Wilson's Warbler

Well, it's certainly not a wonderful thing when a bird smacks into one of our many big windows, but sometimes it offers us a chance to show a dazed feather ball some tenderness and compassion, as well as a close-up view of the exquisite beauty, delicacy, and HARDINESS of these winged creatures.

Yesterday, the rare (at least up here) Wilson's Warbler introduced itself intimately to one of our living room windows.  The familiar "bonk" sound, mostly heard in the winter when we have the bird feeder out, caught Willa's immediate attention.  "Mama, a bird hit!  It's lying in the driveway....it's YELLOW! ".  We threw on our shoes, Willa grabbed the camera, and we ran outside to assess the damage.  Awake, no blood, just a little dazed, and indeed, yellow.  Not a common sight.  I picked it up gently and handed it to Willa.  It's talons clung strongly to her finger, a good sign.  It seemed as amazed by her as she was by it.  She gave the warbler some love for awhile and then set up a branch on a stump with some leaves and fireweed petals-a safe comfy place for him to perch while she kept an eye on him.  He fluffed up and snoozed for awhile-they usually do before waking back up clear headed, realizing they are in the company of humans, and flicking off into the distance at the speed of light! 

After awhile, Willa came back inside reporting that our visitor had alighted into the safety of the trees.  Not knowing what kind of bird that was, we grabbed the birding books and consulted Facebook friends.  Miles, the birder, IDed it as the Wilson's Warbler.

Lynx and mountain hyjinx

Today we had a couple "firsts"!  We woke up to the mama moose and her baby grazing around the side of the house.  As I was sitting on the couch getting my morning java infusion and information gathering, some movement out the window caught my eye.  A LYNX!!!!  Sort of rare to see and even more rare to capture a photo.  I ran for the camera and got a few, mostly blurry shots, of the small lynx sauntering around the house, probably following the smell of that baby moose.  I got one decent photo and some video:

Kitty, kitty, kitty!!!!!

Very exciting to watch him pass right along our back door and under Willa's bedroom window!

After Willa's running class we headed out to Palmer to climb the Butte.  The Butte is a 881 foot isolated mini mountain rising abruptly in stark contrast from the flat farm lands of Palmer.  This prominent landmark, or, mountain "light" if you will, is dwarfed in comparison the 360 degree view of mountains surrounding it- the reward after climbing the sometimes steep, sometimes rocky, oft dusty trail.  Why, hello, Talkeetna Mountains, Chugach Range, Knik Glacier, Matanuska River and, on a clear day, Mount Susitna!!!!  WOW.  Something Wonderful, indeed!!!!  While the views are mind-blowing, the Butte itself is ravaged by social trails and is in major need of restoration and monitoring.  At the top you'll find tons of people and, unfortunately, trash and the occasional graffiti tag.  :(

Willa and I where chased by 25,091,494,020 mosquitoes on the way up, accosted by a dust devil at the top(Willa, obsessed with tornadoes, was THRILLED!), and eyed suspiciously by a group of umbrella toting Asians-the women all in HEELS?  The Valley.  Always a surreal experience.

Russian River- Day 4, BEARS!!!!

4 am.  They'll STILL be asleep when we get back from fishing!

Hooray for telephoto lenses!  What an amazing morning THIS was!!! 
Up early once again, Miles and I took on the nasty and congested "top of the sanctuary".  This tends to be the spot above where those bastard fish lay protected and waiting for their chance to dash up stream.  It's usually a bottleneck of fisherfolk, but we got there early enough to get decent spots.  But, of course, not a lot of fish coming up.  At least the people we fished next to where all very friendly and courteous.  One of my clients from work actually appeared on the bank across from where we were fishing and it was fun to bitch about lack of fish back and forth to each other. 
And then that humongous Grizzly sow and her cubs appeared.  Stealthily and almost soundlessly through the brush behind us and into the river.  Thanks the gawds that the people on the opposite bank saw them and yelled out.  The family of 3 headed up the river a bit and then crossed, engaging in some bear-like shenanigans-diving under water to find salmon carcases, gnawing on tree stumps and learning to share. We were all quickly dispatched further up the river when mama and cubs came back down river and crossed  again where we were fishing.  Miles had caught a nice red and we had to leave it sitting there in the water on it;'s leader as the bears approached.  We were sure they would find it and happily imbibe...  Man, was Miles bummed!  We stood watching them and taking photos as they got closer and closer to our fish.  Surprisingly, the old dead carcases seemed more appealing to the bears and they just bypassed Miles's fresh red altogether!  They were soon far enough away that we had our spots back in the river.  It was an awesome experience standing there in the rushing water, feeling it's strength, waiting for salmon, all while watching 3 grizzly bears go about their day. UNreal....

