The lost frenchman blog

More random pictures of mountain life

2010-05-25T13:23:00.005-08:00

Rock ptarmigan

Loiseleuria procumbens - Alpine azalea

Saxifraga eschscholtzii - Ciliate saxifrage

Ranunculus cooleyae - Cooley's buttercup

Gray-crowned rosy finch

Photos from our latest kayaking trip

2010-05-10T09:33:00.002-08:00

Dunlin

Brown Bear

Semipalmated plovers

Lesser yellowlegs

Whimbrel

Wandering tattlers

Rock ptarmigan

Rock ptarmigan

.

Mines in Prince William Sound

2009-11-14T18:11:00.003-09:00

There are a bunch of interesting mines in Prince William Sound. They're fun to explore, although sometimes made even more interesting by rotten timbers and caved-in roofs.

Oh, and they're always more or less flooded:

This is a cool stamp mill:

There are also little ore carts abandoned all over the place:

An old boiler:

Another ore cart:

Sometimes it's just downright sketchy - and fun!!!

.

Walking around in Prince William Sound

2009-11-14T17:50:00.002-09:00

Here are some pictures of hiking during last summer's kayaking trip in Prince William Sound.

Kayaking pictures from Prince William Sound

2009-11-14T17:41:00.002-09:00

This is fairly self-explanatory: here are some pictures of kayaking in Prince William Sound last summer.

I actually climbed onto this iceberg and did a crazy-fast seal launch off it!

Sea lions are curious there too, but by and large they left us alone more than in Sitka.

Cool rocks!

We got salmon twice from fishing boats. Quite the feast!

.

Kayaking in Prince William Sound

2009-10-22T17:13:00.003-08:00

Hello! Here are some random pictures from Prince William Sound, where Cathy and Steve and myself went kayaking in June. The pictures came out small, but deal with it...

Andromeda polyfolia

Boschniakia rossica

Fritillaria camschatcensis

Our state bird! The willow ptarmigan - Lagopus lagopus

Black oystercatcher

Haematopus bachmani

Melibe leonina

Metridium farcimen

Musculus discors

Nuphar luteum

List of the Birds of Titicaca / Lista de las Aves del Titicaca

2009-09-21T16:34:00.003-08:00

I decided to use Google Doc as a test for one of my classes, and here is a worthwhile text for that application: the two-part list of the birds of the Reserva Nacional Del Titicaca, which I made last winter (boreal winter, that is):

Part 1

Part 2

And here's the paper I wrote about that:

Informe de Voluntariado RNT

Some Mexican birds

2009-09-14T15:27:00.003-08:00

Okay, so I am incredibly far behind. I'll just blame this crazy summer for my delays in updating this blog. Now that fall is upon us and things get dreary, it's easier to find time to do this chore, but it's also a little sad to think back. Here's some birds - that's pretty fun and harmless. How about we start with the bat falcon Falco rufigularis?

If you've ever been wildlife-watching in tropical rainforests, you'll know just how incredibly hard it can be to see anything at all, and to know what you're looking at. Toucans, at least, make it easier by hanging out in clearings and making funny noises. This is Ramphastos sulfuratus, the keel-billed toucan.

And then, the tropics are also filled with birds from genera that I don't even know exist. The yellow-throated clorophonia, for example, may have been a beetle for all I knew. It turned out to be a cool little bird of the understory, Euphonia hirundinacea.

And this woodpecker is more of a variation on a familiar theme. The lineated woodpecker Dryocopus lineatus, looks much like the pileated woodpecker, except for its streaked chest and white stripes on the back.

Here's another very tropical bird, the red-legged honeycreeper Cyanerpes cyaneus.

This one is pretty common and familiar, but usually they've eluded me throught the tangle of vegetation. It's the groove-billed ani, Crotophaga sulcirostris.

.

Chilkoot trail run

2009-08-24T17:55:00.002-08:00

Okay - I promise I will catch up eventually. I sprained my ankle on a run last weekend, so things are a bit slower now, and I might get some time to write up some blog posts. Thankfully, I don't have to write about that run, since, Emily already did!

The writing is on the wall: Guatemalan politics

2009-08-17T16:40:00.002-08:00

Some people may have forgotten that what recently happened to the president of Honduras almost happened to Alvaro Colom, the president of Guatemala, just a little while before. His party is the UNE, and he is generally thought of as a moderate leftist. It is important to remember that the rule of law is not very stable in Guatemala. There are "parallel powers"that constantly challenge the authority of an apparently democratic state. These parallel powers are mostly formerly semi-official armed groups, narco-trafficking organizations, and business-owning families.

These guys made it easy for us: they got a logo that plainly suggests their fascist tendencies. Arturo Perez-Molina, the leader of the PP, or Partido Patriota is a war criminal. The PP's slogan was changed to Mano Dura for the presidential elections last year. Weirdly, the guy who designed their campaign had just designed a campaign in Honduras, for another right-wing bully, that was called Pugno duro (hard fist). After the Pugno Duro campaign failed in Honduras, a wave of executions of bus drivers in the capital was used to try and destabilize the legitimate government. After the Mano Dura campaign failed in Guatemala, a wave of executions of bus drivers in the capital was used to try and destabilize the legitimate government. Sounds weird? When Alvaro Colom pointed it out publicly, the executions slowed way down, as if by magic... We may never know what really went on at the time, since Guatemala is one place where conspiracies are the norm, not the exception.

The FRG, or Frente Revolucionario Guatemalteco, is led by Rios Montt - Reagan's good buddy and an all-out genocidal maniac when he was dictator in the early eighties. His party distinguished himself by spitting on and insulting the Nobel Prize-winner Rigoberta Menchu inside the constitutional court! Wait! Isn't that bad enough? He actually didn't like it when the constitutional court ruled against his application for the presidency on the grounds that in Guatemala one can only be president for one term. His justification: he was never elected president; he was merely a dictator! So in 2003 he got a few battalions' worth of thugs together (not really thugs, in fact they were former paramilitaries), surrounded the constitutional court, and they changed their mind.

Is this depressing? Try watching your kids starve to death and join gangs. Try having your relatives abducted or executed, while the police cannot or will not do anything about it because they are too weak or are implicated in the first place. Guatemala is a relatively rich country, but it is on the verge of being a failed state. A Honduras-style coup is easily imagined there, and would instantly throw everything back a decade or so, to the times of the peace accords. The only people that wouldn't hurt would be the rich, and yet again the poor would pay. The revolutionary groups (the real revolutionary groups, not the FRG) don't have a clear leader. Even Rigoberta Menchu doesn't stand a very good chance at the polls.

Before any significant positive change is possible in Guatemala, the state needs to raise taxes (they are ridiculously low right now), and bring some of the GDP to the majority of Guatemalans whose only options are misery, emigration, and crime.

Worshipers and objects of worship

2009-08-17T15:07:00.010-08:00

I generally find religion to be a little bit of a sad topic, so I generally stay out of it. How ridiculous would it be if we said that only our own language was true, and all other languages were wrong? That's often what I see with religion, where most people seem to be unable to break through a thin doctrinal veneer to get to the underlying philosophical issues. However, in Guatemala religion is just too important to be overlooked. It is all too easy to forget that the few news we get from Central America are restricted to the tiny ruling class and natural disasters. It must be remembered that Central America is mostly about peasants and gods, not politicians and hurricanes.

First of all, the dead are a little bit more alive. We all know about the Day of the Dead in Mexico, but there is another aspect to this. Certain dead people have more influence than other. Those dead people are on their way to becoming minor deities.

Witness, for example, this interesting grave in Xela. It is that of a girl who supposedly killed herself in 1927 when the man she loved came back from Spain with a wife. A famous poem was written about her by Jose Marti:

Quiero, a la sombra de un ala,
contar este cuento en flor:
la niña de Guatemala,
la que se murió de amor.

Eran de lirios los ramos,
y las orlas de reseda
y de jazmín: la enterramos
en una caja de seda.

…Ella dio al desmemoriado
una almohadilla de olor:
él volvió, volvió casado:
ella se murió de amor.

Many people are convinced that this dead girl can infuse love into their wayward husbands and beloved classmates, so they'll write little recados, or wishes, all over the tomb, which has to be repainted quite frequently in order to make blank spaces.

Some of these dead people become deities, like the little skeleton effigy of El Rey San Pascual, which was recently booted out of a Catholic church because he was distracting the worshipers. The worshipers just built a whole new chapel around him, and he even gets recados from Guatemalans who emigrated to the United States. Many, many towns have such minor deities.

Here is one of the more controvertial among those minor deities. Meet San Simon, a strange object of veneration. This person is the effigy of a white man, and supposedly stands in for a complex Mayan deity, or the devil, or a Christian saint, or nothing at all, depending on who ou ask. The fact is, very poor people waste their money and their hopes giving his puppets whiskey, tequila, cigarettes, candles, incense, money, and some say that women sleep with the life-size puppet of him in a couple of towns.

He is the perfect excuse for an annual day of debauchery. The whole town (pregnant and old women included) gets drunk "in his honor," and he even has a sponsor beer.

Did I mention the dead person who made it furthest? Guatemala is very Catholic, and various brands of evangelical movements have been very active lately. I once dared suggest that had Muslims invaded, raped, and destroyed Meso-American civilizations, Central America would be Muslim, and that had Buddhists invaded and enslaved the Mayan heartland, Guatemala would be Buddhist. The very liberal people to whom I suggested this were incensed. Of course, there is only one true religion, everyone else is wrong, God speaks to some people and Satan to others, and I am going to hell. Quickly.

Thankfully, the traditional religions are being revived in more tolerant, objective, and open-minded ways in many, many places. It's not always New Age ideas, either. Some of it is real, deep, and directly connected to solid traditions and scholarhip. There are more Mayan priests all the time, and they might be getting better all the time, too.

There are many people who have been climbing mountains to light candles in sacred places where there is no mandatory tithing, no tequila store, and more than one possible way to understand the world.

But there are also some clear disconnects with the traditions, such as with this statue of a monkey in Takalik Abaj. Many locals believe that it helps fertilitybecause it is "pregnant." In fact, modern scholarship is pretty unequivocal: that's just the style of the bygone civilization that carved it.

Here's a celebration of the Mayan New Year in Laguna Chicabal - a volcanic crater lake that supposedly harbors the gods of rain.

Many people saw nothing strange about having a Pentacostal ceremony on the lake shore.

Most of the ceremonies were private and traditional, but the church still has its hand in this. The Mayan oral tradition is almost entirely lost, and most of what we know of it comes from a corrupted version written down by a priest. Many traditions were artificially paralleled with Catholic traditions. This particular one was changed to where the "Mayan new year" coincides with ascension, so that it no longer follows the Mayan calendar, or coincide with the beginning of the rainy season.

It's nice to see that people can now practice their traditions without being persecuted for it.

And by the way, if this is interesting to you, you might want to look into the cult of the Santa Muerte in Mexico. What are its links to organized crime? Is it a native tradition? Is it compatible with Christianity? Is it pseudo-witchcraft? What right does the Mexican government have to act against it? Is it going to become a significant trend in the US?

Clearly there are many questions, and no easy answers, even if one sticks to the basic aspects of any religious practice.

Quetzaltenango, Guatemala

2009-08-17T14:04:00.007-08:00

Time flies! I've already gone three whole months without writing anything at all in this weblog. I just sprained my ankle and school doesn't start until tomorrow, so this might be a good time to try and get things somewhat up-to-date.

Well, after studying at the Escuela de la Montaña, I went to the Proyecto Lingüístico Quetzalteco de Español, a rather famous and large school, where I studied such things as the works of Asturias, and some Latin American history. I was not able to do many tourist activities, but I did learn a lot about Latin American culture.

I also learned to navigate the Guatemalan trasportation system, for example doing an epic, two-day loop through the mountains, then across Lago de Atitlan, then through the Pacific Coast lowlands using a whole range of excentric modes of transportation (of course, my camera died during that trip).

Most importantly, I learned a lot about the Guatemalans. The poverty level in Guatemala is incomprehensible. Many, many people are malnourished - especially children. Beans are surprisingly uncommon in poor houselholds, and aren't normally grown in the plantations (farmers are almost completely dependent on low-quality, subsidized fertilizers). As a result, proteins are in short supply, and many families rely on their kids killing birds and catching crabs to put small amounts of protein on the table.

The main cultivation there is coffee - which does the vast majority of the population very little good and enriches a small elite of mostly white, quasi-aristocratic families.

There are also other crops, obviously, mostly classic tropical crops such as mangoes, bannanas, lots of cardamom, skinny cows, slash-and-burn in the northern jungles, etc. This is a small view of a rubber plantation.

Thankfully, not everything is a monoculture. This tree fern grows in a coffee plantation. Although the normal threat to tree ferns is exploitation for making garden ornaments, in Guatemala it seems to be mostly harvested for the supposed medicinal qualities of the heart of the stem.

Birds are fairly rare in many parts, often because they are pretty intensively hunted. This parrot is just one of many, many unusual pets I came across in and around people's homes.

.

