind of heating, perhaps infrared, of the fish when they're tiny. Again, this doesn't harm the fish, but it leaves a mark on the otolith. It's kind of like aging the scales- rings and ridges are left on the otolith throughout life.

When a kokanee is caught, it's kept so that the otoliths can be removed, and then determined if it was hatchery released.

On 6/27/12 we went fishing, and I'm happy to report that I (the NON fish head) caught the only fish :) even if it wasn't the primary target species, it's nice have that small success! This is a kokanee.

Woo! I tried to get through all of that as thoroughly as possible, but quickly...because the removal process is the fun part I ACTUALLY wanted to write about!

I was charged with the task of otolith removal. I think the biologists thought they were teasing me and giving me something gross I wouldn't LOVE to do...but I actually was really into it. This is the first time I've done a dissection completely by myself, on a semi-fresh specimen. The biology class dissections are always done on 30 year old _____ that have soaked in goodness only knows what chemical. I've also watched the dissection of a fresh river otter, bobcat, and raccoon...which was pretty gross, but interesting.

So I was excited to learn what to do:

Once the top of the head is removed, the brain must be pulled out.

My turn! The fish I'm working on is the same kokanee I caught on Hidden Lake.

After the brain is removed, you have to dig around the cavity with tweezers to feel for these tiny little pieces of bone. The fish were still half frozen, so it was tricky. I'd get a chunk of ice and think I'd gotten the otolith...and it was just ice!

Here they are though:

About an 1/8" of an inch wide. Very tricky to maneuver out!

The pair of otoliths are then stored in a vial with the fish's tag number on it. Eventually someone (me?) will look at these otoliths and be able to determine if the fish were released by a hatchery or not.

Tomorrow I'm going birding with an acutal birding club! The "Keen Eye Birders" and I are going out to Hope, AK to search for birds. I'm very excited to be going with people who know what they're doing, and know local birds! Hopefully I'll have some good pictures to share afterwards.

Have a great weekend!