Denali National Park and Alaska!

On a slope above Tattler Creek,  37.5 miles into Denali National Park

I am amazed and overwhelmed by Alaska. The scale of the landscape is really beyond my descriptive abilities. You all need to go there and see it for yourself. I'll be posting more photos soon, but wanted to get a few up on the blog.

The alpine tundra we hiked across during one day of the class.

The tundra was still fairly brown looking from a distance because the spring was very cold, and the summer late this year. However, once in it one could see a host of flowers in bloom. Lousewort

View into Denali from Stony Point. To give you an idea of scale, look for the interpretive sign at the edge of the pullout from the road. 

Heather bells. Tundra plants hug the ground to stay warmer and out of the dry,  desiccating wind.

Alpine Rhododendrons- much smaller than those one might find in a garden.

Arctic ground squirrel keeping an eye on hikers passing by. 

This very low growing "shrub" is actually a willow.

Grizzly bear sow with two cubs, Denali National Park.

We spotted this female bear and her two cubs while in the van driving back to our campsite after a long day of looking a wildflowers. At first the cubs were crouched down, but soon started running around after their mom.

Bald eagle grabbing a fish out of Auk Bay, north of Juneau Alaska

This may be my favorite wildlife shot of all time. My friend Karen and I very were excited to see a bald eagle on the rooftop of a building near the docks in Juneau. I, of course, took way too many pictures of the eagle on the roof, on a light post, flying overhead, in really bad light. Little did I know that in the Juneau area Bald Eagles are about as common as ravens are, which is very common. I was delighted to get this shot a couple of days later of an eagle in a more natural setting than a rooftop.  More photos coming soon!

Native Americans Protest Hearthside Homes Desecration of Ancient Cemetery at Brightwater

With recent reports of over 170 buried human remains dug up and stored in trailers on site, along with the removal of thousands of ancient artifacts, Native Americans and their supporters have started demonstrating their outrage. Every Wednesday night from 5 PM to 6PM at the corner of Bolsa Chica Road and Warner Ave in Huntington Beach there is an informational protest.







There has also been recent evidence uncovered that demonstrates Hearthside Homes withheld information about the human remains from the California Coastal Commission. In addition to demonstrating, the group has filed for a revocation hearing with the California Coastal Commission in an attempt to stop the desecration of the cemetery of their ancestors.

Details

On the trips I took in May I found myself drawn to details, mainly to details in nature. Sure I took photos of big picture subjects too such as Zion Canyon from the trail leading to Hidden Canyon, but I was very drawn to smaller subjects. Now, of course, this may have just been because stopping to photograph flowers, or patterns in the rocks gave me a chance to catch my breath as I climbed up the switchbacks leading to Hidden Canyon, but the interest continued beyond that trail.

Tracks in Cathedral Valley. 

Do you see the face made by the moss and lichen?

Water-smoothed canyon walls in a narrow canyon.

Patterns of light and shadow in leaves along the trail to Hidden Canyon.

Contents in the cupboard of an old cowboy cabin in Cathedral Valley.

This horned lizard, closely followed by a smaller one,  darted across the dirt road in front of me as I was driving out of Horseshoe Canyon. I stopped to photograph them in the road when suddenly a jeep approached. I am not sure what the people in the jeep thought as I madly chased the lizards around the road to get them out of the way of the approaching car. 

Cactus flower just budding out in Zion National Park

This image of new growth on a conifer was taken at the Foxfire Gardens in Marshfield Wisconsin. This is a private garden on about 80 acres that is owned by a couple who have slowly turned their property into a tranquil, shady retreat. They are very kind to share this with the public at no cost. 

The Great Gallery

The Great Gallery is a spectacular series of pictographs in Horseshoe Canyon in a very remote part of southern Utah. During the 3 mile walk to the Great Gallery one passes a series of other panels while walking in a canyon with walls of towering sandstone.
This is the first panel I saw in the canyon, and it has one of my favorite rock art images in it. The figure of the bird/human below being released perhaps by the figure below it, invokes to me the desire to be able to fly.


These figures are the most famous of those in the Great Gallery panel. The entire panel is about 100 feet long, and many of the figures are over 6 feet high. They were painted thousands of years ago with mineral based pigments.  

If you plan to do the 6.5 mile round trip walk to see these images, be sure to bring plenty of water. Even in mid May it was in the 90's on the canyon floor. The trail head is accessed by traveling about 30 miles on a dirt road. When I drove it in May it was in fine shape, but after a rain the road can become impassable so check with the rangers at Canyonlands National Park, or with a local BLM office about the condition of the road. 

Disappointment at the California Coastal Commission

I don't remember being more disappointed in a group of public officials as I was at the Coastal Commission yesterday. The hearing I attended was to review the staff findings based on the Commission's actions on the upper Bolsa Chica wetlands area owned by the Shea Co. The purpose of the hearing was for the commissioners who voted in favor of the project in November
( the prevailing side) to confirm the staff had incorporated the commissions changes made at the November meeting. The only thing to be discussed were the changes made in the staff recommendations by the commission members last November.