Some mesoamerican critters

2009-05-16T12:56:00.005-08:00

I have seen just a few interesting animals, as I have only been in Guatemala for a week so far, and most of it has been dedicated to studying spanish at the Escuela de la montaña, about one hour down from Quetzaltenango.

This is the white-throated magpie-jay, Calocitta formosa.

Actually from the Reserva Biológica Huitepec, in Chiapas, this is the slate coloured solitaire, Myadestes unicolor. Most of the birds are impossible to photograph as they reside in the canopy, like the mountain trogon, or they hide in the low plants, like the quails and wrens (although the band-backed wrens act and sound like flocks of angry magpies).

I just came back from a trip to the Finca Santa Anita la Unión, a community of former guerrilla members, where I got to see one of the few remaining Ceiba trees remaining in this part of Guatemala. A quick look at the trunk will explain why they are almost extinct here.

This is a Dendrobates - looking tree frog, that I caught in the school's garden last night.

And this mushroom I found in Chiapas brought back some memories. It looks just like Geastrum striatum, a cool and common fungus in France.

.

¡No hay tos!

2009-05-08T17:45:00.006-08:00

When I got to Mexico City I expected the place to be reminiscent of Camus' "The Plague," or Saramago's essay on blindness, but the panic had largely ebbed by then, and all that could be seen was about a quarter of the people wearing surgical-type masks, signs in pharmacies that said "We don't have any dust masks," restaurants with signs that said "for takeout only, because of official order," and no tourists. This is actually the most outrageous thing I saw there, which reminded me of the problem that Saramago raised: What do you do when you enter the church, and catch the disease? (It says: Please use your mask to enter the church)

The guy at a ticket counter in one of the big Mexico City bus stations (those are just like Paris train stations, if you are familiar with those but haven't been to DF) looked at me as I tried to rush him. "No hay tos." Apparently, that means "no problem," but it seemed to fit perfectly, as it normally means "there's no coughing."

As Mexico relaxes its preventative measures, the government has sent phalanxes of masked people with hand sanitizers and questionaires; "do you have a fever?" "Are you coughing?" etc...

At the prestigious museum of anthropology, on their first crisis day, we were issued masks, and even told to wear them. By this time in the real Mexico City, only about 20% of riders in the crowded metro were wearing them. Many people wore their masks around their neck.

And things were largely back to normal, as can be attested by people going about their business, ususally mask-free, on the Alameda:

I am now, as of today, in San Cristóbal de las Casas, in the state of Chiapas. My goal was to visit the famous Mayan ruins at Palenque, but when I got here I thought I'd rather just enjoy the town, and forget about the long bus rides there and back.

The town is pretty all around, and so far everyone I talked to has been quite friendly.

There's a lot of yellow walls, with smatterings of other colors (probably depending on what's on sale at the time), which is always a delight for tourists with overpriced cameras, and I am no exception.

The beauty of the place is enhanced by the rain that comes and goes, always messing with the light and sky.

Rain wasn't an issue at the nearby Grutas de Rancho Nuevo, where I went to climb the nearby mountain. It turned out that the mountain was the site of a live-fire excercise of the Mexican Army, so I wisely stayed mostly underground. The cave is blocked off by a funnily translated sign, which I studiously ignored (upon seeing that I had a headlamp, the guard told me: "Lo que yo no sé, no me duele") The parts beyond the sign were fun, but there were a lot of small ponds, and I couldn't take pictures because my headlamp makes them come out in gray halos.

It was much easier to take pictures in the touristy part:

There were not a lot of stalagmites in the lighted part, as many had been chopped off to make way for visitors.

Because of the lights, enlarged entrance, and tourists, there was algal growth on most of the pillows at the entrance, but this one was largely okay.

And at the entrance, I found the cave's dragon! Update: this is the dragoncito de labios rojos, or Abronia lytrochila.

How about that, for a first day in Chiapas?

Yellow cedar

2009-05-03T16:24:00.005-08:00

I was going to post pictures of fishes, or other interesting stuff seen while kayaking, but I am starting to run out of steam for that, so here are some pictures of one of my favorite trees: the yellow cedar Chamaecyparis nootkatensis. By the way, it's not at all a cedar in the taxonomic sense, so don't be surprised when you see a cypress-type tree.

I am somewhat part of a totem pole carving project, which aims to carve and install poles for the university building. Totem poles are generally carved out of red cedar, which only grow south of here. Their wood is much softer, lighter, and possibly a little more durable.

This is the master carver Tommy Joseph, sawing part of that same tree, with some future poles in the background (and also chunks of a future US forestry service cabin).

Yellow cedar is a very impervious tree, mainly thanks to some toxins that take decades to leach out of the wood fibers. However, it still gets attacked from time to time.

The species is wind-pollinated. In this photo, it is easy to observe the fruit, and the male flowers.

Female flowers are much less common, which makes sense in light of the mechanism of pollination, and the relation of genetic gain to energy investment in male flowers, versus female flowers (which are the little, terminal blue ones).

And a higher-altitude specimen, which has yet to flower this year although it is clearly mature.

.

A few spring birds

2009-05-03T15:56:00.002-08:00

Ahh, springtime...

This is a great time for birding, though I've been rather lazy about it, simply peeking at ducks on the lake from my living room window, and taking pictures of these marbled godwits, Limosa fedoa as I relaxed in the sun on the Taigud Islands.

There have been a lot of greater yellowlegs Tringa flaviceps lately. I like to think that some of those are the same ones that I watched (and heard, most conspicuously) at Lake Titicaca a few months ago.

I love the call of sandhill cranes Grus canadensis:

And everyone loves the common loon Gavia immer. In fact, some people love it enough to call it by its more dignified, British name: the great northern diver. I heard them sing several times during my latest kayak-based foray.

This snow goose Chen caerulescens hung out in town for a while, and was photographed by everyone (often with cell phone cameras). It was even featured on the front page of the local paper, in a wonderful photo by James Poulson.

This merlin Falco columbarius was nice enough to kill an American robin right in front of the Seven Fathom Bay Cabin while I was reading my book in it. The only reason the photo isn't perfect is that the windows were dirty, which is my fault.

A neat perspective of the head of a raven Corvus corax.

More greater white-fronted geese, Anser albifrons.

And a late common redpoll, Carduelis flammea, eating birdseed that should have been removed weeks ago, when the bears were starting to come out.

.

A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king...

2009-04-30T09:54:00.004-08:00

I am working on confirming the identification of this flatworm, so I thought I'd just put a few worm pictures up along with it. This is a flatworm, or platyhelminth. Yes, that's the same group of flatworms that sometimes live in the digestive systems of land mammals, including us.

This flatworm may be Notoplana sanguinea, which may not be confirmed in the Sitka area at this time.

Update: The identification, according to Aaron Baldwin of Juneau, is correct. He was even kind enough to send me a beautiful picture of the same species, that he took right here in Sitka when he was a professor at SJ college. I will not post it in case he wants to control it.

This one is a nemertea, or ribbon worm. It's quite common I think, and is probably Tubulanus polymorphus.

This one is pretty and also very common. Allow me to introduce you to the tubeworm Eudistylia vancouveri. I just learned that the "feather duster" group of tubeworms is a subset of the polichaete worms. As always, I learn as I write.

Stay tuned for more glamorous critters!

Some starfishes found south of Sitka

2009-04-29T10:31:00.003-08:00

I went on a five day kayaking trip south of town, and saw and experienced so much that it's going to take a few posts to cover it. This one will be dedicated to starfishes. I know that scientist types always insist that we call starfishes "sea stars," on the grounds that they are not fishes. True enough, they are not fishes, but they are not stars, either, so leave the English language alone!

This starfish may look familiar to attentive readers of the blog (yes, both of you). It is Solaster stimpsoni - the Stimpson's sun star that I included in an earlier blog entry. This one isn't as pretty, but much, much more typical of the species' normal limp rag attitude.

This one is always popular. It is the very common sunflower star, or Pycnopodia helianthoides. It is often orange, and considered a top predator in soft substrates. The largest ones are one meter across.

Why did the computer tip some of my photos on their sides??? Oh well. This is the #1 most common stafish in Sitka Sound: the ochre star Pisaster ochraceus. It is found high in the tidal zone, and comes in the following colors (or flavors, as some like to say): chocolate, grape, and orange.

This pretty and not terribly common starfish is the rainbow star, Orthasterias koehleri.

Always a popular starfish, this one is called Mediaster aequalis. Ihave only found it a dozen times or so.

And this one is the best find of the trip: an undescribed species of the Genus Henricia. It looks just like EC21 in Andy Lamb's "Marine life of the Pacific Northwest." However, probably the same taxon in Lambert's "Sea Stars of British Columbia, Southeast Alaska, and Puget Sound" has six rays ("arms") and looks strangely like a Leptasterias. According to a biologist, this is indeed the still-unnamed species that the University of British Columbia was working on describing. I found it in Beauchamp Island, but did not collect it for genetic testing (Sorry - I guess someone at UC Fullerton wanted it). If you find one, I guess it's supposed to be placed in ethyl alcohol.

Okay, it's not a starfish, but a close relative. This little guy is very common in some places, and is called a daisy brittle star, Ophiopholis aculeata.

This is another relative of the starfishes: the extremely common orange sea cucumber Cucumaria miniata.

.

A training exercise with the Sitka Mountain Search and Rescue

2009-04-20T16:45:00.005-08:00

Training with the Sitka Mountain Rescue team has been pretty good so far. I took some pictures during a mock search by Beaver Lake, in which people from various parts of SE Alaska took part. Here we are, looking for Amanda:

The walk wasn't too bad. It did go up and down at times, but the snow made it easier to clear large swathes of terrain. The kid in ACUs is in the Civil Air Patrol, and he didn't have any outdoor gear so I lent him some extra stuff.

We found Amanda fairly fast.

We got a little speech on US Coast Guard hoisting operations.

Then we called a helicopter.

Which showed up right about on schedule.

The Coast Guard was just as intent on maximizing the training time as we were, so they went through several complete iterations of the hoisting maneuvers after having dropped a rescue swimmer to assist us with the lines, cable, hook and litter:

Just remember to put a helmet on your subject, because it looks really awkward getting the litter over the lip of the deck.

.

Slimy critters found on Peisar Island, Alaska

2009-04-15T18:42:00.008-08:00

This is still part of my effort to promote beachcombing, which also includes living animals often found at low tide. Here is a small selection from that same morning walk, of photos taken between rain squalls.

This little kelp crab is Pugettia richii:

And this black-clawed crab is called Lophopanopeus bellus:

This is one of my favorite crabs, the diminutive Petrolisthes eriomerus:

I think this is a sea cucumber I hadn't spotted before, the Cucumaria pallida, which is closely related to the other blob on the same rock, the very common Cucumaria miniata:

Clingfishes (also known as sucker fishes) are just really fun to harass. This one is called Sicyogaster maeandricus:

These are two forms of the starfish Henricia leviuscula, and the commensal scale worm on the arm of the larger specimen may be an Arctonoe vittata:

This tiny starfish belongs to a difficult genus: the Leptasterias, or six-armed star. I think this one belongs to the Leptasterias hexactis species complex:

This one is easy and ubiquitous. It smells somewhat like garlic, and is called Dermasterias imbricata:

This is a shell of the Oregon triton, known in Latin as Fusitriton oregonensis. They usually lose their hair before I find them.

This is the "ugly clam," or Entodesma navicula. According to seashell collector, the "outer skin" shrinks as it dries, and causes the shell to implode. A preventative measure is to soak the shell in glycerin.

And this is Cryptochiton stelleri, usually just called "gumboot chiton. Its little hitch-hiker is an opalescent nudibranch Hermissenda crassicornis. Strangely enough, they are both essentially slugs.

.

Beachcombing on Peisar Island

2009-04-14T15:09:00.006-08:00

Beachcombing is a fantastic activity, but it can be difficult to explain its appeal to those who don't practicioners. This is a description of a kayak trip to Peisar, in conjunction with a nice low tide that is a big help for getting around the beaches in search for anything and everything interesting.

Beachcombing starts with the premise that any object, dropped anywhere on Earth or placed in its orbit, will eventually find its way to the Ocean, and wash up on a beach somewhere. A classic example, of course, is that of fishing nets, such as this gillnet with old-fashioned flat floats:

Of course, when people think of beachcombing in Alaska, they usually think of Japanese glass floats, but those are rare here in Sitka these days, especially when compared with the Aleutian Islands for example. One reason is our rocky coastline:

And another is collectors. Modern Asian fishing floats are much more common than the old glass ones, because they are rock-proof, and rather ugly. The metal ones are usually Russian, and the plastic ones Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, Chinese, etc., etc.

The problem with the modern fishing floats, is that they could have been used by anyone, and lost anywhere in the world, so they have in effect no story to tell. A good example is this float that was made in Denmark, but clearly didn't drift in from there:

Much more interesting, in my opinion, is trash. Trash is common, collector-proof, and often rock-proof too. It encompasses everything from baseball caps to refrigerators, and provides a fascinating view of the ocean. On my walk around Peisar Island Friday morning, I collected a few dozen Asian bottlecaps to demonstrate the worldliness of our plastic junk.

