Denali Road Trip, 2022, Day Four, Part Two

 

 

Day Four, Part Two

David vs. Goliath

 

 

 

 

Recap:   I had pulled off the Denali highway into a  gravel pit to take a photo of a scenic lake and cabin.  Then, I drove drown into a  large dip and was charged by a little bird.

 

I slowly move a little closer and the bird races toward me.  Whoa!   I mean, it’s four or five inches high, for Pete’s sake.   It blends in with the stones on the ground so unless you keep your eye on it, or it moves, it's very hard to see.

 

 

 

Through binoculars I identify the bird as a semi-palmated plover.   The “semi-palmated” refers to its partially webbed feet.  They are handsome little shorebirds, usually seen around water.

 

 

I get down on the ground as gracefully as I can, which means I kneel, try to sit, and tip over backwards.   There is no grace involved in that, but I get back to a sitting position so I can brace my heavy camera on my legs.  

 

 

 

The plover doesn’t leave.  This is strange, I think.    I take a few photos, manage to stand upright, and go back to the truck.

The plover runs forward and crouches down.   Aha!   There’s a nest there and I would have run right over it if the bird hadn’t charged me to defend it.    At this point, my truck is ten feet from the nesting bird. 

 

 

  It seems content to be back on the nest.

 

I note a few landmarks around the bird so I can find the tiny nest again and take a few steps forward.   The bird runs to the right.

I walk forward slowly and find the nest in front of a large white stone that I'd noted.  I take a couple photos and put the camera back in the truck.

 

 

Four speckled eggs that seem too large to be laid by a small bird.

 

Then, I find the largest rocks I can carry and build a barricade in front of the nest so no one else can run over it.   Not even a big truck would want to drive over those rocks and there is still plenty of room to turn around elsewhere, which I do.   The plover is close but doesn’t charge me.  

 

I thank the plover profusely. When I leave, the plover is back on the four eggs and I am smiling.

 Plover challenged Dodge and the plover won.  Sounds almost like a country-western song.

 

It’s a good day.

 

Denali Highway Road Trip 2022, Day Four, David vs. Goliath, Part One

 Day Four

David vs. Goliath, Part 1

 

I crack one eye open only enough to see the time--just before 7 A.M.  I look at the window to see how bright the light is—dull, I sleep a bit more; bright, I get up.

 

It’s bright!   I get up, open the door to the deck and check.  Unlike yesterday’s overcast, the sky is a brilliant blue.  

 

And, there’s a trumpeter swan on the lake.   Maybe they’re finally moving in, I hope.   It doesn’t take long and I’m out of there, dropping off my cabin key at the lodge.

 

 

No swan in this photo.

 

Leilani  and Carrie are long gone.   They have a lot of miles ahead of them as they head to Valdez and a  day cruise.   Me, I’m heading toward home but staying at Leilani’s tonight in the Mat-Su valley, so I have time to do some birding first.

 

The first place I check is Warbler Alley, which is our name for a long stretch of willows that always yields a variety of warblers.   They’re there.  I can see them on the ground under the willows. I see them flitting from here to there.   They refuse to come out into the open.

 

All except for one Wilson’s Warbler.   It lands on a snag exactly where I’d seen Doug taking photos of it a few years ago.

 

I head east and pull into the campground.   There’s a spot that always yields Blackpoll warblers and today, it does.

 

 

The campground is beautiful in the sunlight, but there’s nothing happening.   Nothing at the boat launch, nothing on a trail that leads to a larger lake.  Instead, a snow bank blocks the trail.

 

Snow covers the trail at left.

Snow blocked the road in the campground  recently.

 

 

 

I check other places along the way, stop and take a few scenic photos.

 

 

 

Eventually, I  approach a particularly scenic lake with a small cabin on it.  I turn off the road onto an access to a gravel area with an overlook of the lake.  

 

 

Closer view showing the cabin on the lake.

I take my photos and consider how to exit the area.   I could back out on the narrow trail about a hundred feet or so to the highway, or turn down into the depression where there’s a large turn around area.    A nice U-turn sounds better so that’s what I do.

 

As I drive down the steep hill, intending to make a wide circle to the right, I notice a small bird coming at me on the ground.   It’s so small, I can’t tell what it is, but I stop.

 

 It's yelling at me!

 

Will it stay on the ground long enough for a photo op?    Or fly away and I'll never know what it is.

 

 

 ***

 Some other birds before I leave the Denali highway.

This little bird, colored like a Christmas ornament, is a male redpoll.

Even through binoculars, I couldn't ID these birds so I took a shot and cropped it.   The small white ones with black heads are Arctic terns, and the larger birds are Northern Shovelers.

A cute male yellow warbler.   Keep in mind that this bird is about the size of your thumb.

 

 

 

The Denali Highway Road Trip 2022, The Third Day, Part Four, Tangles in the WIllows

 The Third Day, Part Four

Tangles in the Willows

We turn into the BLM Tangle Lakes Campground at Mile 21.5, right where the pavement ends.

According to BLM, it's situated within the Delta Wild and Scenic River corridor and the Tangle Lakes Archeological District where more than 10,000 years of human use have been documented.

There are 45 accessible campsites and four walk-in sites, and is equipped with water pumps, toilets, and a boat launch.   Plus, it is absolutely beautiful!   All that for $12 a night for vehicles or $6 a night for the walk-ins.

It is also a reliable site for Blackpoll warblers and other warblers.

Blackpoll warbler.

 

 We scan the river carefully for waterfowl.   There is nothing but a gull.   The water is high and fast and covering the small islands where wildflowers usually grow.

