Birds of prey

One thing we learned while in Alaska was to keep your attention up in case something interesting comes your way.

Take this guy, for example.

One of these guys flew down towards our windshield as we drove at 50 MPH. Fortunately we missed him by a foot.

I had no idea what he was.

They talked about it on a poster at the next rest stop in northern Canada. But I don't remember what it said.

In any case, over the next 600 miles we saw 3 more of the same.

Funny what you can see when you pay attention.


And  you know what? There are lots of birds of prey that hang out on the lamp posts along, even on the outskirts of San Antonio.
Somehow I notice them more now that we've lived in AK.

Caribou in Springt to Summer

On our trip down and then up the Al-CAn in March and April, it seemed all we could see was caribou.
We saw a few more in June, on our final trip down form Alaska.

Boy, do their antlers grow!
Here are some in March.

 Some have antlers in early Spring , some do not.

Both females and males get them in Summer. Female's are smaller.
Both shed them after the rut.
But females that did not get pregnant, keep their antlers throughout the winter.
Males start growing them earlier in the Spring than females.

Obviously the picture above is a caribou cow .
(See it's white mame or fur on it's neck? Otherwise it looks like a beef cow.)

How about these?

The one with bigger antlers are probably males, since this is from mid March.
But, even females will get them towards summer.


Compare them to these pics in the middle of June.

No, this is not a Texas Longhorn cow that I mixed up.
Its a real Caribou in Denali National Park.
Here are a few others to convince you.

See that they have an additional (smaller) set of antlers, pointing forward, closer to the middle of the head?

And here are some enjoying a patch of snow and ice that still remained despite mid June's 85 degrees. They are searchingfor lichen under the snow.

When compared to the March pics: pretty fast antler growth, don't you agree?

And here are 2 close ups, also in June.

See the furry growth over their antler?

I hear that at sometime of the year there are so many blood vessels that the furry stuff is actually red! That's how much blood and nutrition it takes to make them grow so fast.

And incidentally, I saw a skull with huge supra-orbital nerve foramen just above their eye. I guess there is a lot of nerves sensation to the antler that must help them walk through the brush.
( Incidentally, for those budding biologists, did you remember that this is the V1 nerve branch?)

Now, what's the difference between Caribou and Reindeer? Not much. The reindeer is smaller. They can interbreed just fine. Reindeer is a domesticated form they brought to Alaska in the 1880-90s and again in the 1930's. The goal was to have the Natives raise them as staple to feed themselves and sell for profit. But, apparently that just was not the appropriate thing to do, according to Natives. You should let animals go free and shoot only what you need. But now there is again a small push to herd and market the meat, due to the bad reputation that beef has in some people's mind.

As far as their meat, there was a TV program on an Alaskan TV network talking about how good it is for nutrition as well as taste. It is a delicacy. But you must know how to cook it just right. Don't let it brown or even lose its color...or it'll be really tough. It is done when it's texture is only as firm as the muscle of your hand, just below the thumb! If you cook it this way, you'll appreciate that it is indeed worth the nearly $ 40 per pound that it costs to produce it and send it to you in the Lower 48. ( I never tried it, that's just what I heard. Incidentally, the reindeer sausage they sell you is required to only have 10 or 15% reindeer; no wonder it tastes like beef sausage).

And....concerning their meat, there is a rumor I heard in Fairbanks that I have not been able to confirm. They claim a lady has been found with the highest recorded level of mercury in her serum, and she is an Alaskan Native. Apparently she eats nothing but caribou meat. And caribou love to eat lichen. And lichen live for 50 years, absorbing whatever is in the air. They are great at concentrating mercury! (But since I don't expect many of you are going to be eating much $ 40 per pound meat, I guess you really do not have to worry.)

One more thing: their fur:
With over 80 degree summers in inland Alaska, they shed their fur in summer as you'd expect. Here are some, again in mid June.

 







But is you get a chance to buy a winter fur, you will find that it is just the right size to cover you on a cold Alaskan night as you sit and read a book!