Included in the staff report in November was a requirement for a 4:1 mitigation for wetland destruction that occurred on the property. The commission in November recognized the existence of a 4 acre wetland on the site. There was no discussion at the November meeting of the mitigation, and the commission did not make any changes to this requirement in November.

However, a 4:1 mitigation for a 4 acre wetland would mean the possibility of a 16 acre mitigation project, perhaps on the site, reducing the area available for the housing project. The representatives of the Shea Co. not only argued that the commission had removed this requirement in November ( in complete disregard for reality) but the commission agreed in a 5-0 vote.

Not only that, but during the hearing on the item, one of Shea's lobbyists handed out a yellow piece of paper to the commissioners with the motions the company wanted, and guess what-Commissioner Secord read motion by motion directly from the paper handed out by Shea's lobbyist.

Things got a little tricky with the last motion which included incorporation of language contained in an addendum handed out by the Shea Co. earlier in the day. The public had not seen this document, so we had no idea of what the last motion actually did. Plus since the document was handed out to the commissioners while they were deliberating on other agenda items, I doubt any of them had time to read the whole thing. Commissoner Wan pointed out inaccuracies in Shea's document she had found in the brief time she had to look over the information, but since she was not on the prevailing side of the vote in November, she could not vote on the motions.

So in essence they were passing motions written by the developer, including language they had not read, which had also been written by the developer. Even this motion passed 3-2.

As a member of the public, and a former Mayor, I was terribly disappointed by the way the majority of the commissioners did the bidding of the developer, and ignored the factual information presented by the Bolsa Chica Land Trust and members of the public.

So is this it? Can nothing be done? Well, in 1996 the Coastal Commissioners did the bidding of the Koll Company on a massive plan for construction at Bolsa Chica that violated the Coastal Act, the very law the Commissioners are supposed to uphold. The Bolsa Chica Land Trust sued, and won. That victory not only protected wetlands, and Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Areas at Bolsa Chica, but all coastal wetlands in the State. Maybe it's time to remind the commissioners, that as much as they would like to disregard the rules governing coastal development, there are groups out there who will challenge them when they do so!

Tanzania in black and white

A friend of mine sent me a link to a photographer's site who has dramatic black and white photos taken in Kenya. This inspired me to play around a little with some of mine. Here's a few photos I took in Tanzania in Dec 05- Jan 06 which I have altered a bit.

Elephant group on a rainy morning

Cheetah with a full stomach

Male impala

Acacia trees in early morning fog

terns

 Late spring and summer is the time of the terns at Bolsa Chica. The Forster's terns are courting and displaying and the least terns are back from their wintering grounds. 

Last summer I noticed several Forster's terns using the walk bridge railing as a perch from which they could launch themselves into the water after fish rather than hovering in the air. I'm not sure if this bird is one of the individuals I saw last year, but it was using the railing in the same way. This one stood its ground as I walked past it. Is it my imagination, or does it look like it has a bit of an attitude? 

Earthday at Bolsa Chica

Wow! What a crowd! Over 500 people signed in to help clear non-native plants and plant natives on the Bolsa Chica Mesa.

Huntington Beach Mayor Debbie Cook spoke, then the crowd walked along Warner Ave. to the mesa.

We hope that by the fall there will be a walk bridge across the channel so we don't have to risk walking in the bike lane on Warner any longer.

Over 1,000 new native plants were planted by the end of the day. It was a record turn out for participation at Bolsa Chica on Earth Day.

Spring in full swing at Bolsa Chica

California poppies and primroses are in bloom along the dunes. 

The elegant terns are back, and more are arriving each day to court and soon lay eggs and rear young. No least terns sited yet, but I did see three snowy plover nests in the nesting area just north of the footbridge.

The black skimmers have yet to arrive, and while many of the ducks have left, the few ruddy ducks left are indeed ruddy with bright blue bills. Many dowitchers have started their journey to Alaska, and Canada to breed. The ones I saw today were all busy filling up for the long flight in their future.

The bird on the left has already molted into breeding plumage, while the one on the right is still in winter plumage. 

Elephant Seals

On the way back from Monterey we drove along the coast and stopped at the elephant seal rookery north of San Simeon. The website of the Friends of the Elephant Seals is full of great information about these animals. Click here to go to the site.

This time of year about the only seals on the beach were young of the year called at this point "weaners" since they were abruptly weaned when their mothers left to resume hunting in the ocean. These young seals will teach themselves to swim, and lose about one third of their body weight before learning to hunt.

Later in the fall, the males will come back to establish territories. While here, they do not hunt and by the time they return to the ocean in the late winter, they also will have lost about one third of their weight. The seals get their name from the large nose the male develops as he reaches sexual maturity.


Male seals may weigh as much as 5,000 pounds! Elephant seals were hunted almost to extinction for their blubber which was rendered into oil. A small population survived, and with the protection granted them by the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the population has recovered to about 170,000 members.

Females begin to give birth in late December, and nurse their young with the richest milk of any mammal. The pups gain weight quickly, and are weaned by March. 

These animals are of particular interest to biologists, because of their amazing diving abilities.The record dive was to 5,000 feet! To compare the diving ability of elephant seals with other mammals click here