Alaska Summer 2

This is an entry from my journal of a few years ago. For me, it brings back a distinct fondness for Alaska and the huge open tundra. I hope you will enjoy this entry, I'll post one about Adak tomorrow and then the Teshekpuk one later.

May 31- Anchorage- No birds- just errands and planning the logistics of how to survive on the North Slope. Training for being on Oil company leased land for 3 days. We spent 12 incredibly boring hours listening to a guy from Oklahoma or Arkansas tell the class- really stupid things that were somehow supposed to be related to actual education.....

Thank God that in a few days we'll be in Barrow the largest city on the North Slope, but away from the civilized world. Each road out of town simply ends.

Ok, go get the Alaska map. I'm going to give you a quick course in Alaska geography. Because you may be confused by the terms I have been using.

Find Anchorage on the southern coast- but inland along Cook Inlet. This is the biggest city in Alaska and the base from which we are operating. It is the southern terminus for the Alaska Highway. Since I have been to Alaska 5 times, the Long House Hotel has always been a good spot, located near the airport, nice large rooms and the prices are fine too. This is where I can receive e-mail but not send except from one account. Back to the Geography.

Straight north on the coast of the Arctic Ocean, you should see a little peninsula at the very northern most part of Alaska. That is Point Barrow and a few miles west and a tiny bit south is the community of Barrow. Because it is where it is, some rare birds from Asia show up there, but birders started going there, following early ornithologists, to find the nesting birds that show up at Barrow which are are difficult to find in other places. Some of those are Snowy Owl, Pomarine Jaeger, Spectacled Eider, Steller's Eider and Red Phalarope.

To the east, Deadhorse is on the Arctic Ocean, but a few miles inland from Prudhoe Bay. That is the famous and infamous Oil drilling area on the Arctic Ocean. This section of the tundra is located more easterly from Barrow. To the east of Prudhoe/Deadhorse is the enormous Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge is mostly hills ridges and mountains with a narrow strip of the very ecologically rich tundra along the coast.

If your map shows mountains you'll see a range of mountains running roughly east -west inland from the coast This is referred to as the Brooks Range. Everything 'sloping' north to the Arctic Ocean is called the North Slope. Much of this entire area has large deposits of oil underneath. Extracting it is very difficult... and the tundra is VERY sensitive as 9 months of the year it is frozen.

On one island, St. Lawrence, many years ago, Katie and I found tank tread marks in the tundra that had been made in World War II, but they seemed to have just been made -- like a week before. This was in 1974. So things only can grow very slowly and this limits the ability to recuperate from things like OIL SPILLS. Last Year BP spilled about 205, 000 gallons of Raw Crude oil on the tundra near Prudhoe. That area is now dead for many many years... perhaps a 1000, 10,000 or 100,000 -- who really knows.

From there, (Prudhoe/Deadhorse) in an almost a straight line back to Barrow, you can see the Colville Delta and then a big round lake very near the coast. That is Teshekpuk lake. if you can't see it on the maps then google it on line. That is where Nick and I will be doing the long camping thing. We will be in the SE quadrant.

Ok that is enough Geography, but I wanted you to understand the vastness of Alaska and how I am so very fortunate to see so much of it.

3rd June- Barrow- My second trip up here. Barrow lies at the edge of the coastal plain. The northernmost part of Mainland North America is the point- about 4 miles north-east of us. Point Barrow is the dividing "line" between the Chuchki and the Beaufort Sea.

Night is something that is really not occurring at this time of year. Daylight on the island is really limited much more by the heavy clouds. When we leave here we will be back in Anchorage and there we may have a bit of night. Usually I'm too tired to be up that late here. On the North Slope, we are supposed to fly to Deadhorse, then a tiny cabin in the Delta of the Colville River and finally Teshekpuk Lake closer to Barrow. Up there it is 24 hour daylight until August 6 or 7th. The Sun never sets. So your body changes to this crazy energy machine that finally says --- "Hey I'm tired... what time is it and you look at the watch and it is 12:40 AM - 2:00 Am or something Crazy like that... suddenly you are Exhausted. When you get back to camp you collapse until the blazingly bright sun wakes you up at like 9 or 10 Am and the sun is directly overhead.

