Frosty Day in Helena Valley

Winter weather in Montana can be a little bothersome sometimes. But there are usually a few days that make up for a lot of the cold, snowy, and cloudy ones. The third of January was just such a day. Our home on the south side of Helena lies several hundred feet above the valley floor. As the sun climbed into a gorgeous, deep blue sky that day, I looked out the picture window facing north and was disappointed to see that the lower portions of the valley were pretty much shrouded in fog. But I had been housebound for several weeks and really needed to get out to do some windshield birding. Days with dense fog can be frustrating for birding because of reduced visibilities, and indeed, I encountered some of that frustration on my drive into the valley that morning. But the upside to the fog, that had apparently persisted throughout the night, was a coating of white frost on essentially all inanimate and vegetative features over the entire valley. It was absolutely gorgeous! If I had thought to bring a good pair of boots along for walking in the snow, I would have concentrated on landscape photography that morning, but in my rush to get out of the house I forgot boots, so my usual pursuit of birds would have to suffice. To my surprise, there were birds about and they provided some rewarding opportunities for photos. The following images were ones I acquired that beautiful morning. My first encounter was with a prairie falcon that sat calmly on a power pole for a relatively close approach, an unusual case for this species. Next up, a dark phase rough-legged hawk flushed out of a cottonwood tree upon my approach, but didn't get far before my camera caught up with it. There is one side road where I frequently find a bald eagle perched this time of year, so I tured there to take a quick look. I was rewarded with an adult eagle sitting on the same old snag where I usually find one, and as a bonus, a female rough-legged hawk was perched nearby. At this point in the morning, the fog began to lift and the bright sun highlighted the frost encrusted vegetation so that it looked like fine embroidered lace. As I passed by a weedy field, I caught a glimpse of some small birds flitting among the stems looking for seeds to eat. They were American tree sparrows, a fixture in our valley in the winter, arriving early from their breeding areas far to the north. They are usually in small bunches, but as I stopped my vehicle, more and more of them appeared. There were dozens of them. Something made them nervous, perhaps me watching them, and suddenly they all flushed to a nearby caragana hedge. I backed up, stopped near the hedge, and did some "pishing" to try to coax them into the open. Slowly, several of them began to hop up to the higher branches of the shrubbery. During the next hour, I clicked the shutter of my camera perhaps a hundred times trying to get that perfect shot of one of these neat little sparrows - perched on a lace covered stem silhouetted against the clear blue sky.
That one great morning in the Helena Valley has quieted my need in the past week to venture out for some winter birding again. But I can feel that urge growing in me, so hopefully our new snow of today and falling temperatures will again combine to provide another of those memorable days. Sitting and looking at this computer all day just doesn't do it for me!

Galapagos Island Mammals

Wildlife photography in the Galapagos is different from most other locations because the animals are so much more approachable. Historically, they had very few or no natural predators so when humans arrived, the land animals had no reason the be wary of them. The other side of this is that because of the islands' location and relative isolation, species diversity of land mammals, birds and reptiles is quite low. In fact, there are no native mammals on the Galapagos that are not associated with the surrounding Pacific Ocean except for several species of bats and rice rats, none of which we observed. Diversity of aquatic mammals and other vertebrates, especially fish, is considerably higher.

Given that background, the only mammals species I successfully photographed were Galapagos Sea Lions and several marine species. We saw Galapagos fur seals but they were not abundant and difficult to locate because they frequented volcanic caves and other shorelines features that were difficult to traverse. Sea lions were abundant mostly everywhere we went, and they were not only very tame but often inquisitive, especially when we were snorkeling. They would often swim up to people snorkeling and playfully almost nudge them with their noses. When resting or sunning themselves on shore, they were oblivious to people around them. Many of the young pups were still nursing their mothers. Other young adults were often seen playing with each other. On several occasions while cruising, we encountered large groups or pods of Bottlenose Dolphins, many of which put on pretty impressive acrobatic shows. On a number of other occasions, we saw whales that we could not identify, but could have been one of a half dozen species that are found in the region.