These are some Russian bottlecaps:

Here are some Japanese bottlecaps. "Pocari Sweat" is a particularly unpleasant brand of sport drink. This one had been chewed by a bear that apparently learned that sugar can occasionally be obtained from plastic bottles:

Now, some Korean bottlecaps:

And finally, an array of bottlecaps from China and / or Taiwan, and possibly a few Japanese ones mixed in there as well. While Chinese bottlecaps are amazingly plentiful on our beaches (much more so than American ones), it must be remembered that there are 1.1 billion people in China, and the amount of trash we get from them is more indicative of population level and current patterns, than of waste management policy.

I mentioned bears. Yes, bears are out and about on Peisar already!

And finally, all sorts of bones and dead critters can often be found on our beaches, from the worn-down lump of calcified material to the perfect sea otter skull. I was happy to come across this posterior half of a whale's skull, but also dismayed to find that wouldn't fit in my kayak:

Next up: a post on the slimy critters I found during that same walk.

Spring kayak trip

2009-04-07T10:01:00.006-08:00

Not everyone goes kayaking in this time of the year, but it can be pretty fun. This first overnight trip of the year was supposed to go from South Sitka to Brent's Beach and back, but we ended up getting hit with some wind, and came back to the North end of the road via Olga Straits, for a trip total of about 28 miles.

This is a whiteout in Krestof Sound, with so much snowfall at times that it formed polygons in the calm spots. My kayak is actually yellow on top, but it was thickly covered in snow at that time:

This is a great-looking Stimpson's sun star Solaster stimpsoni - a species that usually looks like a limp rag:

This is Brent's Beach cabin, on Kruzof Island:

Kamenoi Beach, with Cathy collecting seashells for her artwork:

The humpback whales were pursuing herring, so although they got pretty close at times, they were less predictable than late summer whales:

Cathy even liked paddling in the snow.

And this is a bald eagle, of course, on a rock south off the Kasianas:

.

Early spring in Sitka

2009-04-07T09:17:00.003-08:00

I have been very, very lazy about updating this blog, because it is so much easier to just send a couple of e-mails and upload some photos to my new facebook account. It turns out that however convenient the facebook thing may be, it remains a temporary repository for inconsequential information, so I will attempt at catching up.

This is the very, very common species in this time of the year, the Glaucous-winged gull Larus glaucescens, photographed from my kayak in Eastern Channel:

This is a picture of mid-altitude forest on Mount Verstovia (it is really hard for me to take pictures of the forest):

On that same hike, a higher spot on the base of Arrowhead Peak, this picture helps understand why mountain hemlocks Tsuga mertensiana grow into krumholz shapes in the alpine area:

This is as far as I made it that day, up to the final traverse. I hadn't brought my crampons so I had to turn around:

And this is what invariably happens when I tell myself "I shouldn't need my snowshoes today..."

This is a scenario within the "Wilderness First Responder" course that I took this spring:

.

One more ovenbird?

2009-03-11T15:38:00.004-08:00

I just went over some Furnariidae of Lake Titicaca National Reserve a couple of blog posts ago, and this may be another one:

The photographer (and biologist) David Pineda thinks that this is Geositta punensis. I think he is probably right, although the beak is somewhat long and the upper part of the outer rectrices aren't very obvious.

Happy 200th birthday to Charles Darwin!

2009-02-12T16:13:00.003-09:00

Okay, Darwin didn't get everything right, but he certainly made some tremendous contributions to our understanding of the world around us. Here's an old photo I took in a part of Chile that was visited by the greatest naturalist on his round-the-world voyage:

Thanks in large part to Charles Darwin, we can glimpse some essential, meaningful connections between all known organisms (living and extinct), and gain a better appreciation for all living things.

Some Furnariidae of lake Titicaca

2009-01-31T12:30:00.004-09:00

Here is an interesting family, whose members at times think they're Motacillidae, or Paridae, or other fun songbird groups.

This is Upucerthia jelskii, the plain-breasted earthcreeper:

This one is called Leptasthenura andicola, the andean tit-spinetail:

These two birds (look closely) are the always heard, not always seen, totoreros. In english, they are boringly know as wren-like rushbirds. In Latin, they are even more boringly known as Phleocryptes melanops:

This cool bird is a slender-billed miner, Geositta tenuirostris:

Helpful hint: it's called a miner because it builds in tunel-like cavities to nest in.

Another miner, not a cool but important, the rather lark-like common miner, Geositta cunicularia:

The very common Cinclodes fuscus:

And the much less common Cinclodes atacamensis:

One of two common species of Asthenes, the cordilleran canastero Asthenes modesta:

I hope I am doing a good job of conveying the diversity of the Lake Titicaca avifauna.

Laridae of Lake Titicaca

2009-01-31T12:07:00.005-09:00

Most people will tell you that Lake Titicaca has but one species of Laridae - the Q'eulla, or Andean gull (I put up a photo already a while ago). In fact, there are also at least two more rare vagrant species there, and this beautiful oddball, the Rhynchops niger, or black skimmer:

How about that for a photo? I was sure proud.

Then the two other species are Leucophaeus pipixpan, and this hyper-rarity I photographed, a first-year Leucophaeus atricilla:

Why do I say it's a hyper-rarity??? In Fjeldså, it is mentioned as seen only once in the high Andes, at 3020 meters above sea level, in Colombia. Lake Titicaca is almost 800 meters higher, which would make for a world record!

Here is a first-year Chroicocephalus serranus (The Q'eulla I already mentioned) , for comparison purposes. They're born in the austral winter, so this bird is not exactly exhibiting as advanced a plumage.

Here in Lima we see a lot of L. pipixcan, but I sold my camera in Puno, so no new photos.

Rallidae of Lake Titicaca

2009-01-31T11:53:00.003-09:00

Easier to go by family, no?

This is a juvenile Pardirallus sanguinolentus, or plumbeous rail, near Puno, Peru:

If you're a birdwatcher almost anywhere you probably already know this happy critter - Gallinula chloropus, the moorhen:

And this one probably looks familiar. It is Fulica ardesiaca, the andean coot:

Owls of Lake Titicaca

2009-01-29T10:43:00.004-09:00

I made a special effort to find the reserve's three species of owls on a couple of census trips north of Puno.

The most easily found owl is, of course, the burrowing owl Athene cunicularia:

Most often, it is observed on the ground in the evening:

Possibly the least often seen, for which I had to do some bouldering on low cliffs, is the barn owl, Tyto alba:

And its characteristic feathers and pellets, found much more often than the bird itself:

The great horned owl's pellets, on the other hand, can be a little hard to find:

This is probably because of its tendency to sleep in trees:

Another great horned owl Bubo virginianus, this time in a eucalyptus tree:

.

Some boats of Lake Titicaca

2009-01-29T10:17:00.005-09:00

Some of you may have realized by now, that I like boats, so I decided to just go ahead and do a "special" with just pictures of boats.

This boat is loaded with totora reeds, near Capachica:

This is the reserve's motor boat, crossing the totora swamp during an official bird count:

A sailboat with a plastic tarp sail, off Uros Kapi:

Fishermen off Chimu, catching ispi:

Carachi fishermen in the totora

Boats in Llachón, with flour bag sails:

Sailboat off Yapura:

The same official reserve motorboat, in Yapura:

One hundredth blog post!

2009-01-26T16:43:00.004-09:00

I was going to put up more pictures of birds and the lake, but then I realized this was my one hundredth weblog post! What a fortunate coincidence - I just got back from a wonderful celebration in the little town of Ichu, where some good friends wanted me to be their son's godfather. In the Aymara tradition, only the godfather can cut the child's first long braid. You put quinoa in his/her hair before the godfather cuts it and puts it in a plate with more quinoa in it. So here I am, cutting his hair:

May all the little things we do be fruitful steps toward a better future!

Timpía and the Pongo de Maenique

2009-01-13T18:21:00.002-09:00

This is what the upper Amazonian basin rivers are mostly like. Flat, calm, broad like the plains they traverse, they can be handled with tiny, unstable boats like this quetequete:

But to get there from Quillabamba, it is necessary to cross the dangerous (and beautiful, and wild) Pongo de Maenique:

People there do it fairly regularly, as there really is no choice and even in the rainy season it generally involves no more than a few crosswise waves (no pictures of that, sorry. I was protecting my camera):

These are the large boats that are used for long-distance travel on the Río Urubamba, which eventually drains into the Amazon River:

This is a Swiss biologist I camped with, on the farm of this wonderful family in Timpía:

We saw two species of monkeys, parrots of the genus Ara, and lots of other things that I just couldn't take pictures of because of low light, thick bamboo forests, etc.:

Another waterfall in the Pongo de maenique:

.

Jungle crops

2009-01-13T17:49:00.003-09:00

I know! Too many birds! So how about some food, for a change? Here are some photos I took on my trip to Timpía, along the lower Río Urubamba:

The pineapple, Ananas comosus. Yes, it's a bromeliad!:

Not so commonly eaten, but much more impressive and provides a nice shade under which to drink the masato. I present you with the breadfruit tree, Artocarpus altilis (warning, possible ssp. of Artocarpus communis):

And now, this one may not look like much, but the world economy would be in even worse straits without coffee, Coffea arabica:

And this is the main jungle food - yuca. It's also known as cassava, although it's under the name yucca that I ate it for breakfast, lunch and dinner in the forest (and I drank it everyday too, as the alcoholic beverage known as masato). It's also called Manihot esculenta:

Okay, it's not really food, but it's very useful and pernicious at the same time (i.e.: important). The coca plant, Erythroxylum coca:

Possibly more addictive, the sugar cane, Saccharum officinarum:

But without it who would eat the bitter seeds of the chocolate tree, Theobroma cacao?

.

Choquequirao

2009-01-07T16:04:00.008-09:00

One of the best things I did so far in Peru was the hike to Choquequirao, near Abancay. It is a fairly easy, four day hike although many do it in five days and most tourists hire mules and guides. It is doable in three days but it's over thirty kilometers each way with a thousand meter-deep valley in the middle, so it's nice to have a little time. In total, over four days I saw less than twenty tourists, and the place is huge.

I did the hike with a Spanish tourist, and on the way back we linked up with a French tourist who had a mule and a guide, and was returning from an unsuccessful attempt to trek all the way to Machu Picchu (the rivers are swollen, due to the rainy season). Here they are, walking back:

Here are some of the ruins at Choquequirao, with an Andean condor in the lower left corner:

This is the famous "Sector Llamas," with designs worked into the terracing work. This is the most active excavation area right now. Of the 70% of the ruins that are still buried in vegetation, the lower "Sector Llamas," with similar designs except with loads on the animals, is next for excavation.

This is the "Casa de la Caída del Agua," near the bottom of hundreds of incredible terraces on the other side of the mountain from Sector Llamas:

Here is the Plaza Principal, with its temples and two-story houses. The terraces in the lower right have two meter-high walls:

.

Machu Picchu

2009-01-04T17:21:00.005-09:00

All right - I was going to catch up, but it's just not going to happen tonight so here are just a few pictures of Machu Picchu, startng with the Gran caverna, on the backside of Wayna Picchu:

Macchu Picchu from Wayna Picchu:

Houses:

Most of you probably saw the wild Begonia in the previous picture, but how about the rodent? It´s a vizcacha, Lagidium peruanum (Chinhillidae):

.

A few more birds

2008-12-30T19:23:00.006-09:00

It's almost midnight, and tomorrow I am going back out of Cusco, this time to try and see some mid-elevation jungle. Choquequireao was unbelievable. here are a few birds, as a meek attempt to catch up:

Eared dove, Zenaida auriculata:

Wilson's phalarope, Phalaropus tricolor:

White-winged cinclodes, Cinclodes atacamensis:

Bright-rumped yellow-finch, Sicalis uropygialis:

Puna teal, Anas puna:

Speckled teal, Anas flavirostris oxyptera:

Otherwise, I've been lucky enough to see everything from weird hummngbirds to the Andean condor, passing through the Andean cock-of-the-rock and many more, and birds are only one percent of the cool things of the trip.

Happy New year!

Hello from Cusco!

2008-12-21T17:10:00.008-09:00

Hello! This is where I was today, at some Inca ruins near the town of Pisac, which had impressive terrassed land:

The walk up the muntain from the town's marketplace was great, but the best is the time I spent across from the top, on the side of a steep cliff, harvesting plants with some fun local women. The view was great, and after coming down the mountain we went and had chicha in some awful bar. So far, I hae been enjoying the fields and local people, more than any kind of ruins and birds. Of course, ruins and birds are what I will be taking pictures of:

The Andean gull, larus serranus:

A sailboat on Lake Titicaca:

Peruvian flag outside a school on a touristy reed island:

An aplomado falcon Falco femoralis, on Isla Amantani in lake Titicaca:

On the same reed island as the Andean gull, a Puna ibis Plegadis ridgwayi:

A quick hello from Puno, Peru.

2008-12-18T16:18:00.002-09:00

So far, I've only seen one Peruvian town: Puno, on Lake Titicaca, where I have been for the past five days. It has been amazing, and in fact I am already thinking about going back. Just like anyplace, the region around Puno is one that only reluctantly allows tourists to experience its best aspects. So far, i have only scratched the surface. Here are two photos from a group of really touristy islands that we went to (more about them later).