 We drive to the boat launch to see what's  in the lake.   There is nothing in the lake.   Not a bird, not a muskrat, not even a boat.   Zip, zero, nada.

Well, that's a bust.   Leilani is backing up the truck when she suddenly stops and says, "There's a moose."

Sure enough, a cow and calf are on a ridge alongside the lake.   It would be in the right in the above photo.

The calf is hanging close to Mum, who is shedding her winter coat.   Out of the truck for better views.  Shutters clicking away, we wait and watch.   Mum browses on the new green leaves of willows.

Eventually, the calf's head becomes visible.

Mum has no intention to leave the willows, but the calf eventually separates from her and heads down to the lake.   I suspect it's been here before and knows what's at the bottom.

It's watching us but seems calm.

And then it squats and pees!

 

That taken care of, it moves over and takes a drink from the lake.

Mum comes down to gather up her calf, pees, and takes a drink.

The calf joins her and the two head back up the hill and out of sight.   Mum moves through the willows with ease.   For the calf, it's more of a struggle.

Well, that was fun!   We thank the moose and go on our way.

Denali Highway Road Trip, 2022, The Third Day, Part Three, Specks in Bushes

 The Third Day, Part Three

Specks in Bushes

 

 "How ya doing, Carrie? " I ask Leilani's friend who is visiting from Florida.   There's no answer.

She's in the front passenger seat and, when I look,  she's gazing down at her lap.  I realize she's reviewing photos on her camera.   I ask again, "Carrie?   How are your photos?"

A long pause and then, "Well......    I'm used to shooting big birds.  Not little specks in  bushes."

Flashes of the large birds of Florida--the cranes, herons,  spoonbills, and the anhinga with its wings hung out to dry--come to mind.   Then, I have to laugh because "little specks in the bushes are exactly what we're shooting.   "Shooting" as in photographing.  

 Below is a full frame photo taken with a 500 mm lens.   I'm about 25to 30 feet from the bird, as near as I can recall.

Not much of a photo, is it?

From that useless image, I crop it, tweak it to emphasize the bird, and BINGO!  A perfectly usable photo of one of the birds we drive all this distance to see--an Arctic warbler singing its heart out while perched in the early spring pussy willows along the Denali Highway. 

Much better.

I don't know what lens Carrie is using, but it looks a lot lighter than the behemoths that Leilani and I are carrying.  My main camera outfit weighs 8-1/2 lbs., and, at my age, it's a struggle to hold it still.  If I'm in the truck, I brace it against the windowsill.   If not, I try to use parts of the truck as a substitute tripod.   A real tripod won't work here.   The bird would be gone before I set it up.  Plus, having a tripod attached to the camera doesn't allow for quick changes of direction as the bird flits about.

Occasionally, I use a monopod.   That works fine except when it's constant in-the-truck, out-of-the-truck, and the camera has to be detached and re-attached from the monopod mount.

Finding a small speck in the bushes is the first step.   Getting a lens on it is another.

Wilson's warbler

Quite often, the below photo is what I get.   Or tail feathers leaving the side of the frame.   Or just bushes because the bird has flown.   

Or, the most maddening, is when they perch in the open and hold still but their backs are turned toward us, like the orange-crowned warbler below.

So I understand Carrie's predicament.

By the way, we are using my crew cab mid-sized Dodge Dakota pickup for this adventure.  The three of us can ride comfortably with a spare seat for gear and jackets.   Leilani is driving, something I always let her do because if I drive, her screams hurt my ears.

Believe that?   Actually, it's because of HER hearing.   It is acute.   She can drive with the window down and identify birds that chirp in the bushes.  My contribution is vision, though I can tell I'm slipping in that regard.

If I drive and watched for birds at the same time, the truck will often follow my line of vision.   By letting Leilani drive, we avoid many encounters with brush on the sides of the road.

Anyway, it works out well.

***

So, we're driving past a small lake when I spot a nesting gull.   Normally, we don't stop for gulls but this one was sitting on an attractive nest.   Then we realize the gull isn't alone.    There's a pair of red-necked phalaropes in the lake, too.

We had  checked a larger lake on the way in that usually has a large flock of phalaropes, so reliable that we call it Phalarope Lake, but there were none.  It is apparent to me that we are a week or ten days too early and that spring is late in arriving.   Many of the reliable places for waterfowl are vacant.  Thus far, we have seen only one trumpeter swan.

Herring gull.

 

Red-necked phalarope.

Phalaropes are small shorebirds that migrate from South America to Alaska to nest and raise their young.  They have a unique feeding habit that makes getting a clear photo of them difficult:

"Phalaropes are visual hunters. During the summer, their diet is principally freshwater insects and other invertebrates. The birds swim or walk in shallow water or at pond edges and pick adult or larval insects (such as midges and craneflies) from the vegetation or the water. When feeding in deeper water, phalaropes sometimes swim rapidly in a small circle and create a vortex. As food items are raised from the depths, the birds peck from the center of the circle..  "--Alaska Department of Fish and Game

Imagine trying to photograph a little bird that is spinning in circles.  

The gull is waiting for us to move so it can return to its nest.  Note the phalarope just below it.

The gull left the nest  and flew away when we got out of the truck.   It soon returned and when we realize it is back and wants to regain its nest, we load up and depart, as always thanking the wildlife for the privilege of photographing them.

A couple more from this trip:

An American wigeon flapping its wings, one of the few waterfowl we found.

This cute little bird is a male yellow warbler.   Keep in mind that the head and body of these warblers are about as large as a thumb, not counting the tail feathers.

 

 

 

 

The second bird we drive all this way to see is the American Tree Sparrow.   The first is the Arctic Warble pictured in a different post.