I highly recommend it. We have two! And they are not very expensive. You can buy them at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, about one hour south of Anchorage, near Portage Glacier, for $ 200. Or you can contact the Alaska Raw Fur Co. in Fairbanks, where they were charging only $ 125 and where you can get lots of other species, too. Check them out if you desire; they have furs, not fancy coats

PS To friends of PETA:
In AK, keeping warm during winter is a not a luxury or a whim.
It is a necessity.
That's just  the way it is.
And there is nothing better than a fur for that!

Another Alaskan love story.

To complement the recent "wedding" blog, here are two other love stories, concerning:

America's love for oil.

And Alaska's love for the income and jobs it produces.

Here are the facts, copied from articles in Alaskan newspapers:

1) The pipeline now accounts for 11 percent of U.S. domestic oil supply.
2) The pipeline is aging, along with the Prudhoe Bay oil fields. That means the amount of oil flowing through the pipeline is declining as oil reserves on the North Slope are drawn down. Oil through-put peaked at 2.1 million barrels a day in 1988. It averaged about 590,000 barrels a day last year.

So, Alaska has been deciding on lowering the taxes they charge companies for removing the natural resource.
And it is a heated argument. Is it really going to increase drilling and exploration by lowering the taxes?

It is an important question. It is from those taxes that we get the our yearly "dividend" fund form the state. Imagine: they pay us to live there, instead of us paying state taxes!

There is another problem. Not only is the Prudhoe field producing less, it is a much thicker oil than it originally produced. The combination of those two facts means that in about 2020 they will have to heat up either the the pipeline or the oil to keep it flowing! And the whole field will run dry between 2040 and 2060, depending on whom you listen to.

There is  a lot of natural gas up there too. But there are problems with that too. The newest estimates I've read for build a gas line (right next to the oil pipeline) varies between 35 and 65 billion dollars. With the abundance of natural gas so great and the price so cheap in the lower 48, it just doesn't seem reasonable to build. Some are still encouraging it, hoping on Japan and China buying that gas.

But, they had planned for it originally. See the peculiar "sidewalk" on the right of that bridge?

It's a support system they originally put in, ready for a natural gas line parallel to the oil one.

Anyway...
The pipeline is now 35 years old. But it is an engineering marvel. Once the Arabs raised the price of oil back in the late 60's/early 70s, it took only took between 2-3 years to build the pipeline form beginning to pumping. It's 800 mile long, going form areas where it the permafrost is only 6 inches to hundreds thick. Those cooling towers I showed you on a prior blog have done a great job.

Here's pic showing it's size:

Ever wondered how they keep the inside form getting all sludged-up?

You can double click on any of the pictures above if you want to read the written info in them.





Well, its a "torpedo" they send down it's lumen to scrape things ou and take Ultrasound pictures of the pipe along the way!


Imagine, they designed an built this way back when even I was a kid in college. Pretty ingenious of those guys, I think.



And to prevent problems form earthquakes, (there are dozens of them per day in Alaska), it was built on rails on top of the posts that go into the ground. A few years ago we had a quake which was 7.8 in strength that went right through it (you didn't hear about it because it is an unpopulated area near Denali). And it had no trouble. The pipeline was designed to withstand an 8.2 quake (since then they downgraded it's ability to withstand a quake down to 8.0, I think). Anyway it has done its job marvelously.

Once we thought that the Prudhoe field and other Alaska oil was going to help prevent oil shortages for the USA. Now we in South Texas hear that our local fields are going to last for 150 years.

But similar to love and marriage, it doesn't always last as long as expected at the time of the Honeymoon.

A Kodiak wedding

Weddings in Alaska can be quite special.

First of all, the person performing the wedding doesn't have to be a minister, a ship's captain, or even an "official" of the State. Any person can marry a couple and then report or register it with the State whenever they get back to civilization. Actually that makes it a lot more personal to have your friends marry you instead of some stranger.

And, of course, weddings can be in quite exotic places.

Here is one that was published last month in Kodiak's paper.

They married at the Kodiak's Resanov Museum, among friends & family.

And, yes that is a bear under their feet.
Other "on-lookers" included a stuffed eagle and I think an otter as well.

And here is one of our friend's wedding, on the beach.

Married in a gown brought form India, under the watchful eye of a seal who kept looking over the waves, as ne noticed something going on that he had never seen before.