The rest of the day brought us heat and sun, fun, and more friends joining our camp.

FISHING SPOT:  Top of the sanctuary

FISH: 1 red, 1 trout

WEATHER:  Overcast in morning, GLORIOUS clear blue sky the rest of the day

DINNER:  Seafood night...halibut with lemon pesto, pan fried trout, coconut curry seafood stew-shrimp, calamari, muscels, clams, halibut....

Miles in action and one of my clients fishing the opposite side!

~sniff, sniff....mmmm fish tail!!!!

Omm nom nom nom!

Fishing and bear watching

A very alert eagle enjoying a salmon breakfast

Willa's Lego rendition on the Enterprise

OMG.  Naners stuffed with Peanut Butter Cups and marshmellows, then roasted by the fire!

Jack's ALIVE!

Banana boats gettin' melty!

Fresh babes in da house!



Smoochie boochins!

God DAMN, we truly live in such a fantastic place!  It's been a LONG time since we've had much moose activity on our property, let alone a mama and newborns taking residence!  Our record snowfall is finally melted, the grass is greening and the buds are finally popping(what wasn't devastated over the last 2 summer's worm blight).  What a treasure to come home to this new family relaxing about 40 feet from our side door!  I was tromping indelicately up our stairs, laden with groceries and about to go into the house when I caught the twitch of an ear out of the corner of my eye.  I looked over to see Mama laying there with her 2 babes splayed out in the sun.  The fact that she didn't rise as I clomped up the steps was a good sign.  As a mother, I fully understand her instinct to fiercely protect her babies...and I have been on the receiving end of a mama moose's intensity.  I was treated the other day to the site of her chasing another huge rogue moose off the property into the neighbor's!  SERIOUS crashing through the brush!  DON'T mess with her, Dude! 
She hasn't seemed to mind our humanly comings and goings and the activity inside the house.  We've taken a lot of photos and video right outside Willa's bedroom window.  She was excited to have "Lick, Snack, and Mama" sleeping over outside!  What an amazing event to witness !  We can sit out on the back deck and watch/listen to Mama munch on tender grasses, strip bark from the trees and nurse her babies.  And there is nothing friggin' cuter then those little ones frolicking and playing with each other!  Barring any upset, Mama will probably hang around the area for the next week or two while her babies grow stronger and faster on their gawky legs before heading off for new territory.  While it's a pain that we can't venture out onto the property to play, that we have to be very cautious walking around the house, and that we have to keep an eye out for grizzlies hunting moose calves, I think it's a great trade for the opportunity to observe this fierce and tender wildness.  What a spectacular place to grow up in!!!!!

Someone is tying to make pee pee

It can be quite unnerving how quiet and still these huge creatures can be.  You can stumble right on them if you're not careful!

Glorious 6am nursies

Down. Defeated. Do not pass go, do not collect...

It's a SWELL day for Alaska.

The results of yesterday’s 2008 Primary Election are basically in. Not officially...but pretty much.

Hey great! Predator control-It’s still ok to shoot wolves and grizzlies from the air or by "land and shoot" even if there is inadequate data to prove the necessity for it. It’s ok to hand over these animals on a silver platter to please the ever increasing numbers of hunters. It’s still ok to shoot wolf pups in their dens. How sporting. Never mind finding them homes within Alaskan zoos or conservation centers.

Clean water, schlean water. It’s ok with everyone to leave Bristol Bay’s commercial, sport, and subsistence fisheries- and many other Alaskan waters- wide open for the inevitable toxic chemical contamination from mining. So what if the indigenous people who have subsisted off of the salmon in Bristol Bay for 10,000 years loose one of their main food sources? Salmon are disappearing everywhere else but let’s not bother to protect the Bay that produces Alaska’s largest salmon run. Get ‘em while you can folks! Order them up fresh from New Sagaya while they last.

