Winter Tree Trimmers Spend 45 Minutes On The Mountain Ash

 The other day the Bohemian Waxwings came to harvest the berries of our Mt. Ash trees out front.

Today the moose were here to trim the tree a bit.  

While the young one was feasting, the mom was acting as lookout.

I'm guessing that one benefit of dirty windows is that moose are more likely to see the glass.  When it was looking in like this I was hoping it wasn't thinking about tasting the green things inside.   There was a spring visit long ago when just outside the windows was a row of budding tulips and I watched from two feet away as she - one-by-one - took each tulip bud.  

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.  

Neighbors Came By To Welcome Us Home

I went out to check on the snow conditions of the driveway yesterday.  We'd gotten back late the night before.  Two of the neighbors came by to welcome us home.

The biggest issue I saw was that the mailbox had been barricaded by the plowed snow.  

I emailed Nordic Lawns, the company that was taking care of the snow in the driveway while we were gone so our house sitter could get in and out.  Then I went back out and carved some steps to the mailbox for the time being.

When I got in there was a call from Nordic Lawns apologizing profusely and saying they would come out.  This was NOT something that should happen.  Meanwhile the mail carrier managed the steps I'd made and stuffed the mailbox with about as much mail as it could hold.

And then Nordic showed up to clear in front of the mailbox.  So I went back out and asked if he could also just clear a space in front of the house for me to park the van, which is still sitting in the neighbors' driveway.  It's great to have good neighbors.  When I called him to ask if I could rent part of his driveway (his is double wide) he said no - I could just use it.

So now the berm the city left in front of the house - which would have meant I would have to park well into the traffic lane - has been rearranged with a space.

Then I rushed off with my wife's car to the Alaska Public Media Community Advisory meeting.  I figure I can't reasonably complain about their practices until I know more.  They went through their listener/viewer statistics for the Anchorage area.  KSKA is the most listened to radio station for a number of time periods during the day.

And by the time I got home, my knee was bothering me again.  So today I spent a lot of time with ice on my knee.  That was good enough to allow me to shovel the deck.  Tomorrow it's supposed to be warmer - into the 20s - so I'll wait til it's toasty to see if my car will start up after sitting there so long next door.

Alaska's - particularly further north - has had one of its coldest winters while the rest of the US and northern Europe have been having an unusually warm winter.  It is nice to have snow that doesn't get turned to ice on a regular basis because the temp snakes above and below the freezing point regularly.

Back Home To Snow And Moose

We left from the D Concourse at SEATAC which has my favorite art piece there - Michael Fajans' High Wire.  I posted about it back in 2008.  (Back then I wrote that it was in Terminal B, but it was definitely in D yesterday.  Maybe the old post was wrong.)

After a couple of gate changes, trying to get in as much of the impeachment hearings as I could, we were in the air above the clouds over Alaska.  It was late afternoon - Anchorage's official sunset yesterday was 3:48pm, but if it's not too cloudy, we have long twilights - and the orange glow was on the western horizon, while out my east facing window there were snow mountains.

And around 4:20pm it was still light enough to capture these exquisite winter scenes with only a slight blur from the long exposure time.  

And as we circled over Cook Inlet to land in Anchorage, the sunset was still painted on the western sky.  

I went out to get our passes for the Anchorage International Film Festival which begins tomorrow night and to pick up some groceries and just on 36th there was a moose crossing the road in the dark.

One of those amazing moments when out of the darkness you realize there's a magnificent

moose and there's no time to react.  Fortunately it was still in the oncoming lane as I passed.  No time to even take a picture, even if I hadn't left my phone at home.  What a great welcome home.




At my dentist this morning this moose was on the wall.  Not quite the same.  But I was sitting still and so was the moose.



















And I'm pleased to say that my studded tires worked like a charm as I rode over to the dentist and back.  I'm getting a little more confident that they aren't going to betray me.  Hoping my trust in them proves warranted.  I won't be reckless, but a little less cautious.









So, let's just leave this post as it is - on light subjects or art, travel, mountains, moose, AIFF2019, and biking in the snow.

Denali Day Two - More Bears, Some Ducks, Weather Change

We've been comparing how little snow there was this year compared to last year.  But now that I've checked last year's posts, it's clear.  Yes, last year was a heavy snow year and this year it was lighter and warmer.  But last year we were there May 3 and  May 4  and this year May 17 and 18.
You can go to the links to see the differences.

After Friday's magnificent day, Saturday gave us a contrast.  Clouds started coming in and by the time we were walking back up from the Teklanika bridge, the first drops began.  But even a rainy day in Denali is a treat.  So here are a few more pictures.

After a few caribou driving to Savage River (where the paved road ends) we (and many others) got to watch this bear fairly close to the road.

There were lots more caribou throughout the drive.  Saturday we were pretty much headed for Teklanika.  This is a campground 30 miles into the park with an overview and lots of bathrooms.  It's a stop for the tourist buses, which don't start running until tomorrow.  Well, that turns out to be not completely true.  There were tan guided tour buses that were running pretty frequently.  In any case, the Denali road is normally closed to private cars at Savage River.  But in the spring, as they clear the road of snow and repair any damage from winter, they open the road - up to Teklanika.  So it's a chance to drive in and stop where you want and watch animals, hike, bike, picnic.  Whatever.  Friday we'd hiked the short Savage River trail (one mile each way.)  It's a loose, but we only did the west side because there was a big glaciated spot that blocked the trail on the east side.  We met people who'd climbed around the ice, but we aren't that young any more.  