An adult Black-crowned night-heron Nycticorax nycticorax (tame and injured bird), called huacana by the locals:

And an adult male yellow-winged blackbird Agelasticus thilius, called Ch'enko by the Aymara people:

The internet connection here is really slow, so I'll put up more pictures when I am in Cuzco, starting tomorrow.

Quickly catching up on Mexico

2008-12-13T17:24:00.005-09:00

Hello! I promised I'd write more, so here it is. So far the trip has been fantastic, to the point that I wanted to spend more time in every town I visited. Swimming and hiking were great in and around Puerto Vallarta (especially around El Tuito), and I then spent time in Guadalajara where there was an international book fair and lots of fun college students who had come to listen to the speakers (I got to hear Arturo Pérez-Reverte talk about La Reina del Sur, that I had read, and saw Elena Poniatowska, whose book La Piel del Cielo I was reading at the time). Here is Arturo Pérez-Reverte singing an old narco-corrida with the Tigres del Norte:

I then went to Zacatecas, which is always fun and was even better this time since there was a very interesting movie festival (theme: borders and migrations). I saw about five feature-length movies and heard some actors and directors comment on two of them.

Otherwise, get ready for landscapes and birds!

Cacti of all shapes and sizes:

A tiny cactus camouflaged in the rocks:

Fascinating masks in Zacatecas:

La hasteca, near Monterrey, where I have to go back and spend more time:

The Cerro de las Mitras, behind which my friend Ricardo and his family live in Monterrey:

La Huasteca, again:

A gadwall, Anas strepera:

A male Great-tailed grackle Quiscalus mexicanus:

And a female:

And an eastern fox squirrel Scirus niger:

I am now in Puno, on the shores of Lake Titicaca.

Just a quick hello

2008-12-11T07:36:00.003-09:00

As often happens, I am falling behind on this blog, so here is just a message to say hello, and that all is fine so far. I am spending one day in Austin, Texas, where I have so far ran into nothing but nice people. In fact, I could probably say that of almost the entire trip except for an obnoxious US border agent who questioned my citizenship. Austin is apparently one of those places where pro-American flag waving is seen as compatible with Civil War whitewashing. Their state capitol has this Confederate armed forces memorial, and another one to Texas Rangers who served the Confederate Army.

The birders among you may have spotted a little gray thing in front of the monument. Here it is: a northern mockingbird Mimus polyglottos:

Not far from there, I found a male Cooper's hawk Accipiter cooperii, that was having another bird (a pigeon?) for breakfast:

A few more California birds

2008-11-30T07:47:00.003-09:00

Things have been great here in southern California, and I am headed to Puerto Vallarta today. Before I left I wanted to test a new little gimmick I got for reading memory cards, and I thought I would just go ahead and make another post, so I can make up for the months of putting up very little. I am also almost done with classes, which makes it much easier to think and write about birds and such.

This is a Western bluebird, Sialia mexicana, in Pasadena:

A ruddy duck, Oxyura jamaicensis, in Laguna Niguel:

Some sanderlings on the beach (Calidris alba):

And, finally, a red-tailed hawk Buteo jamaicensis, which was being harassed by two common ravens near the house:

Thanksgiving was great; I've been bicycling a little, and I am thoroughly relaxed after being here fr a few days.

California beach birds

2008-11-27T12:02:00.003-09:00

I am in Laguna Niguel, California for Thanksgiving, and it's been nice so far. I got myself a new camera to replace my other one that won't turn on anymore and is no longer under warranty. Of course, the birds are very different down here, and I wanted to play with my new toy so I bicycled down to the beach and took some pictures.

This is a bushtit Psaltriparus minimus:

And a whimbrel Numenius phaeopus:

And this is the western gull, Larus occidentalis:

A really fantastic gull, the Heermann's gull Larus Heermanni:

This one isn't as exotic, but I've never seen one in Sitka so it's fun to see it anyways. The ring-billed gull, Larus delawarensis:

A bunch of coots, Fulica americana:

And finally, a willet Catoptrophorus semipalmatus:

.

November doldrums

2008-11-22T17:54:00.003-09:00

It’s just hard to write anything right now. Of course, I have fallen very far behind on this blog stuff, and I am now trying to catch up on all my virtual world activity, from the academic to the inane (I was even talked into joining a social networking website - after years of saying I never would do it). I know, I have fallen woefully far behind on this blog stuff, and I’ll try to be better about while I travel (I am leaving Monday).

I am not the only one who's been having a hard time writing anything lately, though. I noticed that most of the other students in my creative writing class have also started writing dreary stuff. The professor noticed it too, and she pronounced us “stuck in the November doldrums.” At least we got last week’s homework load lightened up a bit on account of that. In retrospect, perhaps Alison Bechdel had more going on than inner conflict when she wrote that: “By the end of November, my earnest daily entries had given way to the implicit lie of the blank page, and weeks at a time are left unrecorded.”

By the way, some people tried to ban her book “Fun Home.” Banned Books Week was over a month ago, but it’s never too late to read one. If you read Spanish, I highly recommend the weblog Generación Y, by the Cuban dissident Yoani Sánchez. It is (rather obviously) banned in Cuba.

Here in the US, we have designated holidays for social causes, such as Hispanic Heritage Month (that was also over a month ago, but if you’re trying to catch up I recommend Sandra Cisneros), and right now it’s Native American heritage month – how about Two Old Women, by the Athabascan author Velma Wallis, from here in Alaska? At the very least, it’ll demonstrate that not all women here are neurotic populist politicians. This cultural holiday stuff gets a little ridiculous, but it’s a good excuse to visit some of the library’s dustier shelves.

So, since the last time I wrote in this blog I did a few hikes, some more unsuccessful deer hunting, some kayaking, and I went to Anchorage for a week and a half or so (for fun this time). Anchorage was great, with ice-skating, hiking, and doing some big city things as well. This is from a hike in Whittier, where some nasty winds prevented us from going kayaking:

The ice skating was great, and went on for miles and miles. We did broke through the ice a couple of times, but it wasn’t deep at all where we went in.

I even did a traditional Halloween with Cathy, which included carving and displaying four pumpkins so that neighborhood kids could come by for candy. This is my first pumpkin:

Of course, who am I to try and compete with artists?:

Since then I’ve been getting ahead on homework so that I don’t have to travel with a backpack full of university books (That way I can make room for the bird books). Other than creative writing, university homework has been OK lately, and I did enough homework ahead of time that I am already completely done with two of my four classes: advanced Spanish grammar, and geography of Alaska.

This picture is really blurry, but I don’t have any other of a female Barrow’s goldeneye Bucephala islandica with the nice yellow beak like this:

I also took this picture of our regular crow, the northwestern crow Corvus caurina:

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to watch a big flock of passerines outside my window: there was a Townsend’s warbler, a female slate-colored junco, a few tree creepers, and a couple gallons of chickadees and Oregon junco.

Fall fun before the snow ruins it all

2008-10-08T15:01:00.005-08:00

Hello all. Just because I am not in an exotic place doesn't mean there isn't anything neat to write home about. I finally caught up with homework, and I got to go hiking, kayaking and hunting to places like Bear Lake (3000 ft), Deep Inlet, and a peak on Starrrigavan Ridge that I had wanted to climb (2800ft).

This first-winter golden-crowned sparrow Zonotrichia atricapilla is eating grass seeds in my house's lawn. As you can probably tell, my roommate and me aren't exactly the utlimate lawn mower warriors.

In Sitka the fall isn't glorious like it was in Anchorage, but still it can be a nice time of the year in bwtween rain squalls.

I regularly complain about Steller's sea lions Eumetopias jubatus scaring me when I go kayaking, and people don't seem to really believe me. This one didn't touch my kayak, as they have in the past, but it was definitely too close:

I cropped a photo for the first time! on Matt Goff's recommendation I have been using a free program called IrfanView to downsize my pictures, and it works great for cropping too. This fork-tailed storm-petrel Oceanodroma furcata was one of a dozen flitting about my kayak:

This tiny gentian is Gentiana douglasiana:

This is Andrew, the director of Sitka Conservation Society, on a deer-hunting trip around the back of the Starrigavan drainage. We didn't get a deer, but the hike was pretty good.

This beautiful Gentianacea is Swertia perennis:

.

A little glimpse of Mongolian culture

2008-10-05T11:31:00.002-08:00

The Mongolians are very, very proud of their heritage. People kept telling me about the names for different parts of horse equipment, giving me small bills so that I would remember the famous people depicted on them, and the government put up some shows so that the soldiers from all those different country would come away with a broadened knowledge of Mongolian culture. This woman is doing a fascinating snake dance (by the way, many Mongolian women are very beautiful):

I had heard about horse violins before, but this cello version was even cooler:

Definitely my favorite was this concert, with two women dancing to a throat song, acting entranced. It was very, very impressive.

And another dancer:

Finally, an archer shooting the traditional bone bow.

.

"Yurts and ponies"

2008-10-05T10:32:00.006-08:00

The two top questions I get now that I came back from Mongolia are: "Do people live in yurts?" and "Do they ride around on ponies?" Well, no and no. But also yes and yes.

"Yurt" is a Russian word, and it's simply not polite to call their tents that. In Mongolian they are called "ger," pronounced with a strong "g," a short rolling "r," and an almost non-existent "i" that just barely bridges the two consonants.

They ones that are inhabited (not for storage) have stoves, a television, and very often a solar panel or two. Many of them have old motorcycles next to them, a wooden strucure for tying horses, etc.

On the inside there are usually Buddhist altars with pictures of Gods and family members, little prayer wheels, etc. The owner of this ger is not religious (the communists fought Lamaism early on, destroyed temples, and executed thousands of monks), so he has a bunch of pictures and horse riding medals. The container in the middle is full of airag, an alcoholic drink made from fermented mare's milk.

The little ger is the camp store. The big, ornate one in the back is the camp's recreation tent, and the miscellaneous stuff on the ground is another ger, which the storekeeper has taken apart to go back to Ulaan Baatar. It is easy to see in this picture how portable the whole thing is.

Many ger are built in semi-permanent clusters with hard corrals for wintering horses, gear storage, and hay. In this picture, my friend SGT Dirkes gets on a horse, and he guy with a yellow belt is wearing a traditional del.

Which brings me to the ponies. In Mongolia, they're horses (moir), and they're not small. People take offense when they hear that. They are really proud of their horses.

The Mongolian ministry of Defense convinced some local herders to wrangle some horses in the cantonment area. It was a real treat, and I got to watch the guys herd and catch horses fairly close. This picture shows the Mongolian lasso, at the end of a pole.

This man is trying to catch a horse from the ground:

Once the horse is caught, it is submitted by a man on the ground who twists its ears, and ridden bareback by a man (a teenager, often), who either falls or tires the horse.

Everyone in Mongolian horse families, young or old, rides horses.

The kids are put on horses pretty early, and by the time they're ten years old they'll be galloping around the hills.

.

Mongolia post #3: wildlife

2008-10-02T09:07:00.005-08:00

I was largely clueless as to the identity of just about all the plants and wildlife I saw there, but I was sure impressed. This is a huge grasshopper that was common in the area (Tuv Aimag, Altanboulag Soum). This grasshopper looks like a specimen I saw in the Mongolian museum of natural history, which had two labels (!!!): Deracantha onos and Bradyporus multituberculatus. I think it is the latter.

There was a lot of trapping activity by the locals in the area. These kids are looking on in glee as their dad prepares a fairly common local species, the Siberian marmot Marmota sibirica:

Birdwatching on foot in the high steppes of Mongolia is a little bit like pelagic bird watching in the middle of the ocean on a surfboard - not very effective... But I was able to tally about twenty species and caught glimpses of many, many other birds that well, I don't really know what they were...

common kestrel
black-eared kitehill pigeon
rook
Daurian jackdaw
red-billed chough
carrion crow
Eurasian hobby
black-billed magpie
domestic pigeon
Mongolian lark
Eurasian tree sparrowbarn swallow

demoiselle cranegolden eagle
northern wheatear
common raven
isabelline wheatear
great-horned owl (great observation while climbing)pied wheatear
white wagtail
Daurian partridge
horned lark

Mongolia post #2: hiking

2008-09-29T11:40:00.003-08:00

The hiking was incredible around the training area. I was permitted to go hiking after the end of the training day, as long as I organized a group hike with other soldiers. Of course, pictures won't do it justice because like Patagonia the place is much too large to fit within any snapshots, but here are a few things anyway:

First of all, I found a 400ft high slanted slab of marble which made for great and relatively safe rock climbing practice:

This is the view from the top edge of the slab, with Sergeant Dirkes passing through a notch:

On top of most mountains, and along many roads, there are obo, a sort of cairn which have a pole in them, with some Tibetan prayer flags attached to the pole. Whenever we come by one, it is customary to walk around them three times and add a stone to the pile.

Most striking was the vastness of the terrain, so that I was only able to get anywhere after work by running for an hour or two at a time. I felt perfectly safe, since the people there are extremely friendly and always willing to take in a guest. As a result of the size of the place, almost everyone travels by horseback or on motorcycle, and sometimes in 4X4 cars.

