Mountain goats seek safety from predators in steep terrain, but they are not immune to winter dangers.
Wood ducks nest seasonally in forested areas across North America from coast to coast in southern Canada and the northern tier of states. From southern… Continue reading
My peanut butter feeder draws a nice assortment of visitors, including chickadees, nuthatches, siskins, juncos, a hairy woodpecker, and a squirrel. Most of these also… Continue reading
In early May, one of my great pleasures was watching violet-green swallows in their fast, circular flights over water (e.g., the river, Kingfisher Pond). They’d… Continue reading
The calendar says it is spring and maybe it is here. But several Juneau folks have mentioned that this is the worst spring in their… Continue reading
In late April, a male yellow-rumped warbler began coming regularly to my deck, visiting the feeders. He picks off mouthfuls of peanut butter, one after… Continue reading
Sometime in April, a friend alerted me to some odd ball-shaped structures attached to a spruce log in Auke Lake. These are bryozoans, a type… Continue reading
Spring is happening, very slowly but surely. Purple mountain saxifrage has been blooming, salmonberry flowers appear, yellow violets are starting to flower. However, I have… Continue reading
The coolness with which I lunged for the fish, missed, gathered myself, swept the rod back, lunged again and netted the steelhead was inspiring. I… Continue reading
Kingfishers have captured the fancy of people for centuries. In Greek mythology, the gods caused a man to drown, leaving his lover, a woman named… Continue reading
Civil War veteran Charles Raymond was 27 when he accepted an assignment to visit the new U.S. territory of Alaska, a place so far away… Continue reading
Spring flowers have co-evolved with insect pollinators for a long time. The flowers require pollen delivery to set seed. To entice insects to visit and… Continue reading
The last part of March seemed to pass slowly, at least for those of use impatient for spring. Each of us has their own sequence… Continue reading
Just before the spring equinox, a friend and I went out on the Fish Creek Trail one morning on a low tide. We saw five… Continue reading
Xunaa (Hoonah) necropsy involves hunters and students
February ground to a halt and March slowly geared up. Days were getting longer, but the tedious pseudo-spring weather prevailed — no longer really winter… Continue reading
While we are waiting (?patiently?) for spring to really get rolling, here are a few things to think about. • Sexual dimorphism in bird plumage:… Continue reading