The most exciting encounter we had on the trip was with an Orca. As I was heading to the upper deck one morning, I hear some excitement from several folks who were already there. There was a single probable young male Orca near one of of Zodiacs that was ferrying some snorkelers ashore. The Orca swam up along side the Zodiac, not more than 15-20 feet from it, and followed beside it for several minutes. At one point, it submerged, caught a sea turtle, and surfaced with the turtle in its mouth. It would certainly have been great to be one of the lucky folks in that Zodiac, but I consider myself fortunate to have been able to get some reasonable photo images of this exciting event. This Orca was probably about 30 feet long and weighed in the neighborhood of 12,000 pounds.

Galapagos Scenery

The Galapagos Islands are all of volcanic origin, and for the most part, the climate is relatively dry even though they are located in the tropics. The exception to this is the highland areas on some islands that support a quite lush vegetative community. A complex of ocean currents around the island drive the weather patterns, with a warm and wetter season from December to May and a cooler, drier pattern from May through November. The weather patterns spawned by "El Nino" events in the Pacific Ocean result in occasional very wet periods, and extreme droughts are also rather frequent. These events combined with the geographic isolation of the Galapagos are the major influences on the island vegetation and wildlife.

Our island visits were all by foot except for some vehicle travel to higher elevations on Santa Cruz Island, so most of the scenery and vegetation we encountered was on the dry end of the spectrum and dominated by volcanic features. This view from a high point on Bartolome' Island is a great example of some different forms of a volcanic landscape. Lava flows were common on many of the near shore areas. At higher elevations, lava tubes were formed when the outside portions of lava flows cooled and solidified allowing the molten interior to continue moving until only a hollow area remained. Large sinkholes also developed at higher elevations when the levels of lava beneath them receded. Other areas were stable enough to support lush vegetation that in some places are now used as cattle pasture. Five of the 19 larger islands have human habitation, with Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island being the largest at about 20,000 people. The Galapagos National headquarters and the Charles Darwin Research Station are located there. A tortoise breeding facility is housed there to provide young tortoises for efforts to restore them to islands where their populations have been decimated or extirpated by man and introduced predators such as rats. Feral goat populations also competed for forage and over grazed many landscapes. Puerto Ayora is the center of the tourism industry on the islands and supports a small commercial fishery. That is a very brief discourse on the islands, and as you can see, the scenery is dominated by volcanic features and dry vegetative communities. Learning about and experiencing the unique plants/vegetative communities and wildlife species found no where else on earth were my goals for this adventure and I'll blog about them over the next several weeks.

Galapagos Islands Adventure!

For many years, a trip to the Galapagos Islands has been on my "bucket list". The celebration of my wife Kathy's retirement was just the excuse I needed to plan such an adventure. To make such a trip more interesting for her, we added a bonus extension to Peru and the the ancient Inca Empire city of Machu Picchu. In this travel and natural history blog series, I will first present my thoughts and images of the Galapagos.

Straddling the equator nearly 4000 miles SE of our home in Helena, MT, the Galapagos Archipelago lays about 600+ miles off the west coast of Ecuador. It consists of about 19 islands and many smaller "islets" and rock outcrops of volcanic origin. The two most western islands of the group - Isabela and Fernandina - are among the most active volcanic areas on earth. None of the islands is more than 5 million years old and Fernandina is thought to be only about 100,000 years old. The latter is the largest pristine island in the world, with no human habitation or introduced plant or animal species. Europeans first discovered the islands in 1535 when the Spaniard Fray Tomas de Berlanga and his ship were carried there by ocean currents. His accounts of the islands described the giant tortoises and iguanas and he commented on the tameness of the birds. Pirates were the first to use the islands and were later followed by whalers in the 1790's through the 1800's. In addition to decimating the whale populations, fur seals were hunted almost to extinction and many thousands of tortoises were removed for food. In 1832, the Galapagos were officially annexed by Ecuador , but Settlement did not occur until the late 1800's and into the early 1900's.