It’s ok to keep our elections nice-n-dirty. Give those big money special interest groups all the power. Let’s not bother holding politicians accountable to their constituents. Let’ em continue to serve the Man. It's ok.

Even with the ongoing, humiliating, widespread investigation by The U.S. Department of Justice of Alaskan lawmakers' official actions in relation to the oil industry, fisheries, and private corrections industry, even though Senator Ted Stevens has been indicted for 7 corruption counts, EVEN with all that disgrace, Alaskans have voted him back in. It’s ok, Man, he gives us tons of pork!

And good ole’, friendly, older than dirt like Uncle Ted, Don Young who spent... billions now? of his campaign money on lawyers and won’t tell us why…
BACK IN the running!
And good on ya! to the 65.5ish % of voters who decided to sit this one out. Something better to do?

~Leaves to flush head down toilet…..

DA BEARZ!

I've taken a break from alternating between bashing my own head with a frying pan and flushing it in the toilet, to post. Has anyone ever felt the indescribable guilt, helplessness, and..I can't even find a third word to describe....unintentionally hurting your kid?

Yesterday I accidentally discharged a blast of pepper spray into the air and it blew onto Lo.

Let's backtrack:
Tuesday evening. I'm sitting on the potty doin' my bidness and I hear...something...fall down/ crash? Maybe from downstairs or outside?

"What was that?!", I yell out.

"I don't knoooooooow!", Dea sing-songs.

Back door is opened...And immediately slammed shut!

"Black bear in the back yard!!!!!!" ,Dea is shouting. "By the back door!!"

I cut myself off midstream -girls can do that, ya know!-and barely have my jeans pulled up as I burst through the bathroom door to look out the back door window. Of course I missed him. He took off when Dea "scared" him. The crash was our overturned recycle bin for the "CANS". We picked them up making note that we really need to clean them out more thoroughly with soap and water before throwing them in the bin. Dea banged some pots and we all yelled just to be sure he was gone. It was like New Years Eve 1979.

"Mommy? You have a little wet spot on your pants!"

After my shower we resumed watching The Big Lebowski(One of my top 5 favs!).

When it ended , before going to bed we took a peek outside. To secure the perimeter, if you will. Now the bin was in shreds and the cans are back out all over the ground. We put the other bins in the garage.

Goes to show you what a great home theater system we have! Never heard a thing while a black bear was Go 2 Sleep-ing our CAN bin. The upsetting thing is that he came back so soon after we made a ruckus the first time. And then returned the next day while I was at work. Lo was at a friends but Dea was home and called huz to tell him that she saw the bear heading up into the back yard. Then she saw him again going down the driveway. And where the hell is my dog during all of this?!?!? Oh, well. The guy's old. Moose walk buy him and he doesn't care. Just lies there with one eye open.

Yesterday was the first time since I've lived here that I ever felt like I had to look both ways before venturing from the house. And it was the first time I ever carried the pepper spray to walk down the street. And that really sucks. But, realistically, as far as neighborhood bears go, there are more urban areas like Anchorage that get far more visits then we do. Despite the fact that we live up in the Chugach range, right in bear country. I guess there is more to attract them in urban places. Namely, trash. Many people up in our valley don't have cans full of trash at the end of their driveway just calling to the bears. We haul it down to the landfill ourselves.

I really do not want to live in fear of wild life here. I'm thinking that this new trepidation is a result of all the bears we encountered at the Russian River(scroll to bottom). Dea has pics and video of a few more that she took when she stayed a couple extra days to camp with our neighbors. Then there was that mama moose who charged Lo, her friend, L, and I a couple weeks ago.

And the fact that despite the noise and activity, they all still hung around. It gets scary when these animals are desensitized to humans. That mama moose has been bringing her babies to our property for a few years now. We call her scarface due to the long scar on her side. Why scar"FACE", I dont know.
When she charged us the kids and I had been up in the playgarden screaming, yelling, laughing... We had walked over to examine a cluster of alder about 20 feet from the playgarden. I had noticed that a lot of bark had been stripped off by moose. The kids were climbing on the branches when I turned to get my camera by the swing set. There was mama and baby walking toward us! And she wanted to pass that cluster of alder for some reason. I slowly sidestepped back into the cluster of branches-I saw the ears go back- I grabbed a kid under each arm and pushed as far back into the branches as I could as she charged forward.

