Valdez - Sea Otter

My photo/blogger buddy Tim visited here in Denali last week. We decided to take a photo trip outside the park for a couple of days. We traveled the Denali Highway east and then south to the town of Valdez. There we took a wildlife/glacier viewing cruise out into the Prince William Sound. In the marina we happened upon a cooperative sea otter seen above.


We watched the otter for over an hour, thrilled to watch as he dove repeatedly for mussels and clams on the bottom and return to crack open the shells right in front of us. If you look closely in the above image, you can see him use his teeth to break open the mussel.

He was so cool as he laid back, floating like a cork and feasted on his efforts.

The glacier scenics as seen in the above and second from the top image were also spectacular in the evening as the sun would poke through and light up the mountains behind the teal colored ice bergs from the Columbia Glacier. Good times.

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Denali - Lynx

If you are outdoors enough and in the right location, sometimes you get to see some awesome wildlife occurrences. I was fortunate to witness one today. This Lynx photograph was capured near the Savage River area of Denali National Park. After luckily spotting a Lynx cross the road, shortly thereafter, a second one joined him for a Snowshoe Hare hunt adjacent to the river bottom. We couldn't believe our good fortune as we watched the two work in unison in a fairly open area that was conducive for photography. In the above image this Lynx approached fairly close to our location eying the willow bottom in search of a hare.

Here is a photo of the pair as the joined briefly prior to hunting in another section of willows.

This image was captured just after one of the Lynx exited a thick area and looked over in my direction.


Above you see a Lynx in some of their stalking positions.


Above are a series of static shots after a hunting session and the Lynx taking a rest and looking around. When he made eye contact I hit the shutter button.

After the hunt this Lynx decided to go over to the river and have a drink. He laid down for a minute when I captured this image.

This was certainly one of the most exciting series of photos to capture since my arrival in Denali. Seeing a Lynx is special, let alone seeing two in one place and then having the ability to watch them hunt. Man, I am fortunate to be here.

Blue Skies.


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Denali - Red Squirrels

This spruce dwelling Red Squirrel is quite common in Denali.
When hiking in the woods they are real chatter guys. When I was searching for the beavers in the previous post, in fact, located the above fellow by his sound. After watching him for awhile, he would go to the exact branch location to chew on a spruce cone. As you can see I was able to get quite close. If you look closely you can see pieces of the cone in the air flying as he devours the seeds.

During this time of year the Red Squirrels are cutting and storing green spruce cones. They also create "middens", which are basically the accumulation of the remains of the cone scales and storage area for caching cones. Some of the middens are right good size.

Blue Skies.
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Denali - Beaver

Beaver can be found in a number of the lower elevation pond areas in Denali National Park. The fellow above was seen nibbling away on a spruce limb on the ice. They are nocturnal critters, so capturing a photo in the lower 48 usually has to be done at night. Here, since the available light is close to 20 hours or more this time of year, you can capture some photos of them in action with decent light.

An example is the image above, here you see a beaver swimming across the water with plenty of light and tree reflection in the water. This shot was taken around 10:00 PM.

Beaver eat water vegetation and the cambium layer (tissue layer below bark) of trees. They prefer Willow of which there is plenty in the park. In the head shot above you see this guy chewing away. They have poor eyesight, so if you hold still you can get fairly close without disturbing them.

You see see why they float incredibly well with the photo above. I watched this guy groom himself on shore for about 20 minutes.

Blue Skies.






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Denali - Waterfowl

During the shoulder season here in Denali, a number of waterfowl species can be found in the small ponds just off the park road. For weeks I did not see a single duck and then, one day, almost every pond had some type of waterfowl in them. The Horned Grebe in the top photo is one of my favorite waterfowl captures thus far, due to the nice evening lighting on the water.


The upper image is of a pair of Barrow's Goldeneyes. The moon shape white patch in front of the eye on the male identifies the Barrow's from the Common Goldeneye. In the second image the male was snapping his head back and forth to eat some pond vegetation more efficiently. The water droplets made an interesting reflection on the water around him.

This photo is of a male Pintail. Very stoic looking duck. Fortunate that the wind had laid down enough to capture his reflection in the water.

Things are starting to look more spring like in Denali. Most of the park below 4,000 feet has greened up. Allot of wildflowers are out. Little snow remains except in the higher elevations. Amazing how quickly things change here.

Blue Skies,
Ken Read more!

Denali-Merlins

Both of these Merlin images were captured on conifers adjacent to the Denali Park road. The top image is a male and the bottom is a female. Blue Skies. Read more!

Denali - Sled Dogs

Thought I'd provide a slight change from the wildlife images. Some folks have requested photos of Muddy, so they are included later in the post. First, I wanted to provide some pertinent sled dog history. The Denali National Park huskies have a long history in the park (NPS Photo above).They are the only sled dog teams that conduct patrols in any national park.
When Denali received its first park ranger in 1921, Harry Karstens, pictured above (NPS Photo), he used sled dogs to patrol and address the rampant poaching within the park boundaries.
By the late 1920s, the kennels had expanded. The current building you see pictured above and to the left was constructed in 1928. You can really feel the history when you walk into the building.
Within the building and pictured above are some examples of the antique and current sleds used on sled dog patrol. The same tradition of sled dog patrol continues today. The sled dogs provide transportation for the park rangers in the winter to patrol the back country, resupply park cabins and assist researchers. The dogs' winter patrol is on average about 3,000 miles. One interesting fact is that this breed of dog is most comfortable at approximately -10 degrees. They are so well insulated that when they lay in the snow it doesn't melt. A short, interesting, video produced by the Discovery Channel about the sled dogs can be viewed on this link: Denali Sled Dogs

During the summer season, one of the most popular interpretive programs in Denali is the sled dog demonstration. An average of 50,000 visitors view the show.


At the end of the program a ranger takes the dogs on a short run through the woods for the visitors to see the dogs in action, as seen above.

Also, since the dogs don't get any sled time during the summer season, they ask the ranger staff for volunteers to adopt a sled dog for the summer. Since the camera gear lackey was not able to join me in Denali, I have a summer bride and adopted a female dog named Muddy, pictured in her pen above.

Your responsibility after adoption is to walk your dog as many times as possible during the week. Muddy and I have become good friends. She usually spots me when I walk into the kennel area and starts barking like above, just raring to go for our walk.

Before I put her leash on, she jumps up on top of her house on command.

She is quite a handful. When we take our 4 mile walk most nights, she pulls me the entire time. As you can see she is a rusty brown and a unique color from all her other team members.

Blue Skies,
Ken
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Denali - Dall Sheep

A few days ago Dall Sheep came down low. The sheep generally stay up in the higher elevations to have a safe haven from predators. These sheep shots were captured right behind the box mid-day.

Someone saw the first lamb of the season yesterday. Next week when I am off I plan on climbing to one of the prime sheep areas to see if I can photograph some of them.

Blue Skies. Read more!