June 7th- In an hour, we are about to leave Barrow for Deadhorse. We are expecting to have less open vistas and much more of the development landscape.... We then fly into a remote area of the Tundra. Oil has been found at several areas near the lake-Teshekpuk. Theories are being talked about very openly about the strategy devised by Big Oil and how the proposed move into the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was just a ploy to let them get into this area near Teshekpuk. The BAD NEWS is that the coastal plain is MUCH wider here and consequently much more productive for birds and wildlife. So the potential destructive effect of Oil development and the drilling, pipelines etc, etc, etc.. would be Much more of a problem.

In our training in Anchorage there was a MAP of the development of pads and pipelines on both sides of Prudhoe Bay. They have pretty much created a spider web of industry in an area which would take 10,000 years to heal from any spills. And of course, we watched the Chairman of BP talk about his company saving a tiny pitance of money by leaving out corrosion inhibitors in the pipeline. Result : 200, 000 gallon spill on the tundra... 10,000 years....

So we have a BIG job in front of us to capture enough beauty in 30 days to make a compelling documentary on this area so Americans will be informed about the coming rape Big Oil is conducting up here.

The Worlds we choose

A few days ago, we received another very generous pledge to this film.

What a wonderful crazy world. “We”. Who are We? A big world full of 7 Billion people.

What to do? What position should I take? Will they make it? All of us deal with 1000’s of decisions each day.

Today, “we” have 9 or 10 hours to do something.

There is no time to hesitate.

We are showing $12,870. Outside of our project we received two $5,000 pledges that are on the way through our partner American Bird Conservancy. I wished that those were able to come through the project as it would have inspired others earlier. But it is still so very much appreciated too.

Today, we can take action. I can’t go back to the Midwest Birding Symposium where hundreds of bird folks were gathered to pass out postcards. Everyone is now gone. Meanwhile---

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jordandowney/thankskilling-sequel-horror-comedy-feature-film?ref=live

I still have so many questions, some of which I will never get an answer for.

Why do we not fund things that are meant to be wholesome and wonderful? How can “we” fund Thankskilling Turkey? But superimpose for a moment that our Kickstarter campaign is at this moment over $50,000 short of the goal.

So our society chooses a false or a relief valve-reality instead of working to do something. It is work but it is also so very fulfilling to see things like prairies being restored.

What kind of world do you choose?

Lure of Shorebirds

How can it be September?

Where did May go? Summer is not summer without the arctic, but somehow June too has vanished. How did a simple feature from Photoshop appear in my life and not only that- it became a eraser of time. The Time Tool. T3

Many years ago Edward L. Chalif, beloved by nearly all who knew him, took advantage (in a GOOD WAY) of a young boy whose parents needed some time away from his curious mind. I was dropped off at Chilmark Community Center in August of 1960. My brother was too, but due to the vanishing tool of time, duly noted above, he disappears in this story.

There were other people in the car with us also, but they are now gone. Prothonotary Warbler did not vanish. But this short story is about two shorebirds. Too large to be called sandpipers by most people these birds left an indelible impression still fresh 51 years later.

In those days, no one knew Martha's Vineyard was exclusive. We just thought it was a long ferry ride to run on the deck of The Islander. the fact that we could throw food to gulls just made it Awesome. Oops, awesome, that word did not exist in 1960.

In those days, you could begin a hike on the great south beach, and just go. One or more of the large ponds might need to be crossed with care as the drainage to the ocean could be really full and roaring. In those days, one could jump on a one speed bike and cruise for birds from Chilmark to Edgartown and back. Most of those longer bike rides came in later summers with my friend Peter. That damn time tool is at it again. Some how the period from August of 1960 to September of 1970 wants to be remembered as one huge summer.