(I later took this picture to show our vantage point)

She stopped and I whispered for the kids to not move or make a sound. I could feel their little hearts beating in my hands. Usually, if you can't run from a moose you raise up as BIG as you can , flail your arms, and holler at it. There was nowhere to run but my gut told me not to play big. Just then , Niko the hero dog, made his appearance. Remember that big muscled bulldog from Buggs Bunny? The way his little stick lower legs carried that big upper body as he strutted around? That was Niko. He was like,"Yo! Scarface! What the HELL do you think you're doing to my people?" Mama hunkers down and just bores past the alder chasing Niko into the neighbor's yard. Baby runs off in the opposite direction. Great. We wait for Mama to come back past the alder to seek out her little one and then we exit, stage left.

So now it's yesterday and Dea has to walk down the street to the neighbors to water their flowers while they are away. Poor kid is all creeped out now so Lo and I and the bear spray accompany her. My big mistake was taking the safty clip off the "trigger" of the bear spray. While Dea waters, Lo and I run and dance on the grass. Niko shows up to join us for some "chase me- I'm a puppy still!". I'm chasing him when my foot slips on the wet grass. The bear spray, which I'm still holding with finger at the ready, shoots off a blast as my hands clench in reaction to bracing my fall. Only a millisecond but enough to belch forth a red cloud. It shot out in the opposite direction from Lo who was standing about 15 feet away. But it was really windy and blew it back at us. I imediatly yelled a bunch of stuff like"Lo! Close your eyes tight NOW! Close your mouth! Run to Dea! Put your hands over your face!" Too late. As I'm steering her toward Dea and the hose, she's screaming. She got just enough to burn her eyes, mouth and skin. She's coughing and panicking. I grab the hose and am shocked that Lo is totally willing to open her eyes and let me spray her face. It was horrible. Not only was she hurting and panicked, but dumbfounded and PISSED! Between screams and me pulling her dress off she forced out,"you didn't have to do that!" and,"you could have waited for me and Dea to go inside!" My heart was just crushed. I wanted to dig a hole and bury my head in it. I caused my little girl to be hurting and frightened. I feel sick just writing about this. I told her over and over that I didn't mean it, it was an accident, I was so sorry, Mommy would NEVER EVER hurt you on purpose. I wrapped her in my coat as we waited for Dea to come back with the keys. We took her inside the neighbor's house and got her in the shower. Dea pointed out the number on the bear spray to call if someone gets hit with it by accident. We switch and I go call the fucktard of the century. After a hundred years of waiting for this hick

to get his shite together, he basically tells me exactly what it says on the can. Oh, and "Well, at least you know the stuff works on little girls!"

I shite you NOT.

Meanwhile, super big sister has calmed Lo down and has her laughing. I take over and finish up. I wrap her in a warm towel and hold her my arms, apologizing. Lo tells me "You didn't mean to, Mommy. It was an accident." And I'm just bawling. My Dea tells me it's OK and puts her arms around me. Lo tilts my head to give me a kiss on the forehead. We pack up and head home.

ALWAYS keep the saftey clip on the trigger.

We've have always been very respectful of the moose in our yard and exercised a healthy caution for both moose and bears when outside. Watching quietly from a safe distance-NEVER feeding. Now I need to do a little research and find out if it's just better to scare them when we see them(from a safe distance , of course. Like, from the kitchen window!). What we WILL do is have a family sit down and re-teach and discuss bear and moose behavior, what to do if encountering them, and what precautions to take to be safe when out on the property. It looks like we may have to whack down all the long grasses and fireweed out back. That would be so sad but moose sometimes make their beds out there-you'll find a big flattened spot like a mini crop-circle. The kids have always liked to lay down in them. And, a bear could sit unseen but very close by. We'll have to wait and see. We've got a dialogue going with all the neighbors so we can keep abreast of bear travel . We'll check out the property for bear scat and beds to determine if this bear is a "nuisance bear" warranting "relocation" or just a guy passing through to the next valley where the Salmon are. Should we just move? Hell no. Why should we? To only replace this kind of danger with some other kind of danger? You're immune to it NOWHERE. I won't live in fear, just caution and we will teach our kids the same. Wildlife is part of our world. One of the many reasons we live here in this magnificent place.

~sigh~It's been one HELL of a week yet, huh?!!