Of course, since a wedding is a formal affair, the guest are wearing their "best" to the ceremony. But just in case there is a chance for a hike before or after the big event, here it is completely appropriate to wear you Xtra Tuf rain boots on such occasions.

And, if you still don't see the "flavor" of life in Kodiak and Alska, here is an article from this Monday's Kodiak Daily Mirror newspaper.

Of course, there are the last minute touch-ups.




We don't think we could summarize it any better than the paper's writer. So we'll just copy and paste it here in its entirity:

A river wedding

by James Brooks

 

"The bride wore an elegant sleeveless white gown. The groom donned a purple and yellow striped shirt with purple tie. Both wore hip waders.

 

Kodiak has been the scene of unique weddings before, but the marriage of Dake Schmidt and Kadie Walsh may take top prize. On Saturday afternoon, the pair waded in the middle of the Buskin River, accompanied by their wedding party.

For the operators of MemoryMakers Tour and Guide service, the scene was a reminder of how they work and play.

“That’s about as Kodiak as it gets,” Schmidt said after emerging from the water.

Schmidt, a fishing guide and photographer, and Walsh, who also runs Smarty Pants Graphics, met about nine years ago at the former Buskin River Inn, a hotel and restaurant on the banks of the river.

Since then, they’ve worked together and lived together as Schmidt opened a photography studio and ran his fishing guide business. Walsh started her own graphic design business and continues to help with the guiding operation.

A one-year hiatus in their long friendship only cemented their bond. “It was a long time coming, supposedly,” Schmidt said of the ceremony and his friends’ reaction to the announcement.

Groomsmen and bridesmaids alike carried fly fishing rods into the river — the groomsmen’s were strung in yellow, the bridesmaids’ in purple.

The wedding couple’s rings arrived in the mouths of a pair of fresh-caught king salmon kept in a cooler for the purpose.

After the pair exchanged vows, pledging to stick together “in big houses and small, fish slime and all,” they exited the river beneath a ceremonial archway formed by the fishing rods held by the wedding party.

As spectators left for the wedding reception, the new Dake and Kadie Schmidt found a quiet corner of the river to catch their first fish together — a pair of pink salmon — before joining the party.

Jason Fox, a friend of Dake Schmidt, presided over the wedding ceremony. Fox met Schmidt when the two worked at Pillar Creek fish hatchery. “We just became instant fishing buddies right away,” Fox said.

Though he no longer lives in Kodiak, Fox jumped to come to the island when he heard Schmidt and Walsh were committed. Having the ceremony in the river was simply an added bonus. “Knowing Dake, I couldn't imagine him doing it anywhere else.”

Read more local stories form the North Pacific island of Kodiak (our former home) at:

kodiakdailymirror.com

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How far is 1 degree?

In Alaska we often heard about the latitude of different cities and the effect on day length.

I had calculated that each degree of latitude is about 69 miles.
So, lets forget about minutes of latitude for a calculation (and lets assume 69 miles is correct even at the N and S pole for the calculation).
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The distance further north between Kodiak (at 58 degrees) and Anchorage (at 61degrees) is (61-58) x 69 = 207 miles further north.  
(These of course, are not driving or even air miles, since we are not calculating distances east & west.)
The distance between Anchorage and Fairbanks (at 65 degrees) is 276  miles north.
Between Fairbanks and the Arctic Circle (at 66 degrees, 33 minutes): 102.
Between Fairbanks and Barrow (which we talked about in our recent blog), (at 71  degrees):  414.

Did you notice I threw in one calculation with minutes in there?
Well, it is actually easy to calculate those, too, because there are 60 minutes in one degree, so there is one mile per minute!

On the other hand, calculating distances in longitude (from east to west or v.v.) is more difficult.
Longitude (the lines that travel up and down the earth) widen at the equator.

So, a degree of longitude at the poles is 69.17 miles at the equator; 53 miles at 40 degrees North or South of the equator; and 0 miles at the poles!

If in your mind you can calculate miles form East to West, based on longitude, you have a better mind than me!


P.S. For those with real Enquiring Minds: since the spinning earth is elliptical instead of perfectly round, each degree of latitude vary from 68.703 miles at the equator to 69.407 at the poles.  I just assume 69 everywhere for my mental calculations as I travel down long roads.