.

Training in Mongolia

2008-09-22T09:30:00.006-08:00

Mongolia was fantastic! In fact, I cannot just do one blog post for it so I will do as I did earlier for Torres del Paine - in a few themed posts.

This one is about the training, as the header very explicitly indicates. But I was not really able to take pictures during the training itself for one simple reason - the training was very good, and I didn't have the leisure to go around playing photographer.

First of all - I had been told our platoon would be the trainer platoon. That was not in fact true. The trainers were selected from each participating army - Indian, Nepalese, Mongolian, Thai and US. There was then one trainee platoon from each army, and a lot of Mongolian support. This system worked very well, and all the soldiers were very professional.

This Mongolian officer is telling us during an After Action Review that our Cordon and search method is "bad - very bad." "I made a list" - he says - "of all the things that went right, and all the things that went wrong. Eight things went right, and fourteen things went wrong. Very bad."

The Indian Army was very good - their officers are very proficient, and they have a lot of experience in places like Cashmere.

As for the Nepalese, they have a lot of UN experience in places like Haiti and DRC Congo. They also like to sing and dance, with drums in the tents at night, and with AK-47 magazines if they are stuck in formation long enough.

Many of the UN peacekeeping / peace enforcing TTPs were very similar to US army TTPs. Convoy operations, for example, were just like Iraq but with a blue flag and a different set of rules of engagement:

The range was fun, and I had time to take pictures there. Here is our motor sergeant reading up on the AK-47 and RPK before coming up to shoot:

And I really enjoyed being a safety and trainer for the M4 carbine live fire range. Here, SPC Thompson helps a Mongolian soldier safely clear a feeding malfunction.

The Mongolian army also had shoot the Dragunov sniper rifle. I know, that's not really UN related, but it is a very nice weapon so I was glad I got to shoot it.

The lanes for this exercise were: convoy, checkpoint, aid relief distribution, patrol, cordon and search (contraband interdiction), and disarmement. This is a picture of our platoon with a Mongolian contingent of role players and trainers, and a Nepalese officer, on a UN color BTR-60:

.

More pictures!

2008-08-29T16:28:00.003-08:00

I said I'd post more pictures. But first I have to address a question I'll undoubtedly be getting from people outside Alaska.

What's with Sarah Palin?

Well, I had no idea she would get the VP candidacy, either. In fact, I heard persistent rumors about it months ago, and discounted them with the same certainty that I had resorted to in order to discount the rumors that Lieberman would get that spot on the McCain ticket: "ridiculous - it'll never happen!"

Well, I was wrong, and that's it. I thought for sure McCain would get a credible VP because he's old enough that he could have an incapacitating stroke or something. I thought McCain would get someone with a good economic record (for example, who doesn't mail $3,000 to every state resident). I thought that McCain would pick someone who's not under investigation, and who isn't from a state where it seems that every other GOP official is under investigation.

So much for Alaska voting democrat for the first time in decades! She is still popular enough here that the Obama campaing in this state is largely a waste of funds. Thankfully, there are many opportunities to effect change in local government, in the upcoming October and November ballots for those of you who ar registered to vote here. The Tuesday election was not a total disaster, either.

So I have been working on a boat just like this one (I took a picture of it because it is hard to photograph my own boat, the St. Michael):

Here is a humpback whale, lobtailing off Kita Island:

A gumboot chiton I found kayaking:

An abalone, also found while kayaking:

A whale breaching off Viesokoi Rock:

A photo of orcas that another crewmember took with my camera:

Kayaking heaven, and my kayak hauled out:

One of my favorite bald eagle nests:

An ophiuroidea "brittle star" on a leather star:

A whale's fluke off Vitskari Rock:

And another one, in slightly heavier weather:

I'm leaving town tomorrow, and I'll be overseas in a couple of days or so.

.

A few pictures

2008-08-25T18:00:00.005-08:00

I don't know if this connection is working or not, so here are a few pictures I took of plants around Sitka. If this is successful I will try it again in a few days.

This is Aquilegia formosa, photographed at Silver Bay:

Anemone narcissiflora ssp. Alaskana, photographed on Arrowhead:

Campanula lasiocarpa, also found on Arrowhead:

And Campanula rotundifolia on one of my favorite island groups, the Eckhokms:

The summer of my content happiness

2008-08-12T16:33:00.005-08:00

Hello everyone. My regular coffee shop connection has been refusing to upload pictures to this website, so I will simply give an update.'

It's been a busy summer and I am tired, but I have also enjoyed myself very much. This last weekend the Mongolia contingent went up to Anchorage to do paperwork and health screenings, and the mission is now official, and not classified at all: we'll be in Mongolia for about three weeks next month, helping the Mongolian military in the capstone exercise of their UN certification. Our company will consist of our platoon (US), a Mongolian platoon, and an Indian or Nepalese platoon. This should be a wonderful way to finish this interesting summer.

Some recent highlights of my Sitka Sound adventures have been: a largely fruitless abalone hunt on weather-beaten rocks south of Sitka at very low tide (although I do have some cool pictures of undersize abalone, and horrendous scratches on my kayak to show for it), a couple of good hikes on Verstovia, and pretty good birdwatching from the tour boat on board which I now work - the St Michael. I have learned a lot about botany, but still not nearly enough to really know what I am looking at. In fact, I made a pretty embarrassing mistake last week when I triumphantly announced that I had found a rare Botrychium. Matt Goff politely suggested that it was in fact the very same Cryptogramma I had photographed and posted on this blog last winter.

Quick update

2008-07-26T14:29:00.002-08:00

It's been over a month - once again I just can't get around to updating this site. I just came back from some training, and when I get settled again I will try to finally post some plant pictures.

Bragging about animals I saw at work

2008-06-23T16:59:00.007-08:00

This is simply a list of cool things I saw at work on the boats in the last week and a half or so.

Obviously, this is a mother brown bear with two cubs; they were eating crabs and other intertidal goodies:

And a mink looking for salmon fry at Medvejie:

This is an immature bald eagle:

Here is the back and blowholes of a gray whale:

The back of a humpback whale:

A fantastic bear!

I know; I said I'd post something about interesting plants, but it was easier and quicker to just put this together.

.

Time flies when you're having fun!

2008-06-08T11:45:00.005-08:00

I thought it had only been five days since the last entry, yet I am late again! I have been really enjoying myself, though, and days are flying by much too fast for me to keep track. I finally went up a little mountain called Sugarloaf, which is about 45 minutes away by kayak, and took a picture of a few common plant species, such as this beautiful bull pine (or shore pine) Pinus contorta var. contorta:

I also photographed this dwarf dogwood Cornus canadensis:

And this mountain hemlock Tsuga mertensiana, which is one of my favorite trees:

Here is another bear photo from work:

And a seventeen-pound king salmon caught near Long Island:

I also ran the Medvejie half-marathon, and won it in 1:23'07''. It was a good run, very scenic, mostly on dirt road, and it even got exciting when the safety guy on his bicycle had to chase a brown bear off the course.

A few critters

2008-05-31T13:27:00.005-08:00

It's been hectic with endless days filled with endless work and play. I just love it here in summer. I only did one long kayak trip yet (no time to write about it), and a few great hikes. Sadly, I didn’t have my camera on the best hike of the year yet, so I guess I just have to do it again later...

Anyhow, here's a sea otter I photographed off Inner Point on Kruzof Island:

And some harbor seals on the Parker Group:

A brown bear, in Silver Bay where we have been seeing them about every other day:

A tufted puffin - one of about 150 we saw off Saint Lazaria Island:

.

Work and training at Allen Marine

2008-05-25T15:27:00.005-08:00

I thought I would segregate the things I do a little – this is about my job as a deckhand on the passenger vessel Sea Otter Express, which does tours mostly to the Medvejie hatchery in Silver Bay. In this boat-cleaning picture you can see the naturalist (Ryan), and captain (Russ):

We started the season off with a lot of training; everything was covered from company history to firefighting. This picture is of an evacuation drill, with Alex and Mindy in the foreground:

And here is Pablo, going through fire-fighting practice. We all got to do it, and I thought it was a valuable and fun part of the training:

Finally, here we are in one of the CO2-activated life rafts, after we deployed it in the harbor on a glorious day:

The tour has been good. I am sunburned, and from time to time I find interesting birds, bears, and plants. I even made time to go kayaking, but this is all for another post, when I get around to it.

First post of the 2008 tourist season - finally.

2008-05-17T11:22:00.008-08:00

Once again, I am late posting news to the blog. After the last one about three weeks ago, I went back to Juneau to take my final exams and undergo three days of training with the National Guard. The final exams went very well, except for the twelve-page final philosophy paper on the ethics of ambiguity. An interesting topic, but I just ran out of things to say right around the eighth page. As for training, I scored expert on the M16 marksmanship event (it isn’t a very difficult thing to do, really; about 10% of us get expert), we did some counseling, we had a random drug test for everyone, a physical fitness make-up test, and supply issues to sort out. Overall, it was a rather productive week. I even got to work a little bit for a Sitka store that had a show in Juneau and needed help setting up and breaking down.

Birding in Sitka has been very pleasant, with low numbers, but a rather high diversity of migrants. There have been many surface ducks and shorebirds. I am working on the passenger vessel Sea Otter, which does tours in Silver Bay, South of Sitka. We go down to a salmon hatchery and we don’t see all that much wildlife generally, aside from the occasional bear, an eagle’s nest we like to visit, and the jellyfish, starfish, trees, slugs and birds I like to point out to the tourists.

I'll post a few recent photos to see if this internet connection really is capable of uploading, and then if it works I'll go ahead and put up some plants I promise I'll really do it time seriously this time it's for real I swear I'm definitely undoubtedly without fail going to do it.

Trumpeter swan Cygnus buccinator:

Ruby-crowned kinglet Regulus calendula:

I didn’t get a bear photo yet this year, so here’s a track I found up Indian River:

A week in Sitka

2008-04-26T10:23:00.006-08:00

I just came back from a week in Sitka – during which of course I was enjoying myself too much to update this blog. I really need to force myself to post at least once a week.

I have a new address, a new phone number for when I get back to Sitka (probably May 5), and even a cell phone for my job. If you didn’t get my contact information, just write me an e-mail and I will fix that.

Hiking in Sitka was much better than in Juneau. I even found the giant hemlock! At least, I found a giant hemlock that is most likely the one I’d been told about. It was fairly easy to find, and in fact I was able to go right back to it the next day. Birdwatching was good as well, with the following (common) species photographed:

White-fronted Goose Anser albifrons:

Back-bellied Plover Pluvialis squarotula:

Common Merganser Mergus merganser:

Marbled Godwit Limosa fedoa:

I also got to see Bonaparte’s gulls, rhinoceros auklets, a northern shrike (same as great-grey shrike in the UK), and lots of other neat birds. There were even some early flowering plants, but I am trying to save those up for a later post that would be dedicated to them. Hopefully it doesn’t turn out like Kuwait where I ended up never doing a post on plants…

The next few days will be dedicated largely to final exams and term papers.

Maybe I just shouldn't post anything when there is not much to say...

2008-04-15T18:43:00.004-08:00

I almost missed my weekly post deadline again! Of course, it'd be easier if I had bird pictures...

This has been a very slow week of reading, sleeping, watching TV in the condo (I have become strangely addicted to a show about a guy called Anthony Bourdain who travels all over the world and eats food), and going to school.

Last weekend was a drill weekend, so we organized a hike on the Herbert Glacier trail that would keep us out of reach of the officers. The forest there was very beautiful second growth, smothered in mosses and lichens.

So drill was not very eventful for me, but for Jad it was quite an exciting affair. Apparently, some overpaid, overzealous paperwork clerk up in Anchorage kicked him out of the National Guard without so much as a warning to Jad, or to anyone in the chain of command! Jad joined the Army National Guard without going to basic training because he had been in the US Navy before, and because he had trained with the US Marine Corps, he was deemed OK to join the National guard without going through the Army transition course. So he went through infantry school, warrior leader’s course, and a year in the Middle East without any problem, and now this dim-witted office-dwelling invertebrate tells him he can’t be in the army because he doesn’t have the transition course! This, in my professional opinion, should have been transition enough:

And of course, whenever it isn’t snowing, I can always count on politicians to provide an easy target for my impotent anger. This morning on the radio, McCain was talking about lifting a fuel tax in the summer, and now I’m hearing about more tax breaks for auto makers, airlines and “alternative energy producers” (corn growers, I bet). So this must be the new conservative motto:

“Inflation and debt: two easy ways to make environmental destruction more affordable for everyone!”

Wherein I complain about the snow again

2008-04-08T18:39:00.006-08:00

This is the view out of the window of the “Dark Hole of Despair” condo right now. Isn’t it supposed to be spring? And the snow is merely the culmination of several days of bicycle troubles: flat tire, broken derailleur, flat tire again (I had patched it with flimsy pieces of junk from Walmart), and yet another flat tire, this time from a second hole.