We did stop at a pullout about mile 25 and I rode the bike a couple of miles, until there were trees on both sides (and it's harder to spot nearby bears.  Though I don't think there's ever been a biker attacked on the road, but I'm not sure.  Very few people - under five I believe - have been killed by bears in Denali.

So after the bike ride we got to the first small pond before the Teklanika campground which had a Northern Shoveler floating around.  (I'm having trouble focusing my Canon Rebel on objects in the distance, so that's why this bird is so small.  If you enlarge it, you'll see how out of focus it is.  I need to work on this problem.  The manual is challenging and I haven't found good sites on this particular problem online yet.)

The next pond, just past the campground, had a bufflehead pair and a pintail duck.

The Teklanika overlook area was packed with cars - so much so people were parking on the road.  And lots of people had their bikes.  And on the hill not far from the bridge (about a mile away) there was a wildlife ranger (Jake) monitoring a bear sow with two cubs that was about 150 yards below the road.  Well, he said, that they try not to intervene with the wildlife, leaving them as free as possible.  Normal distance to be kept between people and bears is minimum of 300 yards, but since the bears were down below in the river bed and they'd been there for several hours, he wasn't concerned.  Though earlier there'd been about 40 people including barking dogs (they can be on the road on a leash) so he had to quiet down the people.

They were digging for roots he said.  The vast majority of their diet is vegetation in the park.

Here you can see the mom digging.

She had her head down and her claws in the earth most of the time.

Jake noted that the cubs were making noises.  Eventually they get hungrier than roots satisfy, and they wanted to nurse.  I wouldn't know that that is what they are doing in this picture if he hadn't told me.  She's lying down and they're on top of her.









As we headed back up the hill to the car, the first drops began to fall.  Here are some contrasts to yesterday's pictures.


Here's from the viewpoint where I took the pictures of Denali.   This was an idea I had 40 years ago after our first several trips to the park - a postcard of what Denali looks like to most tourists.

Here's yesterday's view from the same spot.  You can't even see the foothills.

It wasn't all just a grey mass, mostly we could see more.

And for a contrast with yesterday's ptarmigan picture, here's one whose feathers are still more in the winter than summer phase.

And here's yesterday's ptarmigan picture again.  Much more brown, less white.

Here's one from yesterday.  I didn't put it up because she was mooning me.  But so you can see the contrast I'll post it here.

We only saw one moose yesterday - while I was on the bike and didn't have my camera.  And it was so close to the road I didn't want to dawdle.  And we see moose often enough in Anchorage, even on our street and chewing on the trees in front of our house, that moose are not that big a deal.  In fact, Friday, the first animal we saw on the tip was a moose beside the Glenn Highway still in the Anchorage city limits.

Nevertheless, they're still magnificent animals, and seeing them in more natural settings like this is still a thrill.  And this rain-dulled picture is pretty much what it looked like up on the hill.  There were a couple other moose with it.

We're back home with lots to do

It's Spring

It's definitely spring.  Even with mostly cloudy days, it's warmer and the plants are starting to wake up.   I rode over the the Botanical Garden the other day on my new bike.  I was able to trade in my old bike - the one the physical therapist said wasn't good for my knee - after about 35 years.

The peonies are in various stages from not even poking out yet, to just coming in as these in the left,










to looking like a real plant like the ones below.

And this oxlip primrose was actually blooming already.

Back home I knew we had a tulip bud that was well along.  

But I didn't realize we too had something blooming - there was one bleeding heart flower out.






We also had a visitor.  If you look closely you can see that something has dined on these lilies.  The most likely culprit is a moose.

And yesterday these white scuff marks weren't on the cement at the bottom of our front steps.  I wouldn't have figured moose hooves if it weren't for the lily.  There's still a lot left.  Maybe it didn't taste too good.

Signs Of Spring (And Fixing Card Reader)

It's the last day of March 2019, and it's been one of the warmest on record.  Our front yard is clear of snow and the back yard only has snow in the shade of the house.  And I'm avoiding talking about anything depressing by showing you a couple of pictures instead.

A small gift pile from a visiting moose to help fertilize the soil.

The first tulip to poke out of the soil and leaf mulch.

I was finishing breakfast, reading the newspaper on the deck when I heard the tapping behind me.  It was on a neighbor's old cottonwood tree.  But I can't tell if it's a Downy or Hairy Woodpecker.  It seemed pretty big, which would lean toward a Hairy.  If we could see the beak, we could tell.  And a better birder would know.

And finally, inside, the hoya is blooming.

This is not as sharp as I would like because I took it with my phone.  My MacBook Pro card reader stopped working the other day.  But I had to use my good camera with the telephoto lens to get the woodpecker, so I googled and found some video tricks to fix the card reader.  The first one - blow air into the opening - didn't work.  The second one - put alcohol on a piece of paper towel and wrap it around the sound card and put it in the card reader - didn't work either.  The third one - said to go to launchpad and click on 'image control'.  I had to find it in launchpad's search.  But it didn't fix the problem.  Finally, another video said to 1) turn off the computer 2) clean the brass colored part of the sound card with alcohol 3) insert it and remove it from the card reader ten times, and 4) turn the computer back on.  And then it worked again. (I had turned off the computer after #1, and it didn't work.)

Tomorrow, the first quarter of the year will be over.  So remember, don't sit here wasting time on the computer (do things that are important only) and go out and enjoy the world.