As you well know, the most famous visitor to the Galapagos was Charles Darwin, aboard the HMS Beagle in 1835. Although he only spent a total of about 20 days on the islands, observations he made there and elsewhere on his 5-year voyage provided the basis for his classic The Origin of Species published 24 years later. This publication, of course, lead to profound changes in how man perceived processes in nature and evolution. In 1959, the Ecuadorian government declared the Galapagos National Park to protect all parts of the archipelago that were not already occupied or farmed by people.

Our trip to the the Galapagos began with a flight to Baltra Island and then embarkation on the ship National Geographic Islander. This is a 48 passenger ship operated by Lindblad Expeditions and National Geographic. It proved to be an excellent craft for island hopping and was manned by a great crew and naturalists who were exceptionally well versed in the natural history of the islands. Their knowledge of and love for the islands, and concern for island preservation, was obvious from the "get go" and an inspiration to me and the other passengers.

We spent 8 days and 7 nights on the Islander, visiting 8 different islands. Most of the distance travel between islands was done at night, with short trips between landing sites sometimes done during lunch time. Island landings were accomplished using the Zodiacs. These inflatable craft were very versatile and the crew had them in the water usually within five minutes or so after we anchored.

The scenery in the Galapagos was not what I would classify as beautiful or idyllic, but it certainly was interesting. But for me, the mystique of the islands lay in the uniqueness and tameness of the fauna and the distinctiveness of the flora.

In the Galapagos blogs to follow this one, I'll discuss and provide images of the people, vegetation, birds, mammals, and reptiles inhabiting these very interesting and relatively isolated islands - that continue to give us a plethora of scientific knowledge important for the understanding of evolution.

Travel Blogs Coming!

I have been absent from this "blogosphere" for nearly a month making "great personal sacrifices" to gather more photo images and background information to share with you.

My wife and I just returned from a trip to The Galapagos Islands - of Charles Darwin fame - which lay about 625 miles off the coast of Ecuador. These islands support one of the most unique assemblages of flora and fauna on earth. This marine iguana, the only species of its kind in the world, is just one example.Following our stint on this magnificent archipelago, we headed to Peru to visit the home of the ancient Inca Empire with Machu Picchu being the crown jewel.This incredible cultural relic was but a small part of the extensive Inca Empire but it remains a fantastic example of a once advanced civilization. Stay tuned for a series of blogs - after Christmas - on our thoughts and experiences on our visit to these natural and cultural worlds.

Happy Turkey Day!!!

These handsome birds were strutting their stuff in the foothills of the Sapphire Mountains east of Hamilton last spring. I happened upon them while searching for blue(Dusky) grouse in an area where I once worked on a graduate student study. Turkeys were not present in that area back in the late 1960's when I spent lots of time there.
Happy Thanksgiving to all!!

Blue and White!

My calendar says that we are still about a month away from the official beginning of winter here in Helena. But the weather outside says that the calendar may be off by a bit. For the past several days, the thermometer has had much difficulty registering above zero degrees. And yes, we have some of the white stuff. After the fantastic weather we have had for the past two months, mother nature must be doing her compensation thing!

There is a positive side to this picture. For the past several days, we have had a blue jay coming to our feeders. There always seems to be a few of this species around the Helena Valley and during the fall months of many years, a few visit my feeders for a short time and then head off to somewhere else for the winter. With the single blue jay that is here now during this spate of harsh winter weather, perhaps we will have some of its blue gracing our trees and feeders for the remainder of the winter. That would be a welcome sight!Blue jays are quite common in the eastern US and their aggressive, raucous behavior does not engender them to many of the folks back there. For me, their rough equivalent species here in Montana is the magpie. I don't especially like them because of their aggressiveness -sorry about that Mary H. But in my backyard feeders, blue jay are appreciated and a welcome winter guest!!