But the last few days have been very good anyhow. Yesterday was the first day of the 2008 Juneau Folk Festival (the third year I attend it, after 2000 and two days in 2006). The Folkfest, as it is generally called, is a week-long series of fun concerts which I love, and this year the poster is by Eric Bealer:

The day before, I went to North Douglas Island with an invertebrate biology class in order to look for animals at a very low tide (and under a cold, incessant rain). It was a successful trip. There were all kinds of weird critters such as 5-foot long blood-red worms, the sea cucumber (Holothuroidea) Eupenctata pseudoquinquesemita:

And the crescent gunnel Photis laeta:

The day before that, Saturday, my landlord and friend Jad took me along on his plane on a trip down to Angoon. It was really fascinating all along the way, especially considering that I know almost nothing about Admiralty Island. This is a photo of Jad getting back on the plane at the float in Angoon.

And before that not so much happened, except that I got to briefly meet Fran Ulmer, our former Lieutenant governor, and an unsuccessful candidate for governor (alas, she lost against the power-hungry crook Frank Murkowski, who as he took over the governorship appointed his own daughter to his senate seat).

Bicycling at last!

2008-04-01T17:36:00.004-08:00

I am trying to get better at making a weekly post on this site. Thankfully, it’s been a good weekend with lots of neat wildlife pictures.

Since I got back from Sitka we’ve been blessed with almost snow-free weather. Many of the smaller lakes are starting to thaw out, the sidewalks are no longer encased in ice, and I can ride my bike! So I have been bicycling everywhere (except on Egan Drive, where I got stopped by the police because apparently it’s off-limits to second-class citizens such as pedestrians and cyclists).

I even got to do some good birdwatching, and found the following animals:

A huge flock of rusty blackbirds Euphagus carolinus:

Some song sparrows Melospiza melodia:

A female wood duck Aix sponsa:

Two dunlins Calidris alpina:

And a river otter Lutra canadensis:

I also saw the northern lights, heard singing varied thrushes, saw American robins, various diving and dabbling ducks, all thanks to being free to come and go in the outdoors on my bicycle.

I also got to meet some neat people around the university, and talk to Diane Benson, another challenger to Don Young. After having looked over a little bit more information, I don’t endorse everything she advocates. Also, her campaign platform seems really lightweight for a national office. However, if she gets the nomination I’d still vote for her before letting Don Young go on in office. Of course, I’d vote for Mickey Mouse before letting Don Young keep his office.

Spring Break in Sitka

2008-03-25T16:20:00.005-08:00

For many university students in North America, Spring Break is a time to go to the beach somewhere warm, get drunk, and act in irresponsible ways (see photo to left of text). Even though airfares were ridiculously expensive, several UAS students I know undertook a pilgrimage to warmer climes (Las Vegas, Cancún, etc.) and came back just a shade darker and (I presume) significantly poorer. One of them actually told me this:

“Man, the booze was so cheap!”

Well, I didn’t want to rain on his parade, but I don’t have to be a math major to figure out the following equation: $1000 plane ticket + $400 hotel - $257.32 in beer money saved = a ridiculously expensive week of drinking.

I have been missing Sitka, so I spent my Spring Break there. It was really nice to get out of Juneau, and I really loved riding the ferry out there and back. We now have a very fast ferry, the M/V Fairweather, which makes the trip between Sitka and Juneau about twice a week in just 4.5 hours instead of 12, which is almost better than flying these days. And I got to see all kinds of wildlife on the way, such as humpback whales, a sea otter, a small pod of killer whales, pigeon guillemots, 2 brown scoters, lots of surf scoters, three black scoters, a few oldsquaws, five black oystercatchers, many common birds, and cool landscapes.

My main activity there was to do volunteer work at the Sheldon Jackson hatchery, a place that raises salmon and has been going through really tough times financially. The SJ hatchery is a non-profit organization which was created to train people in Alaska for jobs in the hatchery business. There are many hatcheries in this area, including one in Silver Bay at the end of the road in Sitka. Their purpose is to raise salmon until they get to a size where mortality is fairly low, so as to ensure greater returns to the streams. In the photo below, I am putting a 1.1 millimeter steel wire tag into the nose of a king salmon which is about the size of a finger. This wire tag is minuscule, and yet it has a long code printed on it which a biologist would read after he has extracted it from the adult fish. Before tagging the salmon, we cut off its adipose fin (the one on the fish’s back behind the dorsal fin) so that tagged fish are easy to spot amidst the catch. There were several of us volunteers present, and we tagged thousands of fishes while I was there.

I wanted to find a piece of property that I could buy, but housing prices are still really high in Sitka, so I decided to wait a little longer. Every piece of property under $200,000 has a problem. Either it is raw land in locations that are difficult to access, or a mobile home (and then I’d have to rent a place to put it on), or something that cannot be bought with a traditional loan because it doesn’t meet building codes (such as a World War II bunker for $150,000). Hopefully prices come down a little, or something will come up that is more reasonably priced.

I had been planning to do a lot of hiking, but in the end I spent very little time on the trails. This is too bad, since the weather was pleasant overall, and even when it snowed and rained it wasn’t too bad, as in this hike in the muskeg by the Starrigavan Estuary:

Temperatures and mood are up throughout the Juneau area

2008-03-10T08:35:00.008-08:00

After a brief and depressing snowfall, Juneau has been blessed with warm weather, rain, and even some sun! Spring is on its way, and soon I will be learning about botany! Last Saturday I went for a hike with Mac up Perseverance trail behind downtown Juneau. In spite of deep snow, we saw a red-breasted sapsucker Sphyrapicus ruber (a migratory species here), alders in bloom, porcupine tracks everywhere, and American dippers Cinclus mexicanus singing in the creek:

I got to do an afternoon of shrimp identification this past week with an invertebrate zoology class; I learned a lot and even identified three or four shrimp myself, but I forgot to take pictures again. I saw two hoary redpolls up close this past week, and didn't have my camera with me of course! However, I took some pictures of ferns on two of my walks.

This one is a small Asplenium viride:

And this is the very common “licorice fern,” Polypodium vulgare or P. glycirrhyza:

Finally, this is a neat Cryptogramma acrostichoides (or C. Crispa var. acrostichoides) I found on our latest hike. The brown leaves in the back are fertile fronds:

And I thought that with almost all news in Alaska politics being bad news (FBI raiding the offices of our elected representatives, etc.), I’d point out that our governor is pregnant! She’s actually quite popular in Alaska (even here in Juneau where she was feared as a proponent of the capital move), and there have been rumors going around that she’ll run with McCain. All right, let’s not get carried away here; she’s got very little experience even for a state politician, and McCain is in his 70’s so his VP should be a credible statesperson.

Crossbills and crooks

2008-02-29T14:28:00.004-09:00

School has been very interesting, with diverse topics in every class. I am currently studying Heidegger, mangrove swamps, the Great Depression, military dictatorships in Argentina and Uruguay, and other things I never knew anything about.

This has been another week of staying indoors, but it is getting warmer again – the last snowfall is gradually melting away again, and next week, Insh’Allah, I should be able to bicycle. A rather bird-poor week, obviously, although a flock of white-winged crossbills Loxia leucoptera did hang out in front of the “dark hole of despair” condo:

This year is full of potential for voters to influence the future. Alaska representative Don Young (R) is being investigated for fraud, and has spent nearly a million dollars of his campaign funds on lawyers to fight off corruption charges. Don Young ranks especially high on my list of despicable people (he told me in a Sitka public meeting that the Alaska rainforest grows back in less than 100 years, and that less than 1% of the Tongass had been logged!), so if you are registered to vote in Alaska, you should check this guy out before letting Don Young continue his 35-year crusade to destroy the environment in Alaska! According to the AP, when Don Young was asked about his spending of campaign money on legal fees, he said this:

“Everybody wants change, what is change?”

Notes from the dark hole of despair

2008-02-19T16:59:00.003-09:00

It is now raining, which is slowly turning the city into a patchwork of slush, ice and bare ground. Everyday there is a little bit more bare ground, but still not enough road is clear to go bicycling without studded tires (of course, as Tom justly pointed out, I am just weak; this crazy woman has no problem with a little ice and snow).

I have largely been an indoor creature lately, studying, vegetating in Jad’s condo, going to downtown bars (quite an adventuresome thing to do, at times), etc. I did restart running (I had been injured since October), but that is also indoors at this time and rather slow. With some luck, I might be able to go to the National Guard marathon trials in May. I even took up indoor birdwatching, looking at passing eagles, siskins, redpolls, chestnut-backed chickadees, Steller’s jays, magpies, and even a heron, through windows at the condo and the university. I took this picture of a Steller’s jay from the condo:

In the same mood of winter depression, we are now calling Jad’s condo “the dark hole of despair”. It really isn’t so bad, but I like it because I had been reading a lot of Kierkegaard when Ian came up with the name.

A few days ago, I did briefly go outside. Ian and I went out to the range to shoot a flak jacket (it stopped a .40 cal round – not bad), and start a fire by rubbing stick together. We had seen a guy do it on television (I know…) and it looked rather feasible, so we went out there and tried. It was simply impossible to find anything dry. Even the relatively dry wood we extracted from the rotting core of living trees (through opening between the roots) turned out to be too wet. Also, the bow just didn’t seem to work; it kept flipping the stick into Ian’s face or slipping and achieving nothing. We gave up.

A good thing that I did was vote in the primary elections for the first time. Primaries are complicated, and usually Alaska only has a symbolic role to play, but this year every state counts. In the American system, registering for a party is free and non-committing, and registered voters basically get to vote twice: one for nomination and once for president. Because we already know with 90% certainty that all Alaska votes will result in one Republican vote in the presidential elections, the primary votes are more important than the presidential votes – especially for Juneau democrats, because of the way that delegate numbers are assigned. So I registered, and went to vote at the primaries. The primaries were a crazy affair, with 1200 registered democrats showing up in spite of a cold, windy day with two feet of snow on the ground. Obama, the candidate I had turned up to vote for, got almost three-quarters of the democratic vote in Juneau (same as the state overall of 74%). That means there were about 900 of us there to vote for him. Polls for the primaries are an old-fashioned, simple, and emotional affair compared to the presidential elections.

Democracy at its best…

Enough snow!

2008-02-04T20:19:00.000-09:00

Many people are enchanted by snow – I honestly would rather it were summer already. I cannot wait to bicycle to the university, walk around in the mountains with plenty of daylight and no ice or avalanches, and step outside without first wrapping multiple layers of fleece over every part of my body. Many days were bitterly cold, and hiking was painful and short, such as a trip out on Mendenhall Lake to check out the icebergs up close:

I thought my nose was going to freeze off on that one hour mini-adventure.

I then went back up the side of Mount Juneau to look for the goats, with Ian and Mac. It was a fun hike even though I was not wearing crampons and I kept sliding. I just tried to stay off the ridge where it was most icy and dangerous. The photo below is from the bottom of the trail that we started from. Ian and Mac are standing in front of an old gold mine tunnel.

I went back to Mendenhall flats, and once again I was absolutely freezing. This time I didn’t see any unusual birds at all, so I just walked around in the snow with Ian.

Most of my time is taken up by school, though, and some of my classes are very interesting. In decreasing order of interest they are: introduction to oceanography, history of the US II, Spanish conversation, literature and the sense of place, poetry studies. Of course, it isn’t so much the topic that makes a class more interesting than another, as the instructor and material.

And Jad – the pilot who owns the place that Ian and I are sleeping on - just got back this morning. For Ian it is bad news because now he has to sleep on the couch. As for me, I hardly know anyone in Juneau so I am happy to have another familiar face around. So far I only know a handful of Army buddies, and Roman, another Sitka “expatriate.”

As far as long-term plans are concerned, I have some vague ideas which are subject to change of course. I am planning to go to Sitka over spring break (late March) and look at perhaps finding a chunk of land that I could buy. Of course, everything there is VERY expensive, so I may or may not be successful in that particular endeavor.

Schoolwork and a little bit of sunshine

2008-01-22T17:13:00.000-09:00

School has been a lot of work, but I did escape for three very short hikes over the weekend to take advantage of unusually good weather.

First, I went to a couple of beaches with Ian and Mac. It is a bit strange to go to the beach when there is snow on the ground, but I really enjoyed it. I even found a few ferns. I am looking forward to start studying botany when there are more plants around.

I then went for a walk out the mudflats by the airport. I didn’t see any rare birds (apparently, there might be a McKay’s bunting out here), but I did find some brant and a shoveler, although they shouldn’t be here in the winter. I was also very, very lucky to see a pod of orca whales out in the distance, just beyond a group of scoters that I was unsuccessfully trying to identify. I also took the mandatory bald eagle photo. Yes, I am a little sick of bald eagle pictures, but after all – they are pretty cool looking.

I then went with Mac to look for mountain goats on the side of Mount Juneau. It was quite a fascinating trip. Mac knows a lot about the local area (he grew up here), and about the mountain goats (he's been paying close attention to their movement for a long time). Mountain goats are - to my surprise - mostly a forest-dwelling animal here. They spend most of the year in forested slopes close to cliffs over which they can escape. It was odd to see mountain goat tracks, feces, and sleeping spots all over the forest, and to need crampons to negociate ice-covered ridges in the trees!

