Swans At Taku Lake on Sunny Grey Day

You can listen to this song as you read.  It should make sense by the end.  

The sun kept a steady beam shining through the clouds as I biked over to Taku Lake today.  I reached my 745 km goal (a vicarious bike ride from Chiangmai to Bangkok) on September 13.  There's a tension between the benefits of riding the bike outdoors regularly and how my knees feel.  It's obvious that three or four days without being on a bike makes my knees feel much better.  I can live with a little pain if I know that the damage done is temporary.  (It doesn't hurt while I ride, just later on.)  

But there was still good biking weather and so I made a new goal.  800 kilometers.  I reached that goal October 4.  So what next?  A quick and dirty calculation of .6 * 800km got me to 480 miles, so I needed 20 more miles to get to 500 miles.  That would be about 32 more kilometers.  It's not all that important and I didn't set out to go that far today.  But the weather was good, everything was beautiful and a changing seasons way, and I got to Taku Lake feeling good.  

At the south end of the lake were four swans (and a number of smaller and darker water birds) taking a rest on their way south.  

Then back home with a stop on one of the many bridges that cross over the meandering creek to  get a picture of the sun's reflection (maybe glare is a more apt term) on the creek.  Although the sky was mostly grey, the sun made its presence known most of the way.  

It ended up being 13+ kms.  All but about three kilometers were on dedicated bike trail in the greenbelt that buffers the creek from residential and commercial streets.  There's only one non-residential street that I have to cross.  So I now had 816.5 kms for the summer.  Time to check precisely how much more before I hit 500.  So I googled 500 miles = x kms.  Turns out the simple .6 rounds off more than I thought.  804km = 500 miles. 

 I was already there when I started.  So know I'll just ride until it's icy on the trails.  Winter biking, will be on the bike with studded tires and only for short distances if there's what used to be a normal snow covering - without ice.  

Meanwhile, I'm working on a post on how the different redistricting plans move me from one district to another.  Enjoy your Sunday.  Find something wonderful - whether it's the bark on a tree or an old picture of people you love.  

Video About China's Contribution To Saving Wetlands Along International Flyways Of Migratory Birds [Updated]

[UPDATE:  Here's a link to a great site about birding and other wildlife in Beijing and beyond:  https://birdingbeijing.com.]

When I taught a masters of public administration class in Beijing in 2004, I paid close attention to the birds I saw.  We had a fifth floor walk up apartment in the faculty housing on campus and so we had a treetop view from our apartment.  The most prominent bird at the time was an azure magpie.  

But I was surprised to learn that most of my students were unaware of the birds on campus.  They simply didn't see them on campus.  They were surprised that there were birds and that their American professor was interested in them.  

I searched bookstores for birding guides.  I identified birds by taking pictures and sending them to a birder friend in Anchorage who sent them to her birder friend in Japan who would identify the birds and then I could google them to confirm.  

Eventually a student took me to the biggest bookstore in Beijing - about five stories - and we found a birding book published by, I think, the World Wildlife Association.  I'd even look straight up and sometimes see flocks of birds way, way up high above Beijing.  

So when Emily retweeted this video, I was excited.  The Chinese government has stopped reclamation projects along the Yellow Sea where migratory birds stop on their migration path.  

This post is for my students in Beijing. Ben (Frank), I hope you'll pass the video along to your old classmates.  

There is a variety of people speaking here - from China, from Cornell University, from New Zealand, and from Anchorage.  

Thanks to all these folks for making this happen.  (This video is dated May 23, 2021)

Denali Day At Denali

 There was sun and blue sky mostly this morning and when we got to the first point on the park road with a view of Denali, there it was.  There were a few clouds near the top, but on closer look they were behind the mountain.

But even before we got to that point, we saw a porcupine.  I remember seeing one live porcupine in the wild in Alaska a long time ago, so this was a big deal. 

And then that first glimpse of Denali.  It's in the middle and looks like a cloud in the first picture.

But then, that's what the telephoto lens is for.  

I've got about 15 or 20 pictures of Denali today. I'll limit myself to these three.  It just dominates the view and may explain why we didn't see too many animals today.  We also didn't drive in that far because we knew we also had to go home today.  So we didn't go past the point where you could see the mountain.  

At one view point, I just climbed up the tundra above the road and kept looking back down at the expanding landscape and the mountain.  

Denali is still very much in early spring.  There are few (I don't remember seeing any) new green leaves.  And driving home, past the Denali viewpoint at mile 135, the trees seemed to go from just budding to full on new green.  But on my tundra hike I did see a few of these.  Don't know what they are.  

We came upon this ptarmigan while we had some classical Indian music on.  It seemed to pay close attention to the sitar and flute.  

This is a white crowned sparrow we encountered as we did the Savage River trail again, this time with sun shining on us.  

