Denali Highway Road Trip, 2022 The Third Day, Part One

 The Third Day, Pt. 1

The Twilight Zone, Episode One

Leilani is hot on the trail of a pika.   She can't see it yet, but she can hear it barking and this time, she isn't going to give up.

It's one of her favorite animals, those little furry critters that are related to rabbits and live only in rocks in higher elevations.   Well, we're at one of the highest elevations along the Denali Highway and parked below a massive jumble of rocks.

Leilani and Carrie got up way before I did.   I was bone tired and brain dead last night from too many nights with only a couple hours sleep.   After the long drive with two construction zones, I was spent.   I got up about seven, just in time to answer the door when Leilani knocked.   We agreed to meet shortly in the dining room of Maclaren River Lodge for breakfast.

This is part of the dining room at Maclaren River Lodge.  Leilani is not having beer for  breakfast.   This photo is from  2020 and it was dinner time.

So, after a hearty breakfast of French Toast (with homemade bread) and bacon, we set out to find Arctic warblers along with any other bird that cared to visit.   This is the area of the highway where we are most likely to find these particular warblers, so they were our primary objective.

Objectives change depending on where we are.

They had been a little ways west while I'd lingered in bed, so we headed east.  I might as well have stayed in bed.    Leilani, with her superior hearing and ability to recognize most birds calls, drove about 20 mph with her window down, listening to twitters, chirps, and trills.  As with the pika (yet to come), she could hear them, but they wouldn't show their faces.

Well, that was disappointing, but we'd be back in this area for another evening and morning, so there was hope.

And that was the situation when Leilani stopped at the mountain's jumble of boulders, intent of showing the pika to Carrie.   While she was listening and trying to determine where their little barks were coming from, I was still in the back seat.   I'd been here before on this useless search, but I was hoping she'd find one.  

Yes, this is their habitat, but for four years, no pika had appeared.   It was encouraging that she could hear them bark, though.

Wouldn't it be funny, I mused, if an Arctic warbler showed up while she's looking for those cute little critters?

I got out of the back seat and grabbed my camera.  "Leilani?"   I said.   "Look here."

And there in the willow scrub on the opposite side of the road, was a precious Arctic warbler.   It was skittish, impossible to get a lens on it to focus, but there it was.

Hold still, Stinker!

Finally, it got used to us and settled down, as much as warblers settle down.

Leilani went back to the pika.   "It's right there!"

Sure enough, a little head appeared over a massive boulder about umpteen miles away.  I switched lenses, putting a 600mm Tamron lens on my 46 megapixel Nikon camera, and took some shots.   

Pika on a rock in the boulder field.

And, once I got the photo on my computer, I cropped it and made the pika more visible.

These little fur balls, with no discernable tail, are six to eight inches long.   They live, as I said, in boulder fields in the upper elevations  above generally, 4000 ft. as they cannot tolerate temperatures above 78 degrees.    They don't hibernate in winter, but spend the summer and fall gathering vegetation and storing it for the winter.

Meanwhile, in the willow bushes, the warbler apparently realized it was no longer the center of attention and flew across the road to the boulders, where it landed in a natural amphitheater and sang an aria.

So, Leilani was happy; I was happy.   But, as we drove slowly farther east, I was left to ponder another in a long series of life-long conundrums.   Did I have some kind of  sixth sense that the warbler was going to appear?    Or did I cause it to appear?

Next:  The Twilight Zone, Episode Two

More Denali highway birds:

A pair of lesser scaup.   The male is the pretty black and white one.   Both have remarkable golden eyes.

Some Common Redpolls:

Warblers:

A Wilson's warbler with its black toupee

So tiny it fits in the cup of your palm.

 

Orange-crowned warbler.   I know, you don't see any orange.   But, when excited, the head feathers stand erect and exhibit  a definite orange color.

Blackpoll warbler.   These little birds with their extra long wings fly incredible distances non-stop for up to three days when migrating.