Living and studying in Juneau

2008-01-16T22:29:00.000-09:00

It has been a tough change coming from Chile to Juneau. I knew things were going to be hard when I walked out of the Los Angeles airport for a connection and I was cold. And I knew things were going to be really hard when I walked out of the Sitka airport and everything was dark and smothered in snow.

I only stayed in Sitka for a couple of days, which I used to do paperwork and get ready to move. I took advantage of the fact that my Spanish was still fresh to take a Spanish language test, and I scored high enough to obtain four semesters’ worth of Spanish credit. At the end of this semester (in May – an American semester is actually a trimester), I should be only two classes short of graduation, and I should be able to get my diploma in August. That would be a bachelor of liberal arts, with a minor in Spanish and an emphasis in English.

Juneau is rather depressing in the winter. I live in a chunk of suburbia in Mendenhall Valley and study at UAS at Auke Bay. The distances here are too great for walking and the roads and sidewalk are coated with ice or covered with snow, so I have to take the bus everywhere, in the dark, in a city that I don’t know. Even when the sun is out, everything is in black and white, as this photo of Auke Lake from the university:

And I forgot to tell everyone that I met Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez in a bar in Santiago! I thought his populist stuff was just an act, but he really seems to be an outgoing, friendly person:

Just kidding! That’s just some guy who happens to look a little like him.

The Chile trip is officially over :(

2008-01-08T05:22:00.000-09:00

Well, I got back to Sitka last night, and now I am planning to move to Juneau to study. Two reasons to be a little wistful, but I am curious to see what is going to happen.

So after I left Torres del Paine, I took a six-hour bus trip to Punta Arenas (the largest city in the region), and then a thirty-some hour bus trip to Valdivia, where I just walked around, drank excellent local beers, and ate a fish that made me horribly sick for a couple of days. My next destination was the Cajon del Maipo, but by the time I got there I was just too weak to do any high-altitude hiking so I went to Santiago to relax for my last few days. In the end, the bus trip was basically just a long exercise in suffering. The only upshots are that I saved a lot of money by not flying, and that I saw the Coscoroba swan and the lesser seedsnipe during a maintenance stop in the middle of the pampa in Argentina.

Santiago is, well, a big city. I spent a lot of time walking, drinking coffee, reading, and taking advantage of cultural activities such as museums, street performers, a representation of "Twelfth Night" in Russian with subtitles in antiquated spanish (my first play with subtittles - very odd), literary cafes, etc. But I missed the simplicity of my volunteering days, people were just not very friendly, and even in the city "green belt", drinking untreated river water was just out of the question.

I then went to Valparaiso because I was feeling better and well, it's a mythical city after all, I just couldn't miss it. Valparaiso was indeed quite fascinating, with lots of interesting people and things to do. There was even a little of birding to do, with inca terns and grey gulls in the harbor. I went to see a free puppet show at Neruda's house , which was by far the best live show I have seen during this entire trip. The kids in the audience were half the fun, as they kept talking to the characters and the artists who would talk back, shift roles, and exploit zones of ill-defined identity (for lack of a better term). For example, the character of the devil exists, and doesn't exist, inhabits other puppets, and then tells the kids that the devil doesn't exist - it's just a character some puppeteers chose to represent evil. But then again, as the kids will tell him loudly - he obviously is the devil!

I also went to Viña del Mar, and to see natural stands of Ocoa palm trees.

On my last day, when I had finally recovered some strength and appetite, I went hiking in Parque Nacional La Campana near the charming town of Olmue, where I made a light and fast (2.5 hours to the top) ascent of Cerro La Campana, a rather unimpressive 1800 meter mountain (1400 meters from the base) that is mostly known for having been climbed by Darwin.

I was hoping to see a giant hummingbird on the mountain. I didn't, but I was not disappointed because I made incredible observations of moustached turca, dusky tapaculo, aplomado falcon, and many birds I had seen before such as the white-throated tree-runner which is uncommon this far north. I also saw a lot of interesting plants, such as this interesting solanacea, Schizanthus hookeri:

Parque Nacional Torres Del Paine (1 of 3)

2008-01-01T06:34:00.000-09:00

It’s been a long time since the last post, because I was in Torres Del Paine national park. I was there volunteering with an association called Agrupación Medio Ambiental Torres Del Paine. There was too much there to tell and I have little faith in the internet connection here, so I decided to make more than one post.

One is about park itself, one about the work with AMA, and one about the wildlife. That should work.

The hiking was incredible. We worked cycles of eleven days on, four days off. I myself worked two of the eleven day cycles, and hiked for four days. I also hiked in the evenings, and we did one early morning hike to the top of Cerro Paine Chico (in the back of the picture below). The yellow flower is Mullinum spinosum, and the red is Rumex acetellosa. This is a typical burned lowland.

The ascent of Cerro Paine Chico was our early morning hike. We started at 0120 and climbed by flashlight, and summited at 0510. This is a photo of another volunteer, Elias from Spain, at the top of Cerro Paine Chico with a nice view of the famous Torres Del Paine. The Cerro Nido de Condor, and a small piece of the Monte Almirante Nieto.

On my four days off, I did a nice hike to some parts of the park that I hadn’t yet seen before. This is a photo from my favorite part, the Valle Bader. From left to right, the mountains in the picture are the Cuerno Norte, La Mascara, La Hoja, and La Espada. The best part of the Valle Bader is that I didn’t see a single other tourist in there.

And this is the view coming down from Valle Bader, with the Lago Nordenskjold and a “fosforito” shrub in the foreground. A very nice place, and the Cuerno Este side has no trail at all.

This is another one of my favorite parts of the park – a small, easily accessed, and little-seen area to the South of Guarderia Laguna Amarga. Over there, I found interesting plants, rocks, animals, and even cave paintings.

Trail work with AMA

2008-01-01T05:07:00.000-09:00

The Agrupación Medio Ambiental Torres Del Paine is a non-profit organization that is linked to the owners of the estancia Las Torres, a private landholding within the park. I decided to volunteer for them because a lot of the things I had been doing before felt overly touristy and artificial. I didn’t save the world or anything, but this was really a fun experience and I got to practice my Spanish a whole lot more than before. Oh, and it was free, too. We were provided with a place to camp and three meals a day. Besides a little bit of work on an interpretative trail, almost all of our work was in the Valle del Asencio:

All the work we did during the month of December was trail work. We built most of a new trail, improved a planned detour, and tried to get the section of trail downhill from the Paso De Los Vientos under control by filling in the side trails with debris and improving the main trail. This was not the funnest part of the work, but probably the most urgent one. In the photo below, we are taking rocks out of the main trail so that pack horses don’t have to be driven through side trails:

Here Elias from Spain and his wife Bridget from the US are emplacing pieces of wood in the side trails that were opened by horses and people that were frustrated by the main trail. We used a lot of dead Nothofagus wood, which is left over from when the early settlers burned the native forest to make pastures.

This is our supervisor, Daniel, a very nice guy from Punta Arenas, and a good “jefe”. He is cutting a fallen tree on the trail that we built:

Three of the volunteers were from Spain, two from the United States, and two from France. Besides one girl from the United States who didn’t work with us very long, we all spoke Spanish. This is Rodrigo, a botanist from Madrid, and the skull of a skunk Conepatus humboldtii that I found while looking for austral pigmy-owl pellets:

And this is Séverine, a French volunteer, digging rocks and islands of vegetation out of the main trail to put them into the secondary trails and facilitate regrowth:

Wildlife in Parque Nacional Torres Del Paine

2008-01-01T04:07:00.000-09:00

Because we were fortunate enough to have a botanist along with us on the work crew, I got to improve my knowledge of botany a little bit. There are many interesting plant species in the park, and we were there at the perfect time to see the majority of them in bloom. This one, for example, is the amaryllidacea “Mariposa del campo” Alstroemaeria patagonica:

This one is the scrophulariacea Calceolaria biflora (same genus as the flower in the previous post, which was C. uniflora. C. tenella is common as well):

And this is the common proteacea shrub Embothrium coccineum:

I didn’t take many bird photos, because I didn’t bring my camera with a zoom lens (wise choice, as I would have spent half the time taking photos). But I just had to take pictures of the Darwin’s rhea Pterocnemia pennata. I also saw the Baird’s sandpiper, the scale-throated earthcreeper, the Patagonian sierra-finch, the mourning sierra-finch, the grass wren, several austral pigmy-owls, a white-throated tree-runner, lots of South American snipes, the striped woodpecker, and the cinnamon-vented ground-tyrant.

There were not a lot of mammals there for a national park. A month in Denali National Park, for example, would provide one with the chance to see a small zoo’s woth of species. In Torres Del Paine I saw mice, tracks of the huemul deer, puma tracks, and a lot of foxes like this Pseudalopex griseus pup:

The dominant mammal in the low parts of the park was the guanaco. I saw many, many, many guanacos. The young guanacos here are called Chulengo:

And I am leaving on the eighth of this month.

¡Patagonia!

2007-12-04T05:32:00.000-09:00

I hadn´t even planned to go to Patagonia, but here I am... I spent the rest of my time in Chiloé visiting the same northern areas, and making a short side trip to Castro. I just loved the hiking along the cliffs, beaches and countryside of the village of Puñihuil from which people go see the pingüineras.

From Chiloé I went back to the mainland, to Puerto Varas for just a day, and then down to Puerto Montt, where I took the ferry to Puerto Natales in Southern Patagonia. I just couldn´t resist the temptation of a three-day ferry ride through the islands of southern Chile. (Et oui, Joseph, pour repondre à ta question, tu devrais retourner et prendre le Navimag. Je crois que ça va bien te plaire. Aussi, envoie-moi ton adresse et je vais t´envoyer ton bouquin). I rode the ferry “Magallanes,” which was up until recently known as the “Evangelistas” as is still written on the boat and the life rings.

The “Magallanes” is not a pretty boat, but it did the job rather well. Most of the trip was flat water, except for an eight-hour crossing of the Golfo de Penas where we encountered some oceanic swell that tended to slam into the bow. The majority of the passengers was tourists, so at times it felt a bit like a floating youth hostel, which was not necessarily a bad thing. The ferry never deviated its course for marine mammals, so I couldn´t identify for sure any of the ones I saw, but it did make a side trip to the PioXI glacier, and I saw lots of good pelagic birds such as the black-browed albatross (very numerous), pink-footed shearwater, Chilean skua (one of the McCormick´s species), southern giant petrel, southern fulmar, cape petrel, and best of all, three royal albatrosses! The route was very beautiful, but the gigantic scale of the mountains and islands, and the windy, rainy, cloudy weather made almost all photography efforts ridiculous. This is a small village in the Patagonian islands – our only stop between Puerto Montt and Puerto Natales (can you tell I like the boats here?).

This is going to be long… I then went into Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, where I hiked a 5-day circuit that took me around the back of the mountains, but not in the more heavily visited valleys. Once again, everything is enormous, and about half of my pictures are of little things like flowers.

And yes, of course, there are interesting birds here as well. Lots of condors, magullan geese, ashy-headed geese and nandús, but also some Chilean flamingo, Magellanic tapaculo, black-chested buzzard-eagle, cinereous harrier, dark-faced ground-tyrant, Magellanic woodpecker, Magellanic oystercatcher (notice a trend yet?), etc… And outside the park, there are guanacos everywhere. They are just incredible! The best part is that I get to observe very cool behavior, such as an owl flying about and looking at me, a pair of Magellanic woodpeckers peeling a dead tree just a few meters away, rayaditos in their nests, a fire-eyed diucon scrubbing a huge, hairy caterpillar on the ground before eating it, Magullan geese with their chicks, etc. I hardly ever needed binoculars, as most birds didn´t seem to care that I was there. Oh, and the Nothofagus forests were amazing, and there were many species of cool plants. Julien would have loved it.

Too much to tell!

2007-11-23T13:04:00.000-09:00

A lot happened since I left Concepción. First I went to Los Angeles with Dennis the Dutchman, and we made an attempt to climb Volcán Atuco (almost 3000 meters). Antuco is a perfect volcano in Parque nacional Lago del Laja. However, we ran into some trouble when the bus took about three times as long as we´d been told it would take, when we didn´t have too much luck hitch-hiking into the park, and finally when the clouds moved in on us as we were about two-thirds of the way up. Oh well, it was a beautiful climb nonetheless, and a fun slide back down to the snowline. We also saw two condors!

We then went to Pucón, which is home to another famous volcano. Antuco is most famous for having killed 17 Chilean soldiers who were caught in bad weather during an ascent, and Volcán Villarica is famous for its accessibility and constant activity.

Volcán Villarica is off-limits to independent climbers, so we had to hire a mountain guide (a great Swiss guy called Tobias). The weather was stunning, and we made it to the top in less than five hours. Sadly, the noxious gases were getting swirled around so bad that I didn´t get to see magma inside the crater, but I brought a nice bottle of wine up there and some cups, so we celebrated in the middle of clouds of hot, sulphurous smoke at about 2900 meters.