We saw a moose and a caribou outside the park on the way home.  A man was taking a picture next to his car along the highway.  I thought of the mountains to the east.  When suddenly a caribou dashes into the road in front of me and doesn't a 180 when he sees my car rushing toward it.  I guess that kind of quick change of direction is good wolf dodging genes.  Was the man waiting to take a picture of a caribou being hit by a car?  

This sad picture was near the road to Willow.  Remnants of a fire now that many years ago.  

The Riley Creek campgrounds now distinguishes between the under 30 foot and over 30 foot spaces.  Our VW camper doesn't take up much room, but for the most part the bigger spaces have more privacy.  So the space we normally have had we couldn't use.  We'd reserved online as in the past, but this year there was no place to do it live.  The Mercantile - the shop at Riley where you normally got your receipt - was closed.  And they had cards on all the A sites (>30 feet> telling you not to park there.  

Also, with the gas tax Anchorage added last year, gas is cheaper in Wasilla.  And amazingly, the cheapest was at Trapper Creek - $3.04 for unleaded.  

Caribou Day At Denali

 We saw lots of caribou, close by while hiking, and off in the distance today.  

And a couple of moose.

And a bear.

Lots of lichen on the rocks.  And a few ptarmigan.  

The hike along Savage River.

That should do it for today.  

Six Images Winter, Visitors, Nourishment

 

We have several Steller Jays that visit regularly.  Part of me wants you to see how blue it is.  But the snowy background made the exposure of the bird dark.  But when the bird is dark you focus more on it's silhouette.  

It's been snowing close to every day.  I figure my personal trainer is adding an inch or two regularly to get me outside with the snow shovel, since my biking is pretty much curtailed.  

Today it snowed a bit harder.  I think we have about three inches to be shoveled.  

Besides the Steller jay, we had some moose visitors who left messages in the snow to let us know they'd been by.  

Meanwhile, inside our cooking gives other interesting visuals.  

Cooking bananas and kiwis for my morning oatmeal.  

And a whole wheat bread using Mrs. Nash's old bread machine recipe.  Except the bread machine is long gone and the recipe didn't have temperature and time instructions.  

Getting Out Safely - Trip To Portage

We've been mostly homebound since we got back to Anchorage early March.  There was a masked trip to the doctor that week for a COVID-19 test that the State nixed.  Then a follow up to get tested for other things, that all turned out negative.  Since then the only places I've been 'inside' is our house and car.

I order groceries online for curbside pickup.  Same with library books and at Title Wave.
My outings are reserved to our yard and my bike rides which are on a route that sees no more than 5-10 others on the trail in a 6-9 mile roundtrip ride.  And we've had no visitors.  We have a carpet sitting in a warehouse that was supposed to be installed in March, but we didn't want anyone in our house for two days.

So yesterday was our first trip out of town. (The last gas receipt I have is for October.)  It was raining when we left - which I hoped meant we'd see fewer people.

I was taken aback by all the traffic.  This is one of the most beautiful rides in the world, even on a rainy day.  But all the traffic, some construction,  and the low visibility dimmed my pleasure.  Lots of RV's and boats.

I get that camping is healthy outdoor sport, but we have a virus and our state active case numbers are rising rapidly. We've got 1503 active cases as of today, more than double the 718 we had two weeks ago on July 10.  If you try, you can minimize your contact getting outdoors, but how many are distancing and masking when they encounter others?  Based on people I see on the bike trail, not many.   People take risks all the time, so COVID-19 is just one more risk to many, like smoking or driving down the Seward Highway.  Both of those also involve endangering others.

When we turned onto the Portage Road the traffic ended for us.  We pulled in and walked the trail through a variety of landscapes just off the road.

Devils club from below (above) and from above. All shiny from the rain.

There are still some hanging glaciers up on the tops of the mountains.

At one point I  was  photographing  these brown birds on the chance I could identify them later ( haven't had yet).  I heard some sneezing.  That wasn't good.  We'd only seen a couple people - well away from us in the campground.  We had been on the trail about 90 minutes and these were the first others we had encountered.  We pulled up our masks and proceeded.  There was a couple around the bend, in their 60s or 70s maybe.  She pulled up a mask when she saw ours.  But the sneezer didn't have one.  I was pissed at him, but the serenity of the hike wasn't disturbed and I had no interest in stopping to tell him how I felt about him sneezing maskless on the trail.   I assumed enough time had passed since he'd sneezed that gravity and the rain and our masks would protect us.  They only other person we saw even somewhat close was the campground host who came by to tell us day hikers should not park in the campground.  I was disturbed again that he was going around giving people papers to sign without a mask.  Since we were leaving, he never got closer than ten feet or so.  

                          

I get it that I'm on the extreme isolation side of the COVID-19 response spectrum.  I have that privilege because I'm retired, I have a house and yard.  But I also monitor Alaska's COVID-19 count daily on this blog (see tab under the orange banner on top) and I'm acutely aware of how our active cases have doubled in the last two weeks to 1503.  That's not a lot compared to other states, but those states had low numbers once too.  

