Archive for the ‘Small Mammals’ Category
Friday, September 25th, 2009
Hey Folks,
Here’s one for you while I’m gone – gone off on a secret “end of season” retreat. I am super excited about this trip, but can’t tell you much about it until I return. It should be awesome. Sooooo …
In the meantime, this photo is of a weasel (or ermine), from Skolai Pass. Member of the mustelid family, the Least Weasel is the coolest little critter . imagine a small, sleek ferret on crack. I’ve never tried to photograph an animal where I go so many images of his behind, as he raced off, or even with the animal completely gone .. this guy was SO fast, I barely managed to catch him at all .. the few moments he’d stop, look around, pose, and be gone, in a dash for cover. This photo is about 60% of the full frame version.
This photo was maybe a few hundred yards into our walk, so it was exciting. To be shooting a cool little guy like this within minutes of starting our trip was simply awesome. On the first day of our trip I managed to take my only images of a weasel from the park, my now favorite caribou image I’ve taken in the park, and my favorite image of Mt. Bona. And earlier in the morning we’d had some alpenglow on Mt Blackburn, as well. What a day.
So that’s it for the weasel. He’s running around Skolai Pass chasing voles, shrews and ptarmigan, and maybe the odd ground squirrel. I hope has a great winter, and is around to see again next year. What a treat it was for our group.
I’ll be back early October.
Cheers
Carl
Tags: AK, Alaska, animals, Carl Donohue, ermine, images, Least Weasel, mammals, mustelids, photos, Skolai Pass, weasel, Wildlife, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park, Wrangell St. Elias
Posted in Alaska, Small Mammals, Summertime, Wildlife, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 2 Comments »
Friday, September 4th, 2009
Hey Folks,
So this last week I spent on the north side of the park, exploring clouds and rain and drizzle. The glory of fall in Alaska. I found this small beaver pond, replete with beaver, so I spent a few hours photographing them in their little demesne. The pond was host to a couple of adults, male and female, and their offspring, 3 young kits. It was fascinating to watch them go about their business (mainly eating) for hours on end. The ole saying ‘busy as a beaver’ could equally hold as ‘hungry as a beaver’; all these critters do is eat, it seems. I watched this male swim to the pond’s shore, clamber out of the water, saunter down the trail, then reappear maybe 10 minutes later with a large willow sapling clenched between his teeth, dragging the branch behind him, as he re-entered the pond, and swam back towards his lodge. I was super fortunate that he stopped to eat right in front of me, and during the course of his dinner, all of the other beavers came by, at some point, to scrounge a branch or 2 off his sapling. Apparently willow leaves are good eating for a beaver. The ruckus that followed was almost comical, the various assortment of noises being surprisingly diverse.
Cheers
Carl
Tags: AK, Alaska, animals, beaver, Carl Donohue, mammals, photos, Wildlife, Wrangell - St. El, Wrangell St. Elias
Posted in Alaska, Small Mammals, Wildlife, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 4 Comments »
Friday, July 31st, 2009
Hey Folks
Last week I spent the week up at Skolai Pass, Wrangell – St. Elias National Park, Alaska. After years of hoping to photograph a marmot in the park, and having seen many of them but never actually managing to photograph one, I found this guy, right by where we camped. I made a number of nice images of him, but this one I like the most. The pink flowers in the foreground are called Pink Plumes.
I’ll be out in the backcountry again this week, hiking from Iceberg Lake to Bremner Mines. I’ll post again when I return.
Cheers
Carl
Tags: Alaska, Carl Donohue, Hoary Marmot, photos, Wildlife, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park, Wrangell St. Elias
Posted in Alaska, Small Mammals, Wildlife, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | No Comments »
Monday, June 1st, 2009
Hey Folks,
Here’s a look at a Snowshoe hare (lepus americanus) just as it starts to pelage and change to its summer coat, and below, a look at another hare further along in the process. I like to try to photograph animals in the various stages of their phenology, and also to try some different kinds of compositions – the one below showing a little more of the forest this snowshoe hare lives in, and what they might do this time of year; sit in the morning sun and catch some rays after a long, cold winter. (more…)
Tags: Alaska, animals, Carl Donohue, hare, hares, mammals, photos, Snowshoe hares, Wildlife, Winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park, Wrangell St. Elias
Posted in Alaska, Small Mammals, Wildlife, Winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, April 7th, 2009
Hey Folks,
OK, OK, OK .. no more silliness. I mean, this is a professional website, right? I’ll keep it together, I promise.
