Babies! And a Third Farewell to the Arctic

I know I promised a really long time ago that the next post would be all about babies. I am way late but here it is! Shorebird babes are some of the cutest. I really don't know which I would choose as my favorite, although I am a little biased with the Semipalmated Plovers, since in a way they are like my babies. I watched them grow up from little eggs! *tear*

Red Phalarope chick

"You don't see me!"

A little hard to see, but look at those feet! 

Debating running past me to get back to dad. 

Daddy! 

I was amazed how close he let me get and stuck with his brood.

Sitting on them in water.

Red-necked Phalarope chick

You can see a little color and size difference compared to the Red

Semipalmated Sandpiper chicks, on a rehab pad no less! 

Look at those cute little developing wings.

One that is a little older than the ones above.

Hanging out with the family on a rehab pad.

Freshly hatched Semipalmated Plover chicks. 

Adult Semipalmated Plover

Very attentive parents

Mini-plover! Squee!

Get in there! 

This is not awkward at all.

They're so grown up! *tear*

Pectoral Sandpiper chick with a foot as big as its head! 

It has been so long that I have written, but I have not mentioned that on our last nest/area search of the rehab pads, I found a Savannah Sparrow nest! The chicks were really old when I found it, and fledged a couple of days later. 

The one on the right is a rebel.

Well, we're out of here in less than 4 days. I will be travelling with the crew from Ikpikpuk down the Haul Road to Fairbanks. I have never been, so it'll be nice to see it, and maybe pick up some new species. Of course, I will take loads of pictures and will share them here when I get back to Portland. With that, I leave you all with a Lapland Longspur fledgling. 

Beautiful colors

The Poms Failed

Unfortunately, the Pomarine Jaeger nest did not survive. We checked it out a couple of weeks ago and discovered that the single egg had been eaten. It looks like it was probably another avian predator. However, we did see two Poms around those plots still, but they may have just been hanging around until they were ready to move on since we haven't seen any in a long while now.

Depredated Pomarine egg in nest

On top of that, we lost a bunch of nests on our rehab pads. Two Semipalmated Plover nests were eaten, and most of the waterfowl nests, the Greater Scaup and two King Eider nests. But the Lapland Longspurs hatched, and hopefully will fledge successfully. We checked it and the Cackling Goose nest the other day, the goose had one gosling in the nest and the Longspurs were still in the nest, so we'll see if they fledge!

Longspur chicks, not the best photo but you get the idea

In the meantime, here are some pictures of birds and other animals.

Semipalmated Sandpiper

Mad at me being near its nest

Pectoral Sandpiper

I'll have to try to edit this one to get that piece of grass

Stilt Sandpiper

Male Pectoral Sandpiper

American Golden-plover doing the 'broken-wing' display

Male American Golden-plover

Arctic Fox at edge of rehab pad

Ah, the sweet smell of dust

Zak and fox

Just trottin' along, singin' a song

Stoic fox

Bear.

BEAR!

Immature Bald Eagle, a little unusual for this far north

'Bou

Caribou calf and mother

My first ever Ringed Seal! 

Lots of babies are hatching and running around the tundra (and the 'gravel tundra'!), so I will try to get some of those pictures uploaded in the next couple of days.

Exit to Exit Glacier

Here are the accounts of May 27th or "Last Day of Alaskan Adventures with Joey"   =(

Sadly the adventures had to come to an end as we headed back to Anchorage for our red eye flights this day. Our last moments together for two months... and some crazy moments they were. Tried to go tide pooling in Homer before we left. When I say tried to go tide pooling I mean that we went out to the beach at low tide and walked around but didn't really see anything super cool. I guess when there are super low tides, you have a greater chance of seeing octopus. Oh well. We originally wanted to do a hike out at East End Road where you could see some nice views of Kachemak Bay, Kenai National Park and the volcanoes, but it rained over night and we didn't get up early enough. Again, oh well. So we left Homer and as a last huzzah, we went back towards Seward so we could hike out to see Exit Glacier. Along the way we stopped at Tern Lake to watch the Arctic Terns hunting for fish.

This one liked perching on the sign.

I like thinking it means "Stop for Tern."

Exit Glacier is the most accessible glacier in the park; all of the others can only be accessed by boat or hiking long distances. It is a short 1 mile or so hike, but you get to stand very close to the glacier which is a surreal experience.

The Outwash Plain of Exit Glacier. 

Joey and glacier!

On the Outwash Plain.

We wanted to get closer, but we would have had to ford a river.

I just included this to show the difference between June 2007 and May 2014.

After this quick, rainy hike, we got back to our rental car to discover it had a flat. I went to ask the park ranger lady if there was a repair shop nearby in Seward. She said there were two, but both would probably be closed at that time. Darn sleepy little Alaskan towns, closed after 5pm. So we had to drive the WHOLE way back to Anchorage on the spare tire. Luckily the Sterling and Seward Highway speed limits are not that fast. A little nerve-racking but we made it Anchorage in time to get some more fish and chips and some tasty salmon chowder at Humpy's. I am very happy that Joey got to come out this year, and that we got to see parts of Alaska neither of us have seen or explored. I look forward to many more adventures, Alaskan and otherwise, with him!

And now here I am, over one month into the field season, it goes by so fast. Will try to update more again soon. But in other news, seriously check out my Parasitic Jaeger blog. I am happy to announce that it is a hit! Well, to my class I guess. The TA does a weekly "Mail Bag" video where she has been featuring different field notes blogs for the other students to see, and she asked if she could feature mine for this week's video! Woo! I think I'll try to post that video here when it is posted next week, although it takes a REALLY long time to upload on this ssssllllllooooowwwww internet connection here.