29.0°

Lunch was a relaxed affair as we sprawled on the rocky outcrop on top of Gold Ridge. It was the first cool, gray day after what passes for a heat wave in Juneau, and we reveled in it.

The clouds hung low all morning and into the early afternoon, with drifting swathes of fog obscuring the city below.

Soon after lunch, however, the heavens cleared and we descended to the tram in warm sunlight. Increasing temperatures sent the numerous marmots into their burrows for siestas.

In the cool of the morning, we had seen them scampering about, loafing on rocks or collecting vegetation to carry into their dens.

The midday breeze that helped clear away the low clouds also brought out the ravens.

At least 30 of them were playing in the thermals south of the ridge -flying in formation by twos or threes, doing half-rolls and full rolls, chasing eagles (and being chased, in turn) and showing off part of their huge vocal repertoire.

The diversity of wildflowers on the ridge is amazing. The Audubon flower walk in mid-July recorded more than 45 species in bloom. And by early August, additional species had opened their flowers.

A particular favorite is the broad-petalled gentian, with its sky-blue petals.

Bumblebees were busily collecting pollen and nectar from Sitka burnet and monkshood flowers, some of them seeming to visit only one kind of flower, but others switching from white burnet to purple monkshood.

The high levels of bee activity, even on a cloudy, cool morning, made us wonder about the floral behavior of the broad-petalled gentian, which only opens fully when the sun is shining.

It seems curious that this species would keep its flowers closed at times when its pollinators are active and limit its availability to sunny times.

And a summer like that of 2008, with endless rain and gloom, must mean that this species got little pollination and set very few seeds.

A special treat, for me at least, was the sighting of a small flock of juvenile, gray-crowned rosy finches.

I'd heard rumors that this bird nests somewhere up here, but this was my first encounter with them on the ridge. Chubby brown birds like fat sparrows, the youngsters had not yet developed the gray crown or the rosy patches on wing and flank that distinguish the adults.

This bird typically nests in open habitats in the high country, but in the recently deglaciated upper reaches of Glacier Bay it is found at sea level, where the habitat resembles the rocky alpine zone.

At this time of year, we would expect to see broods of large ptarmigan or grouse chicks wandering about with a parent or two, but we saw no ptarmigan or grouse at all.

This is worrisome because these birds become accustomed to people on the trail all summer long, and so are not very wary when the hunting season opens. This makes them "sitting ducks" for shooters.

I have found corpses of ptarmigan lying beside the trail with the breast muscles cut out. There is concern among many folks that hunting pressure on the relatively tame birds has severely reduced the population on the ridge.

Mary F. Willson is a retired professor of ecology.