Here’s a REAL snowshoe hare photo, taken on my recent sojourn to the northern side of Wrangell – St. Elias National Park. I was very surprised at how little sign of snowshoe hares there was in this area – negligible. Everywhere else, it seems, the woods are crawling with them. This is at, or close to, the peak of the cycle for snowshoe hares; a 10 year population fluctuation that seems to be pretty consistent. Sometimes the cycle might be 9 years, or 11, but it’s not usually far off. The population rises steadily, then faster, peaks, and falls drastically, almost completely, in a single year. Ecologists aren’t sure as to what causes the drop in numbers, (more…)
Tags: Alaska, boreal forest, Carl Donohue, hares, photos, snowshoe, snowshoe hare, Winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park, Wrangell St. Elias
Posted in Alaska, Small Mammals, Wildlife, Winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
hey Folks,
I promised my buddy Ron I’d post this. Hey Ron! 
This is a wild lynx, from Wrangell St. Elias, photographed this last winter. I was pretty lucky to get this. I couldn’t believe my luck when I spotted this gorgeous cat, and hoped and prayed I’d get a photo. The lynx obliged me. I wish, of course, the image wasn’t quite so cluttered, particularly his little white beard created by the snow-covered branch in the foreground, but it’s the first photo I ever got of a lynx, so I’m happy enough, I reckon. He let me fire a few a frames, and then bounded off into the brush.
Cheers
Carl
Posted in Alaska, Cool stories, Small Mammals, Wildlife, Winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 9 Comments »
Monday, April 14th, 2008
Hey Folks,
Here’s one I shot yesterday. As winter comes to an end, the hares are hungrier than ever, which means I get to see them a little more. This one is just starting to change his coat back to the brown summer coat. You can see the black tips on the ears, which don’t go white, even in the mid of winter. As winter goes along, the hares get hungrier and hungrier – there is not a lot of fodder for them once the snow covers everything. You can see the willow branch this one was nibbling on when I found him. The hares eat the bark right off the saplings .. (more…)
Posted in Alaska, Small Mammals, Wildlife, Winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 10 Comments »
Monday, March 24th, 2008
Hey Folks,
Here’s a follow up to my recent post on proposals to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska. Whilst that post concentrated on facts and figures and data and so forth, I think greater arguments ought be made. As you can see from a cursory read of that post, it’s too easy for folks to cut up a pie in any way they choose in order that it might yield the slices that best fit their appetite. I suppose part of the reason for this is that the pie itself is, ultimately, generated by our cultural institutions, our way of living, our way of seeing the world. The potential number of barrels of oil the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge may yield is somewhat of an abstraction – what constitutes a “barrel”, for example? How large is the footprint of a drilling rig? How many caribou will that impact? Any measurements we choose to use are simply yardsticks of our own worldview (I guarantee you, for example, that the Porcupine Caribou Herd would, if asked, probably give a very different answer to even our cleverest scientists). What if we don’t look upon the world with that viewpoint, however? How else might we be able to see the world, and in what ways might we possibly benefit from a different angle? (more…)
Posted in ANWR, Alaska, Environmental Issues, Miscellaneous, Rants, Small Mammals, Wildlife | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, November 20th, 2007
Hey Folks
I’m still in Glennallen. Bummer!
The library has reasonable access to the internet, meaning, at least it works. So I figured I may as well post a note here.
This image is from my recent trip. I was walking along the edge of the lake here, on the ice, and following this set of snowshoe hare tracks. Out of nowhere they venture out on to the ice and do this really cool little loop, then back on course. I thought it was awesome. I know the photo’s hardly wall-hanger, but the scene caught my eye – it just seemed to interesting to wonder why the little rabbit walked a perfect circle like this .. maybe he was just exuberant about it being winter, and such a lovely day. Maybe he had just had his van fixed and was in a good mood. Maybe he just felt like walking in a circle. Whatever the reason, I thought it was pretty cool, so I took this photo.
I’m not sure when I’ll get internet access again, hopefully it won’t be too long, and I’ll post another from the winter here in Alaska (don’t go giving me this ‘it’s still fall nonsense, neither!!!)
Cheers
Carl
Posted in Alaska, Small Mammals, Winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 2 Comments »