I then went to some really nice hot springs (two bottles of wine, this time, and lots of cups), some nice little hikes, and a half-day hike in Parque Nacional Huerquehue. The goal of visiting this park was to see wild Araucarias (monkey puzzle trees). It sounds strange to go look for “wild” trees, I know… But these trees are just awesome, prehistoric, and in the mountains they grow much larger than the largest one I had ever seen before. And they die! I know that all trees die, but seeing giant dead Auraucarias rotting on the ground is strangely fascinating. The forest s a mix of Araucarias and Nothofagus, with a bamboo understory. I also got to see black-throated huet-huet, the Chucao tapaculo, and lots of white-crested elaenias and austral parakeets.

I then went to Valdivia, which was very pretty and great place to party with Chilean students and relax. I had a great time just visiting sites of local cultural interest, and reading my book. The highlight was a visit to some old Spanish forts. I also made the mistake of signing up for an organized tour to an isolated farming town on an island in the delta. It sounded good, but all the other passengers were little old Chilean ladies whose only concern was to harvest medicinal and decorative plants from the woods, the roadside, and even people’s gardens! So that´s what we did - for two hours. At least there were dozens of black-necked swans…

I then went to a small place in the countryside North of Puerto Octay, on the shores of Lago Llanquihue. It is a beautiful place, dominated by Volcán Osorno, and very fertile and peaceful.

As you can probably guess, I wanted to climb Osorno, but I ran into Sep, a German mountain guide who had been beat down by a storm along with a world-class climber the day before, only fifty meters from the top. So I got wise, and did a day-long bicycle trip to Frutillar over backroads, and a nice hike up a side-crater of a much smaller volcano in Parque Nacional Puyehue with Sep and a Canadian traveller. Some good birds there were the condor, Chilean flicker, and the Chilean tinamou.

I struck a friendship with Joseph, the Canadian guy, and we went down to the island of Chiloé. I am now in Ancud, in the north of the island. It´s been amazing birding without even trying. Magellanic penguins, Humboldt penguins, Magellanic diving-petrels, kelp geese with their chicks, flightless steamer ducks, etc, etc. Oh, and the place is beautiful, too. Like all of Chile so far.

And for last: a nice comparison of Humboldt´s and Magellanic penguins. I didn´t bring my camera with the zoom lens because I knew I´d be taking bird pictures the entire time. But I went out to a colony with a skiff and I was sooooo close!

First week in Chile

2007-11-11T14:47:00.000-09:00

Santiago was great, but so far my favorite place is Armerillo, near Talca, where I stayed at a small place called Refugio del Tricahue. There is a really large Nothofagus dombeyii there, which soundeed just like the giant hemlock that I can never find. "It´s up the valley", they told me. "It´s the biggest tree there, but you might not find it." Well I found it, so I took the photo to prove it!

I also found all sorts of neat things which where completely new to me. Like burrowing parrots, plain-mantled tit-spinetails, torrent ducks, dark-bellied cinclodes, thorn-tailed rayayditos, etc. Ad infinitum. As you may see from the picture below, the place was really nice too. This is one of the more open valleys that I walked through with a Dutch friend that I met in Santiago:

I am now in Talca with Dennis the Dutchman and a cool Argentinian girl named Emilia. Among many other things we went to Lota to visit the old coal mines of Chiflón del Diablo, walk around on the beach, and visit the town. Here we are in the coal mine:

Leaving Sitka!

2007-11-05T08:14:00.000-09:00

I'm trying to update this once a week, but it can be a struggle. If the airline gods are propitious I should be going to Chile in a few hours.

In the past week there were a couple of good hikes, but the highlight was definitely Whalefest, a cycle of conferences on marine mammals that I attended. There was some whalewatching involved (we even got to see a gray whale right up close and fluking, which is rather unusual here in this time of the year), but the conferences were the main attraction. What I found most fascinating was information about PBDE concentrations in killer whales, and the significance of underwater noise from mineral exploration.

Although there were at least a couple dozen humpback whales, I didn't take a single picture of one. But here's a picture of downtown Sitka seen from the water:

My Russian friend Roman got married yesterday, when it was beautiful weather like this. He proposed underwater, married on Castle Hill in the sun (Castle Hill is where Alaska was transferred to US ownership), the big ceremony will be on a boat in Sitka Sound, and they're going to Hawai'i. Sadly, I didn't take any pictures.

Sitka fun

2007-10-30T11:23:00.000-08:00

It’s been a fun few days for me here in Sitka in spite of the near constant rain. I’ve been reading, swimming at the pool, eating out for just about every meal, birdwatching, hiking, partying, gossiping, and just relaxing.

I went with Matt (who has an interesting blog called Sitka Nature) and Gregory to look for the giant hemlock. Apparently, there is a record-sized hemlock in the Indian River drainage. Well, it’s the second time that I go there to find it, and the second time that I don’t find it. As Kitty asked me: “How can you not find it? It’s the biggest tree in the forest!”

The upside is that I have now explored the area enough that I am positive I will find it next time. And we saw all kinds of cool things out there, including this waterfall. It had been raining all morning so the stream was running so strong that the noise by that waterfall was deafening. Look just to the right of the center of the picture, and you’ll see Matt climbing up it.

Another high point was the Stardust Ball. That’s basically Sitka’s Halloween Party, which this month was on the 27th. The Stardust ball was simply crazy. There were all kinds of crazy costumes. There were people dressed up as fried eggs, dock pilings, Lara Croft, fish boxes, tourists, and even a pregnant woman dressed up as an oven! And of course, there was lots of dancing and alcohol, and a hilarious lip-synch contest. As you can guess from the picture below, Noelle went as a vampire, and yes, I am the blue Disco King! I even wore big high-heeled boots! Of course, my shins are still sore from the boots, but it was well worth it.

I also finished my very first carving project. It is the Tlingit-style bear mask below, which I had started in 2003 but never finished. I was not very happy with it so I did a bunch of other art projects while that bear mask lingered in my bags. But in the end I picked it back up and finished it yesterday, under the supervision of Tommy Joseph. It turned out pretty nice after all:

Back in Sitka!

2007-10-26T08:49:00.000-08:00

It’s been really good here in Sitka for the past week. It was a bit strange coming into Sitka on a bright, sunny day, and with a brass band playing in the airport to welcome us back. Well, at least, to welcome some of us back. Of the ten people that left together to go to Iraq, two didn’t make it through medical screening (Petersen and Llewllyn), one had to go back early (Carson), and of the remaining seven only Sommerville and me came back on the scheduled flight.

I got an answer for my last bird pictures in Kuwait: The redstart was a common redstart, and the shrike was most likely an isabelline shrike! That shrike sure looked like a red-backed to me, but thanks to Julien and the book, I now know better.

As always, there are a lot of interesting things to do in Sitka. I attended an interesting totem pole inauguration ceremony. The pole was carved by Tommy Joseph, my carving teacher. I’ll try to go take pictures of it some other day and put them up in this blog.

Another great event was a Zen meditation practice and tea ceremony by a Japanese Buddhist monk. One of his ancestors was the captain of a Japanese seal hunting boat that sank in the harbor next to the University. The boat had been seized for poaching, and the captain killed himself on the way back to Japan out of shame that the expedition had failed. The highlight of the meditation practice was getting hit on the shoulders by a long, slender wooden paddle. It doesn’t hurt, yet it is strangely effective when I start to lose focus and think about my aches and pains.

I took some pictures on my walk from the house to Totem Park yesterday:

I got this photo of a male lesser scaup at Swan Lake:

I then saw a bunch of harlequin ducks on a rock close to shore in front of the SJ salmon hatchery:

And just before getting to the park, I found some interesting mushrooms that are probably Helvella lacunosa. They were growing in grass by the sidewalk, under a birch, a spruce and a hemlock:

Going home!

2007-10-18T07:29:00.000-08:00

I'm almost home! It has been a long, tiresome process. We started by shipping all our stuff out of Kuwait, and moving out of our barracks. We spent over a day homeless, waiting for our flight out of Kuwait. This involved a lot of lounging around, drinking coffee and - for the more talented ones among us - playing poker or the guitar.

We then flew out to Mississippi, which was a long, uneventful flight. We did, however, stop in Ireland for a couple of hours. Many of our soldiers were very excited because they claim Irish ancestry, and as they walked around the airport giftshop they oohed, aahed, and commented on how good it feels to return to the homeland. Other people simply stood in front of the alcoholic drinks and stared as if hypnotized. We eventually left, although my friend Ian from Juneau briefly considered taking over the plane and returning to Ireland for good.

Mississippi was blissfully green and comfortable. We were there for about six days mostly to resolve paperwork, health and supply issues before going home. Of course, we had to endure another ceremony with dignitaries both military and civilian, but this one was mercifully short and I soon went back to meandering through the woods, where I found neat things such as armadillos, deer, Drosera sp. sundew carnivorous plants, beautiful tulip trees, skunks, turtles, and much more. It is a real treat to be overwhelmed by an ecosystem where the diversity is so great that it would be unthinkable to make an exhaustive list of everything I see from where I stand.

I am now in the Houston airport, waiting for a plane to Seattle, and I should be in Sitka within 24 hours. I just can't wait.

A few things before leaving

2007-10-06T03:41:00.000-08:00

Fifteen months after I reported for duty at the Sitka armory with a six-pack of beer in one hand and a duffel bag in the other, we're almost done with our deployment. Our replacement unit is trained up and in place, and all we have left to do is ship all our stuff out of the country, clean weapons, turn in equipment, do paperwork, etc...

Today was the award ceremony, that dreaded day where everyone lines up for trinkets. As always when we have formations, the weather was awful and the ceremony needlessly long. Two people passed out from the heat. Sergeant Metcalfe took the above photo. It is of specialist Hahn receiving an Army Achievement Medal from LTC Osborn, our battalion commander. This award is usually called AAM in the Army, and rates very low. Most people got AAMs and other puny awards. I was quite angry to find that most of the awards were very poorly written. Several people found out that they were credited for nothing in particular, had their names misspelled, or were credited with insignificant achievements. For example, mine states that I won second place in my weight category at a stairmaster competition, but not that I was a team leader or that I volunteered for the mission in Southern Iraq. One of the guys in my squad (I am a squad leader right now) even has someone else's name and achievements written into his paperwork. No wonder we didn't get any good awards!

On a more positive note - I found some flowers! Almost all the vegetation has been dead for months, but the Cornulaca leucacantha have remained mostly green, and they just flowered a couple of weeks ago (hint: look for yellow spots). Of course, it's not tulips or hibiscus, but you can't be picky in the desert after several months of zero precipitation.

And finally - a laughing dove Streptopelia senegalensis. They are flying through in large numbers right now, along with a few small flocks of turtle doves Streptopelia turtur. They are very easily frightened, so although they are rather common I never did get a good picture of one. I can't blame them; I'd probably be easily frightened as well if I were a defenseless bird flying through a country full of shotgun-toting Kuwaitis.

We're taking the internet satellite dish down in a few hours, and leaving Kuwait for good in a few days. Next stop: Mississippi!

Ramadan mubarak!

2007-09-29T05:38:00.000-08:00

I haven't had much time to do anything lately, thanks to a soldier who made a mistake while I was supposed to supervise him. The specialist - who shall remain unnamed of course - fired his rifle while attempting to clear the ammunition out of it.

Happens from time to time? It's okay, he was tired? I was just distracted? There's no such thing in the army. In fact, losing control of one's weapon in any form is the infantryman's capital sin.

So far we've both had about thirty hours of extra, which really isn't so bad but enough to deprive us of a bunch of sleep, and the final punishment hasn't yet been decided but it's looking like it will be unusually light (normally, rank and pay are taken away).

I haven't been bringing my camera most days, but I did get a few pictures anyways.

The birds have stopped dying off. It was fun walking around and pulling dead warblers, shrikes, egrets, quails, etc. , but it was also starting to get a little depressing. Now I see a lot of hawks, including a black-shouldered kite Elanus caeruleus, but mostly it is the same warblers, buntings, shrikes and wheatears as in the spring except that the numbers are lower. Also I made the mistake of shipping my field guide out with a bunch of gear. So the buzzards, pitpits, brown warblers, and eagles are all sp. I couldn't even put a name on the dozens of redstarts that showed up one day. Julien - do you know if this is just a colorful subspecies of the black redstart?

And I am pretty sure that this is a juvenile red-backed shrike Lanius collurio.

In other news, it is now Ramadan. I though about trying to observe Sawm for a few days, but it would be really dificult because I work a really long shift and the breaking of the fast (iftar) is right in the middle of my already insufficient sleep. Also, we don't get breakfast until after sunrise. Maybe after we're off mission. After all, it'll still be Ramadan until well into October.

The Kuwaitis are generally okay with us eating and drinking in the middle of the day while they themselves gradually fade away in the heat, but we try to eat and drink only when we are away from them. Public violations of Ramadan are explicitly prohibited by military regulations and Kuwaiti civil law, but most of us don't care about those ridiculous rules. It's usually better to informally enforce sensible conduct instead.

Thankfully, the temperatures have been going a little further down and the days are a little bit shorter, so this year's Ramadan isn't as bad as it will be in, for example, 2010 (in August!). My best Ramadan experience, so far, is chasing and catching the terrified ewe in this picture. She was later killed and cooked, but sadly I wasn't there for iftar so I missed the resulting meal.