A cow moose stands outside the house in Anchorage, Winter, Alaska (Alces alces). Please click on the image here to view a larger version of the photo.

Hey Folks,

A fun post.

After all the tromping around in the mountains and wilds of Alaska, carrying way too much weight and camera gear around the hills trying to photograph wildlife, I tried a new approach. Let the animals come to me! So here, taken from the window of the house, a cup of coffee in one hand and my camera in the other, is a cow moose. Anchorage, Alaska.

Now, I wonder if I can get this same technique to work on a pack of wolves!

Cheers

Carl

Hey folks,

Here’s a short video from our Canning River Trip, in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. We spend anywhere from 10 days to 2 weeks in the refuge, depending on the year, and a little video like this doesn’t even touch the surface of the trip. But hopefully it catches at least a little of the feel of the trip.

Because of the nature of the logistics here, typically, the maximum number of people on this trip is 3, plus your guide. If you have more than 3 people, please call or email to discuss trip options.

Enjoy the video. I just recorded the music for it this afternoon; hope you like it.

Cheers

Carl

Grizzly bear rubbing on a tree, Katmai National Park, Alaska. Please click on the photo for a larger version.

Hey Folks

Welcome to April! The Image of the Month for this month is a grizzly bear rubbing his head on a tree. I photographed this bear sleeping not long before I took this photo, and after he woke up, he strolled directly over to this small Black Cottonwood tree, and rubbed and scratched on it for quite some time. I got a few photos of him standing at full height, which is an impressive sight for a bear this size. I’d estimate him to be well over 9′ tall.

April is the month the bears typically will be waking up from their long winter hibernation, and start moving around again. Won’t be long before my sojourns into the woods will again require my can of bear spray in my pocket. This bear had just awoken, so I thought it might be a good photo of the month for April for that reason.

Bear hibernation is a pretty amazing phenomena. No other animal anywhere near the size of the grizzly can sleep an entire winter away, living off it’s fat reserves, stored up from a summer of eating. Some folks argue that grizzlies (and black bears) aren’t true hibernators, because they actually wake up during the winter, and their body temperatures don’t reach down to the temperatures of other (what we call) “true hibernators”, like the Arctic Ground Squirrel, etc. Other people contend that given it’s size and mass, the grizzly is probably the greatest hibernator on the planet.

However we refer to it, I’m not sure the grizzly cares.

Cheers

Carl

2 red fox (Vulpes vulpes) kits playing and fighting outside a den on the coastal plain, at sunset, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), Alaska. Please click on the image to view a larger version of the photo.

Hey Folks,

Here is a photo from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge I took one evening, around 1am. These red fox kits were playing just outside their den, and I spent quite a bit of time, patiently trying to get close enough to photograph them. These foxes were pretty wary, and if I approached too quickly they’d duck down into their den. The interconnected network of burrows meant they could, and would, popup anywhere, often 50-60 yards away a few minutes later.

Red foxes appear to be moving further and further north with the warming climate; longer summers and less harsh weather in the winters means they’re able to survive where previously they didn’t. The red fox is larger than their arctic cousins, the Arctic fox, and are (apparently) starting to cause quite a dent in the population of arctic fox, in some areas. Each year I’ve been to the coastal plain I have seen fewer arctic foxes than the year before, and seen more red foxes than previously.

Of course, both the species are cute, but it’s a shame to see the arctic fox, which is such an amazing survivor, threatened by this larger species. Arctic foxes can stand in temperatures down as low as minus 40degrees F, and exhibit no changes in their metabolism at all. That’s insane (the muskox does the same down to minus 70, but they’re MUCH larger body sized, and have incredibly long thick coats – they LOOK like they might be able to do something like that).

I’m hoping I can find this fox den again this summer when I visit the Refuge;  I have a rough idea where it is, and maybe we’ll get lucky and find some new fox kits to photograph. If you’re interested in the ANWR trip, please contact me asap, as we have one space left at the moment. It’s always a treat to visit the Refuge, and I’m keen as mustard to get back there again. We travel by raft all the way from the Continental Divide in the Brooks Mountain range to the coast at the Beaufort Sea, and it’s simply a fantastic trip.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the red fox kits photo above.

Cheers

Carl

A grizzly bear approaching along Brooks River, Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Click on the image to see a larger version.

Hey Folks,

OK, I’ve moved the Image of the Month page to here for now; I’m in the process of overhauling the site, and will gradually either remove or shift the older Image of the Month pages to the blog. I think that will make them easier to  keep a handle on. So that’s the plan, for now. It’s simply too difficult to keep up with the Image of the Month on a static html page, and keep re-writing it, during the summer months when we’re hiking and backpacking all the time. So I think this format will work better. I hope so.

So we can start off the Image of the Month, for December 2009, with this grizzly bear photo I shot last fall, in October, in Katmai National Park and Preserve. I just posted recently about the Grizzly Bears in the Fall phototour for next year, 2010, and it should be a great time to go back and photograph these amazing creatures once again.

Thanks folks – hope you’re all getting set for a great holiday upcoming, have all your winter gear ready, and stay warm. Temperatures hit nearly minus 40 over in Wrangell – St. Elias National Park last month. Ouch!

Cheers

Carl

hey Folks,

Just a quick post before I disappear for a couple of weeks. The blog will slow down even more the next few months, as I’m too busy hiking and photographing to get much posting done, but I’ll try to update it from time to time.

Anyway, here’s a photo I took a few days ago, when I was lucky enough to find a few Great Horned Owl fledglings, just learning to fly, and not far from their nest. The light wasn’t so great, but these little guys were SO cute! I’ll probably not run into them again as they’ve gained their wings and are heading off on their own before too long. I’m about to head off for a trip for 2 weeks, then heading up to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for 2 weeks, which I can’t WAIT to do, so in the meantime, have fun, stay safe, and enjoy the mountains.

Cheers

Carl