Moose Part II: How Many Moose?

Working as a game (wildlife) biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game through the 1970s an annual ritual involved flying surveys to establish the health of area moose populations.

Every fall and early winter we waited for fresh snowfall to blanket central Alaska -- anticipating a call.  When it came, half a dozen biologists would climb into super cubs, two seated planes, the pilot up front, the biologist observer behind him, and off we would soar, each of us assigned to a specific part of a game management unit.  ADF&G divides the state into discrete areas (units) where moose and other species hunting seasons are set.   Our mission: to get an estimate of the size and composition of the area moose population.

A survey involves flying at low altitude in transects a quarter mile apart, enumerating the moose we saw...cow, calf, bull.  Surveyers circle each sighting to ascertain our call was correct, that the "cow" wasn't a bull that had shed it's antlers and there weren't other moose around.  Often there were.  Over the years, between moose, Dall sheep, and mountain goat surveys plus radio tracking moose, wolves and wolverines, I saw huge swaths of south-central Alaska.

The back seat of a super cub lacks the comfort of your average Winnebago.  Because of the often sub-zero cold and drafty quarters we bundled ourselves in down parkas and pants.  Still, I remember getting frost bite from a gap in a plane's door directing twenty below zero air at airplane velocity directly on my knee.

Some flights had hiccups.  As winter descended on Alaska, landing gear on super cubs was often configured to have both wheel and ski landing gear options.  During one memorable survey we took off from the snowless Palmer Airport on wheels.  Once airborne the pilot pumped the wheels up so we could land with skis on frozen lakes when we reached our snow-covered count area.  Note: At some point during surveys we usually had to land to refuel the planes from extra fuel we carried in metal 5-gallon Blazo (Fuel) cans stashed in the back of the plane. 

On that occasion, while returning to Palmer after completing our count, the pilot turned and announced "we have a problem."  On pumping the wheels back down to land at the snowless airport, one wheel descended, the other didn't.  Half and half doesn't meet FAA aviation standards.  Fortunately he was able to get the one wheel back up but all we had for landing gear were skis to land at a snowless airport.   So the pilot announced we we going to land on frozen grass alongside the runway. As we approached the air field I braced myself for a "sports spectacular" but instead the pilot executed a landing as smooth as soft butter on a warm piece of toast.

One pilot I trusted farmed potatoes as his other profession.  With him we departed from a runway next to his field which, during winter months, often gets pummeled by the famous Matanuska winds, the result of a high pressure area in interior Alaska and low pressure along the coast.  Arctic air is funneled down the Matanuska River Valley to blast the area around Palmer and Wasilla.  Temperatures just below zero and fifty mile an hour winds with blowing snow -- or dust (once exposed soil was cleared) made flying out of the question.

But one calm day we set off into clear skies headed towards Talkeetna, our mission that day -- to radio track collared moose.  We quickly discovered the calm on the ground was nature's ruse because upon gaining altitude we virtually stopped in mid flight.  Hovering over a Matanuska Valley barn seemingly motionless above it, the pilot queried "how fast do you think we're going?"  The answer...50 mph and we were stationary in the air.  The Matanuska winds reigned aloft but hadn't reached ground level...yet.

Returning to home base at dusk the winds had reached the ground.  All "hell broke loose" as we descended to land.  The plane bounced and gyrated all over the sky as the pilot fought to retain control of the aircraft.  Approaching the potato field runway I remember looking out my left side window straight down at the field mere feet from the wing tip as a wind gust knocked us sideways moments before we were about to touch down.  Landing a plane on it's side isn't generally recognized as advisable.  The pilot slammed the controls to upright the plane and wham, we hit the ground and it was over.  You'd think a pilot would be rattled by that landing, but as we taxied to his hangar, he chatted on like he was in a coffee shop conversation.  As for me, shaking revealed my state of anxiety.

We've shown you some images of Sitka black-tailed deer in Part I and here are a few more.

How about a kiss?

Sharing

Oh, it's you!

Yep, it's still you!

You can't fool me.  You are neither a deer nor a moose!

Wrong again!

I give up.  Let's find a new editor.

Next: Moose Part 3  Knik Crossing

Moose Part I: Encounters

If you live in much of Alaska, moose will inevitably factor into your life experiences.  Kären and I are no exception.

My first significant encounter came one spring in the mid-1960s when three of us set out in our 17-foot Grumman canoe on the Kenai Peninsula's Swan Lake Canoe Trail.  Naturally, as an aspiring wildlife photographer knowing about as much about moose as I do quantum physics, I packed along my new telephoto equipped Yashica SLR camera.  Canoeing through one lake we spotted a cow moose on a tiny spruce-covered island.  Aha, a wildlife photo opportunity!  Approaching the island we quickly realized she also had a calf.  Wow, this was my big chance.   However, the moose disagreed and led her calf to the opposite side of the island.