FISHIN' on the RUSSIAN RIVER

We're back!

(Handsome guy enjoying view from boardwalk)

...from an amazing and all too short 4 day fishing/camping trip on the Russian River. The Russian is located on the Kenai Penninsula about 110 miles from Anchorage. From the river's origin, Upper Russian Lake in the Kenai Mountains, this Clearwater stream runs 13 miles long, flowing down to Lower Russian lake and draining into the glacially silted Kenai River. There is a stunning contrast of milky blue/green and clear grey/brown where the two rivers meet. The confluence, located right off the Sterling Highway, is considered an angling hot spot. Or, to some, Combat Fishing Hell.
Although it’s not as remote as Alaska's more glorified, and logistically/monetarily more difficult to reach waters, the Russian is one of the most popular red salmon fisheries in AK. The river is most heavily fished on it’s lower 3 miles. Each summer there are two runs of sockeye/red salmon and one of silver salmon. As with the dip netting, one can find the masses rushin’ to the Russian when the runs are peaking. The river can be jam packed with combat fisherpeople at all hours of the day. Suicide runs(driving in from Anchorage after work to fish well into the night, catch a few Z’s and be back to work in the morning)are quite common. With combat fishing, fisherpeople, with about 5-8 feet between them, line the banks of the river for miles.

Fishing lines with bright flies whiz above their heads, plunk into the river for a 10 second ride downstream until SNAP! Flies leap out of the water to loop gracefully back around fisher heads for another go. Some lines will suddenly tighten-rod bowed in an arch. There are shouts of “Fish ON!” to announce that the fight is on. Sockeyes are said to be the hardest fighting and most acrobatic of the salmon. After the ensuing struggle, some folks are lucky enough to land the fish and still other’s fishing lines go suddenly slack-just a wisp blowing in the breeze-the fish broke away and most likely took the flies or whole leaders with them! When the fish are heading up river in droves it’s such an active exciting time. It feels great to walk out of the river with your limit for the day-which is 3 per family member. But on slow days most people can be seen just standing in the river, rod at the ready with a searching, disillusioned look on their faces. We had both kinds of fishing experiences on our trip.

We took off Saturday afternoon for the Russian River taking a couple stops to eat lunch and visit the Moose Pass Solstice Festival, a little gathering of artisans, musicians, and music on Trail lake up on a mountain pass.

It was a beautiful day to browse around and eat ice cream by the lake before heading to camp.

By dinner time we had settled by a crackling fire in the Russian River Campground with our next door neighbors, their kids, the grandparents and three dogs. It’s a beautiful place to camp, situated in a spruce forest with views of the mountains.

It’s right off the Russian and you can just throw on your waders and head down the trail to the river. All the kids had a great time going for walks and bike rides. I cringed when I found out that Grandma had set up a Wii in their RV, though!!! But that’s for another post! Lo and I had a fun time exploring from the get go! The woods seemed like such a magical place filled with dwarf trees, moss, low growing cranberry, much lupine and other mountain flowers. We decided it was a perfect place and time-being the solstice-to make a fairy house for the fairies! What a whimsical little dwelling we created! Can you make it out in this picture?! It blended in beautifully and is sure to be a lovely surprise for anyone lucky enough to stumble upon it! In turn for building such a warm and welcoming home, the fairies left little gifts inside for Lo to discover each morning. A sleepy baby made from felted wool , and wood bead with an acorn cap. A citrine gemstone and a shell. There was a fairy in the house the day after that, much to my own surprise! (It was made by our neighbors daughter from fishing tackle stuff-so sweet!) And on the last day, a handful of jewels(blue glass beads)!

One morning we collected and laid out various flowers, leaves, rocks, and twigs on construction paper to make some sun prints. By the time we returned from fishing in the evening the color of the paper had faded around the objects from the sun, leaving soft images behind!

Another fun campsite activity was making texture stones from some of the nature items found around the site. Just lay the items on a flat surface and press a warm ball of sculpy on top. Peel item off and you have a nice print-or “a memory of camping here” as Lo put it. We added a little color to them when we got home to bring out the more delicate prints. We definitely learned a lot about Alaskan flora on this trip!