The ride back home was easier.  The traffic was coming in the other direction.  That's tricky on the Seward Highway where people get impatient behind bulky campers and pass where they oughtn't.  But we had a car ahead of us to block any impulsive drivers.  (I realize that's a pretty grim form of defensive driving, but on that mostly two lane road out of town with more than its share of head on collisions, it's a coping mechanism.)  

We stopped briefly at Potter Marsh, but didn't stay long.  It was windy and we were ready to get home and have dinner.  But we'd had a great day and a reasonably safe outing.  

Summer Visit By Downy Woodpecker And Fledgling

There was a Downy woodpecker in the yard.  In a tree next to the deck, and our presence didn't seem to bother it at all.

It was making holes.








Then there were two.

It turns out, the first one was the parent, mom, I'm guessing because of the coloring.  And she was getting bugs and feeding them to the second one.  This was the best picture I could get of a feeding.











Then she pecked away for more food.  Our trees must have lots of bugs in them.

Then she'd fly off to another tree.

Keeping Busy - The Bike, The Yard, The Granddaughter, And The Spanish Lessons

When I'm not posting about COVID-19, I'm doing other things.

There's bike rides.  Here are a couple of mergansers at the lake at the Alaska Native Medical Center.  I thought they were building a nest, but it wasn't there when I went by a few days later.

Sweeping from the deck the catkins from (I think) the aspens and the leaf bud scales from the cottonwood trees two or three times a day.  

The leaf bud scales are particularly pesky because they stick to the bottom of your shoe.  

But after reading The Overstory I think about them very differently.  In one sense they are a form of tree communication.  I'm still struggling with that concept.  Whether it's intentional or not, the catkins and the leaf bud scales are a signal to other plants and creatures.  Who reads the message and how it affects their behavior I have no idea.  At the very least it's like a seasonal clock.  And these add to the pile of organic material that feed the trees that drop them as well as other trees.  When the cottonwood cotton falls, it's

another story for me.  I'm not interested in letting them spread their seeds all over the yard, so I'll try to collect them and get rid of them.  I still think there are potential uses for the cotton, but I'm not the person who is going to exploit them.

I am, on the other hand, exploiting the dandelion leaves to cook up in my frittatas.  They're full of vitamins and there are no other greens I can get as fresh. 

I've finally attacked the Cateye Micro Wireless my wife gave me last year.  And I know why it's taken me so long.  I've figured out how to get it on the bike, but it's not sending the signal from the spinning wheel to report speed and distance.  Did I put it on wrong?  I don't think so.  Maybe the battery in the sensor isn't working.  I can switch the one from the computer that reads it to see if it works on the computer.  And then there are these instructions.  The editing on my iPhoto doesn't 'stick' so even though I turned it right side up, it still came out sideways.  There are things that you fix and then the problem is solved.  And there are things you try to fix and they keep spawning new problems.  And during a pandemic I'm not willing to go to the bike shop to ask for help.  

The bleeding hearts are up and unfolding.  You can't really say they are budding, because they are out, but they aren't quite yet into their full display.  

And then there are the wonderful chat messages my granddaughter sends me when we zoom.

And I do a daily 20-30 minutes of Duolingo Spanish.  If I ever get out to a Spanish speaking country again, I won't be as tongue-tied as last time.  It's a reasonably good program, free, and it has lots of positive reinforcement sounds.

If you click on these images they get bigger and easier to read

You have some really simple questions where you pick the write word of three choices.  They even have pictures so it's hard to get them wrong.  Others you fill in the blank with one word.  Then there are those where you translate from Spanish to English.  The one above I had to translate from English to Spanish.  If you get it right, the message on the bottom is in green.  But if you get it wrong it's in read with the right answer.

The hardest ones are when you have to listen to someone saying the sentence and you have to write what you hear.

The big blue speaker says it the way someone would actually say it.  Often this is impossible for me to understand.  But I know in English we also don't pronounce things quite as they are written, or we mumble over syllables.  I'm getting better at hearing what they are saying.  If you can't understand it, the turtle button says it slowly, word for word.  

On the bottom you can report a problem - "I think I should have gotten credit for that one" for example.  Sometimes they seem overly picky about how you write something in English.  The Discuss option lets you see what other learners are saying.  There are native Spanish speakers which is helpful explaining why it's one way or another.  Or advanced learners who might link to a site that explains the difference between two words, or a grammar explanation.   

I've committed to do 20 points worth a day. That's roughly two lessons.  They keep track.  I'm up to about 70 days in a row.  I was up to 190 days in a row, but when we traveled back to Anchorage at the beginning of March I missed two days.  You can buy (with rewards you get as you go along) 'get out of jail free' cards - in this case, if you miss a day you can use your card to keep your streak.  That's the only way I could have had such a long streak.  But this time I missed two days and had to start over again.