For the record, to reduce chances of being discovered by bears or wolves, cow moose will often "start their family" on isolated islands of trees, in this case, on an island in a lake.  

With the moose still in sight, but without a clear shot, I naively decided to disembark our canoe to climb up the, perhaps six-foot, bank at the edge of the island hoping for an unobstructed view of my quarry.  But no sooner did I pop into her view than the protective moose decided "Enough!"  Instantly she came at me like a freight train and there was no conveying my benign intent to her. 

Now my accomplices still had our canoe against the shore, but they had "seen the movie," and almost as fast as the moose charged, they pushed off to embark for safer waters, presumably in case she didn't stop at the edge of the island.  So when I leaped, intending to enter my refuge via a technique never discussed in canoe-safety literature, the craft had launched in exit mode.  Thus, I was too late to connect with my target and ended up with an Olympic-class leap into the frigid lake.  In retrospect, had my companions not fled, surely we all would have tested the water temperature that day.

Thankfully, upon seeing danger suddenly disappear over the bank and thus satisfied she had fulfilled her maternal duty, Ms moose broke off her charge and returned to her calf.  Meanwhile, after my being extracted from the lake, we decided perhaps this was not my big chance after all.

However, being a slow learner, several years later I spotted a cow and calf moose on a brushy mountainside in Denali National Park.  OK, I figured, I won't surprise her since there was nothing higher than my knees for camouflage so I'll just start walking slowly towards her.  If she decides she doesn't want us to commune in peace, she'll just move away.  Wrong!  I was still at what I considered a safe distance from her when she decided I was infringing on her personal space.  She lowered her head and charged.  Oh my, that "safe distance" evaporated in a flash and she was still coming.  I decided I would really rather be back down the mountain after all and set off to try to break the speed record for fastest human on earth.  But the footing lacked any semblance of levelness and within seconds I fell flat on my face.

That's when my Guardian Angel intervened.  Upon seeing her threat reduced to a flattened lump on the ground, the moose broke off her charge and returned to her calf.

Now I had two lessons under my belt, lessons I would eventually put to good use.  While working as a game (wildlife) biologist in Anchorage, we received a call one winter day.  A moose had wandered into some kind of scrap metal salvage yard and the owners couldn't get it out.  "Help!"

Reaching the scene, sure enough, the moose could not be herded from the yard to an open gate.  We got her close, to within sight of it, but had reached a standoff.  That's when I remembered my experiences.  The moose was pretty agitated by then so -- maybe.  Creeping out of sight through a maze of metal shipping containers, I navigated to a spot behind a container between the moose and the open gate.

Then I popped out in front of the moose and resurrected a childhood, naah naah naaah cry.  Instantly she charged towards me -- and the gate.  At the last second I ducked back behind the container as she roared past and continued on through the gate and hopefully safety -- at least as much as an urban moose in Alaska can realize.  Whew.  Such were the kind of successes a wildlife biologist in Alaska can achieve.

 

I've been close to moose on other occasions.  For a short period of time I tried commuting about 40 miles between Wasilla and my office in Anchorage.  Then one day the highway presented nothing but a sheet of glare ice as slick as bacon grease in a frying pan -- when sane drivers apparently opted of a second cup of coffee that morning.   As I crept along in my tiny red Datsun, a moose suddenly burst off the road's shoulder and onto the then two-lane highway.  Instinctively I hit the brake.  Now remember instructions from your driver's ed instructor when you were a teen-ager.  Yep, in an instant my car was traveling sideways down the highway in hot pursuit of the moose which had selected the same escape route.  Sliding sideways out of control down the highway at the identical speed as the moose, I remember looking out the side window of my car at her huge rump almost close enough to tickle as we "cruised" down the roadway in virtual lock-step.  Eventually she exited the road and I came to a stop, but as I crept on, I decided this commute might not be my best idea after all.

Lacking any digital photos from that era, I'm attaching to this blog some of Kären's images of Alaskan moose family relatives, Sitka black-tailed deer.

A deer encounters a corvid after swimming

across wrangell Narrows.

A doe supports cleanliness in America.

Looks can be deceiving.  Six legs and...?

Snack time!  This is the shot I wanted to get of a moose.

What!  Nobody's charging.

Closer than I want to be with a moose

I said moose, not goose.  Sorry.

Guess I'd better quit.

Our Summer Guests

 A new sound woke me up around 3 AM one day this summer -- kind of like children rapidly banging rocks together, but faster -- a clacking sound that you can hear by Googling great blue heron chicks.  The youthful herons clack their bills together whenever mom or dad approach their nest to deliver a tasty piscine meal -- in this case looking like B-52 bombers gliding past our living room window and into a tree in our back yard. 

The adult herons captured the meals along the shoreline of Wrangell Narrows, only 100 yards or so from our doorstep.   Thus, commuting made them frequent fliers over our yard.  As they entered our air space they would let out a single squawk and clacking from the nest immediately erupted to return the greeting.