Our first day of fishing just rocked! It had rained in the morning but was cloudy with a refreshing breeze by the time we got to the river. The conditions were perfect for allowing easy viewing of the fish heading up river. And they came in droves! No sooner had you cast your fly and a fish was on! Most fish were lost that day- which is frustrating and exciting all at the same time -but we all managed to catch our limit.

I had never seen such action on an Alaskan river!

I was like a junky!

Even when a *grizzly bear meandered by on the boardwalk that spans the first couple miles of the river, I kept on casting! Dea was in the river next to me and Huz grabbed Lo and waded out into the river as the griz passed by, so it was all safe and good! I wanted fish! I actually managed to pull out my video camera between casts while keeping one eye on the bear and the other on the fam. However, in the chaos I didn’t hit the record button and got nothing! We had another visitor a couple hours later. *The biggest black bear I have seen yet came down the embankment on the other side of the river to look for fish carcasses to munch on. There are several fish cleaning stations set up right in the water where you can clean and filet out your fish. Head, guts and tails, etc. just float down the river. It’s the safest and most eco-friendly way to handle your fish in bear country. And the bears enjoy scavenging for carcasses or catching the occasional live one. It’s not uncommon to have people and bears fishing in tandem -people on one side of the river and bears on the other! We all watched in awe as this bear snagged his carcass and lumbered back up the embankment.
As we headed back down the boardwalk with our fish that evening, we we’re warned along the way that another grizzly was “sitting up in a tree right next to the board walk!” Sure enough, there he was! Lounging up on a branch without a care in the world! I managed to get some video as we passed under him-much to Huz’s chagrin.

Just amazing. I felt no vicious vibe from him and wasn’t really worried as we hurried on by. He looked content to sit there and lazily watch. Must have had a full belly!

I know you're all jealous of me in my fetching and oh-so-slimming fishin' waders. Get over it.

Fishing the next day was dead. *See explanation of combat fishing above. We ferried Lo across the river to a nice rock bar where some people were fishing and we spent most of the time exploring and playing. We searched for minnows and practiced casting on Lo’s little fishing rod. We took a walk and gathered some flowers to identify in our native plant book and gathered other flora and a “Y” shaped branch to make the Alaskan version of an aboriginal weaving. This was one of the crafts I researched for Winter Craft day at Dea’s school. The kids had been broken up into 4 groups, each studying a different country. This one was hard for the little ones but they did ok with a little help. Lo and I scrounged up some old fishing line from the rocks and wound it back and forth tightly between each prong of thebranch. We then weaved in long grasses both fresh and dead, a couple interesting sticks, long and short stemmed flowers, spruce branches, lichen and moss. On our last day of camping we left it sticking up from a hole in the picnic table for the next family to enjoy. I set up a circle of big rocks along the rock bar to help contain Lo’s little wooden boats. She had a great time splashing and playing in it. We did have one casualty though. A boat “managed” to break through for a voyage down the river. Huz and some of our friends who were downriver a bit actually saw it float on by! “Hey! There’s one of Lo’s boats!” They were unable to retrieve it. I think Lo was just dying to see it float the river!
Our friend the ginormous black bear came for another visit, this time on our side of the river and heading toward the cleaning station where Huz and another guy were dealing with their fish.

Everyone yelled and whistled loudly at the bear and he eventually ran back up the hill. Trying to hold Lo out in the river made it impossible to get a picture. Bummer. He was really magnificent!
You may think we’re nuts to be out there but there are so many people around and if you make a stink the bears will take off. They really just want that salmon and don’t have much interest in us. As long as you’re cautious and respectful you can enjoy a fishin’ symbiosis with the bears. Even though it was not a productive day fish-wise, we thanked the river and salmon for what they did provide. We thanked the bears as well for allowing us to view them and learn from them.
Huz and the guys woke up at 5AM the next morning for one last try at fishing. Dea and I woke later to start packing up our things to go home. Dea actually stayed on with her BFF who will be camping until tomorrow. All in all, we pulled out of there with 15 glorious salmon, one rainbow trout, new knowledge, and some amazing visuals forever emblazoned in our minds. As much as we adore our home, we were all definitely NOT ready to leave the tranquility and freshness of being in a different environment. We’ll need to get back out camping very soon! Next up…DIPNETTING!!!!!!!!

* Video of griz and black bear coming as soon as I figure out what the heck I'm doing...
**Combat fishin photo taken by TobinPhoto