A bad pair of binoculars was fine, too heavy or too light anything helped. 7x40 or 7x32 seemed to be quite common models and of course we only had one REAL field guide- Peterson's. Apologies Richard and Don, but when you went to a book store and asked about birds....

My binoculars were handed down from my grandfather in Missouri. Remnants of WW I. Compared to most anything of this new fangled age, they were horrible. But the invasion of products from Japan was limited to transistor radios. What's that you say? ... damn T3 again.

From Edgartown you turned south to Katama along the way various small roads most all dirt would leave the main narrow pavement. Barely 2 real lanes went all the way south until the tall dunes were the final barrier to the Atlantic. We stopped to check the ocean and the bay side, but at 8 I had seen these things, scurrying along the waves picking and picking. They were nothing special.

Piling back into the car, we passed through a thin and small woodland before emerging on a field nearby. There my dull trance was broken in the softer, late afternoon.

In a field filled with golden light, were brown flocks of birds. They were shorebirds. Not sandpipers. They looked to be in the army- determined and hurrying to eat in these fields.

Those binoculars from World War I must have been set aside. Someone had to lend me a better pair - Bausch & Lomb or perhaps a good bit of German glass. I'll never know. Because I have been talking to people about that moment ever since, it is clear and powerful- golden and green. With one brown bird and one tan one, and Eddie's voice.

Tan. Upland Sandpipers are the epitome of elegance and grace. Perhaps dancers or gymnasts of the shorebird world.

Brown. Whimbrels are the farmers- tougher than they look , but when you shake their hand you know it. So maybe steelworker of the shorebirds. They exude strength.

So in my eyes on that day long ago, how did a tan bird and a brown bird so powerfully capture my attention?

Within one binocular fields view at least one Whimbrel strode alongside one Uppie. Perhaps as close as 3 feet apart but on what seemed for that moment a parallel track, subtle differences did show through. The leg color, the head shape and color, but mostly and shockingly was the shape of the two species bills.

One short and straight- one longer and decurved. Decurved. I didn't even know the word! One yellowish with a dark tip, the other primarily dark. The head streaks on the Whimbrel and the big gentle eye of the Uppie.

Here were two birds - two species- doing about the same thing in the same location but with two very different bills to gather food with. As a young birder, this was a very important moment in my life. I could not understand why those bills were so distinctly different. I looked and asked "why?" The question burned into my brain so that I remember that moment of deep questioning, stunned in a manner which is unanswerable.

No Time tool can erase these moments.

Shorebirds -Where?

I have fingers of a klutz at times. I think it is getting worse but maybe not. But I have been asked twice today to help with -where to go for Shorebirds.

Most folks think of an ocean area, and that is not wrong. But there are a few places so exceptional that they are not to be missed. My favorite places to watch and film shorebirds in the interior include: Cheyenne Bottoms and Quivera National Wildlife Refuge both in Kansas near Great Bend; Souris and DesLacs in North Dakota, Bowdoin NWR and Freezeout Lake in Montana.

East Coastal areas must involve Texas: Bolivar Peninsula, Anhuac NWR, Osa Bay, Maine: Popham Beach and Biddeford pool, Massachussetts: Plum Island, and South Beach; in New Jersey: Brigantine NWR, and several areas near Cape May or Stone Harbor, Jamaica Bay in New York, Bombay Hook and the Rehoboth Beach area in Delaware, Indian Inlet, Assateague and Chincoteague in Coastal Maryland/ Virginia, Pea Island NWR North Carolina, St. Marks NWR in the Panhandle of Florida for the east Coast.

On the West coast, Washington, Oregon and California have a large number of exceptional shorebird areas. My favorites are Dungeness spit, Gray's Harbor; Bandon, Oregon and in California: Point Reyes, Monterrey Bay area, and Salton Sea.

There are hundreds and possibly thousands of other areas where Shorebirds can congregate, but these are ones that stand out for one reason or another in my mind after 50 years of birding.