Long Summer days in AK

While driving down form Alaska, we went to the Arctic Circle (66 degrees and 33 minutes North) on the longest day of the year.
At this latitude and above, if there are no mountains in front of you, and if you are are sea level, you should be able to see the sun up in the sky for 24 hours.
Thought that would be an event a a time to remember.

And it was. Here is a picture on the trip back, at 11: 30 PM in Fairbanks, at nearly 65 degrees North..
We had to decrease the photo's exposure 1 EV because the sun in the background was so bright, that we couldn't see any detail in the foreground.

On this day, Fairbanks' people were out and about, strolling along at 1:30 AM.
Some seemed to be out for a leisurely bike ride.
At one corner, there were 7 people waiting to cross the 4 lane road.
They were enjoying every bit of light they could get!


Back in Kodiak, at 58 degrees North, we used to love putting the kayak in the water at  10 at night.
That gave us a chance to see the wildlife and then watch the sun set on the return. As long as we made it in bu 11:30 pm, we could see quite well.

In Fairbanks people REALLY take notice of the days' length. The days start getting longer in January. But, according to a college student we met, it is March when they really get excited. They say, "Winter's over!" Unfortunately they get hit by a few more days of - 20 degrees, which zaps their excitement.

So once, June comes around, they are really up beat. Just like the flowers you saw on some of our recent blogs.
But, by the 22nd of June, they realize shorter days are on the way. At least this guy we met said he got a little sad that day.
And by September, just in time to return to school, they get their first snow fall again.

But, according to this article I read on the Internet today, not all are saddened.
Just take a look at this article about the folk from Barrow, AK      .
Some seem to not mind winter and shorter days at all.

Alaska city experiences first sunset in months

BECKY BOHRERAugust 2, 2013Nature

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — For the first time since May, the sun has set in what is billed as the northernmost city in the United States.
According to the National Weather Service, the first sunset in Barrow, Alaska, since May 10 occurred at 1:57 a.m. Friday. The sun rose again at 3:12 a.m.
Barrow has continuous daylight for so long because of its location, hundreds of miles north of the Arctic Circle, and the tilt of the earth's axis of rotation.
The town of about 4,500 people will gradually lose sunlight each day until November. After that, the sun won't rise again until January — again, because of the rotational tilt.
The first sunset in months was a nonevent for some residents like Bob Green, an area resident since 1978 who didn't stay up to watch it the sunset.
"I've seen enough of them," he said. "I'm just glad that it's happening. I've had enough sun. I much prefer the winter."
Green, reached at work at Pepe's North of the Border restaurant, said Barrow seems to run better "when it's frozen."
There are no bugs or mud to deal with during the winter months, he said. Also, it's easy to make light in the winter but hard to get rid of that "big light bulb" that is the sun in summer.
While some people might find it strange to live somewhere with extended periods of sunlight or darkness, Patuk Glenn, museum curator at the Inupiat Heritage Center, said residents have grown accustomed to the seasons.
"Most of us, anyway, don't really suffer from that seasonal affective thing," she said, adding: "It's just part of life."

Things like successful spring and fall subsistence whale hunts are cause for excitement in Barrow, she said. There's no real fuss about the first sunset in months.

Like Green, she didn't stay up to see it.
"You know, I'm sleeping at that time," she said, noting she has a job to get to in the morning.

Fairbank's flowers

It's been a while since we were in Fairbanks.
But reviewing our pictures showed us just how beautiful their flowers can be.

Here are some some from our trip through there, on June 21st.

 

 Mighty pretty,

But they seemed a little affected by the weather.
First of all, they had 3 unexpected snowfalls in May, making them re-plant and giving the flowers a late start.
Then, this year's  85 degree weather seemed to zap a little life out of them in June.

Compare them to what we saw in late July in 2008.

See how abundant and variable they were?

This pic might give you a clue as to why they were so bountiful.

That year, there was a lot of drizzle and temps that didn't reach into the mid 50's when we were there in late  July.

But the days were long enough to let them grow

and grow;

so much so, that the yellow flower in the foreground, here below, was actually as large as my spread-open hand!

Pretty amazing we think, enough to make us plan for a repeat summer-time visit!

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