What a treat!.  In fact it wasn't just one nest, but two in the forest sanctuary we protect behind our home.  As far as we know a pair began nesting there last year, but they set up housekeeping at the far end of the woods so Kären only discovered them during an "explore."  But this year, one pair built a nest in full view of our yard.

Thus, most mornings from mid May until mid July I awakened to find Kären sitting in a chair she positioned close to our house where she could get a good view of the action.  Of course this action precipitated inaction on our part.  We didn't mow the lawn so as not to disturb our "tenants" and towards fall Kären's deer herd either trampled or ate most of the rest of the lawn.  What a deal!

Below are a few of the (probably over a thousand) photos Karen took this past summer.

These pre-historic looking and sounding birds behind our house seemed out-of-place.

How many do you count?  It looks like not everybody is accounted for.

So does a heron swallow it's food up or down?

Did you knock?  Notice the black "caps" on the chick as compared

to the adults in the last couple of images

Eventually this nest got pretty crowded with five "babes."

Moving out, it's a big job taking care of feathers.

Testing the wings.  Notice it's short bill perfect for clacking.

Parental duty -- off to find a fish.

Success!  Food for the family.

The goodies are plentiful in Wrangell Narrows.

Soon it will be winter when fishing is tough.

We pray for good luck for our family. 

Wait a minute.  These aren't herons!

Sorry, I got confused.  Our neighbor's ducks wandered into

the ponds in our yard.

Karen's Aura

Karen connects with critters.  Encountering virtually any pooch during her frequent walks, it will "melt" in her presence.  She constantly hears "Grizz," or whatever the usually wary or shy dog's name is, "never does that for anyone.  Never!"  Karen's an "animal whisperer" and their 6th sense "reads" it.  That's why she gets such natural photos of everything from bears to slugs to, well, greater yellowlegs.

And so, during a recent outing, Karen heard a racket.  The source: a raucous handful of crows, the creaky door-hinge screech of a bald eagle and frantic alarm cries from two greater yellowlegs, a shorebird that nests in our local muskegs.  Aha, thought Karen, a photo op.  

Slogging towards the sound through the muskeg she discovered the three vocal species in trees bordering a small pond while three naive fledgling yellowlegs set about their daily chores among the sedges surrounding the pond.  This scenario's natural progression might have been the eagle would swoop down to kidnap one of the young yellowlegs.  With dinner secure in the eagle's talons, the crows would charge forth in a well orchestrated attempt to appropriate the raptor's feast for their own dining pleasure while the adult yellowlegs vocalized extreme displeasure as they pursued in a futile rescue mission. 

But a guardian angel arrived to change the narrative.  And that angel, Karen, had neared the yellowlegs family.  In such situations frantic yellowlegs, being vigorous defenders of their nests and fledglings, dive bomb to within inches of we humans with incessant no trespassing warnings that make us duck or perhaps consider donning a World War I helmet for safety.  Always.

Instead, these adult yellowlegs quieted down, surveying the action from trees as the crows and eagles lingered in "theirs."  Somehow those extremely protective shore birds sensed Karen was an ally.  I can be the distance of three end to end football fields (with the end zones tacked on) from a yellowlegs nest or chick and I'm going to be under siege.

Karen stealthily inched forward to where she could clearly see the entire family.  Reaching perhaps the length of a bowling alley from the birds, she sank down into the muskeg with sundew practically towering above her, and paused.  Wait a minute!  There are no bowling alleys in muskegs or football fields nor can Karen hide behind a sundew plant.  Sorry about that!

There she waited next to the yellowlegs brood while no warning calls, no threatening dive bombing -- just silence prevailed.  Soon one of the birds waded towards Karen and the frustrated predators exited stage left while Karen, now adopted by the family, seemed no more threatening than a blueberry. 

Karen writes, "It was an experience I will never forget, watching the interactions of three fledglings splash with great abandon, water droplets flying everywhere.  They dunked their whole body under and bobbed to the surface, only to repeat, shimmering in the golden sunlight, paddling close to one another while the third bird preened and closed it's eyes." 

Yes Karen's "aura" once again reigned and something that "never happens," happened -- or doesn't it?  Today she reflects on the time when a mother hoary marmot on a wild ridge in the Yukon left Karen to babysit her playful pups while mama scampered off to another ridge to gather "hay."   But, that's another story.

The pond

A watchful parent

There's no way Karen can hide behind this long leaf sundew!

Is this what pecking order means?

That lady looks pretty funny from this point of view

A bird needs to be careful when stretching because...

A lesson in health care:  Remember that blade of sedge from the last photo?

Wait a minute!  How can a bird have such long legs?

Better look again.

Bath time.  Karen wanted to join in.

Is this nap time or are "we" preening?

Or could this be nap time with the ultimate feather pillow?

What! Is this fledgling scratching with its wing?

And so we'll end with this image of two innocents that 

never knew how their Guardian Angel saved them.