Joe and I

Joe takes his mandolin pretty seriously...he can't even look up for a photo! One day I'll be that good :)

Snow please?

Winter is here, but the 1/4" of snow we've had for a month is slowly melting with the latest rain event. The waxwings are back and so is Sarah. She's been cookin' up her famous moose meat stew. Without being too obnoxious about the turn of events last week, I'd like to just take a moment and say "ahhhhhhhhhhhh".
Jim and I went on an epic journey to Prince William Sound last weekend. We had two beautiful blue bird days and two stormy, snowy days. We found a perfect little island with some deer activity, and spent most of our short days traipsing around hoping to get a deer in our sights. It was a perfect trip that has powered me up for the long haul until winter break.

Jim pimped out his bike with studded tires and has been biking to work everyday. He has discovered our vast frozen ponds out in the Anchorage Coastal Wildlife Refuge, which is a three minute bike ride from home. He spends hours cruising around out there. The proximity of the refuge to our house is a huge bonus. We have spent many hours out there. As you can see, the view is pretty sweet!

We hope this finds you healthy and happy. We'll miss you during the festivities this year. Lots of love and warm wishes,
~j & a

Beginning of Autumn?

Hi friends,
We've been slacking on the blogging, but this time of year our adventures tend to slow down a bit! While Jim has been jet setting to Missoula, Spokane, and Prince William Sound, I've been holding down the fort, teaching, and learning how to play the mandolin. I've got an amazing teacher who pushes me and teaches me much more than notes and chords.
My school year is off to a great start. I feel fortunate to work with such an amazing group of students in our progressive charter school.
Jim is loving his job. He's putting his ducks in a row for a trip to Chile in December. This time, he plans to put satellite transmitters on two or three Whimbrels (a shorebird with unknown migration behavior). We'll try to post a link around migration time (March...feels SO far away!) so you can see where his birds have gone.
Until then, check out this link to stay up on current polls
I've replaced watching the plummeting DJI with this website...it helps me breathe!
Ciao!

End of Summer

Our short yet sweet boating adventures are slowly coming to an end, as Ayme gets back to the classroom and Jim's data call to him. We were able to spend 6 days and nights out in Prince William Sound fishing, hiking, bear watching, glacier walking, and rock skipping. Our cuisine included fresh rockfish and ling cod nearly every night. We anchored up for a few nights in a place nicknamed "Little Yosemite"...climbers, unite!


Of course, the big news in AK right now is Sarah Palin as VP. Admittedly, she's been a good governor, but that's compared with her crooked predecessor. A mayor of a redneck town of 9,000 and a governor for a year and a half? Sounds to me the GOP is hoping American women will vote based on gender and not on values.

OK, OK, enough of that. Here are some pics to lighten the mood. Ta ta!

Southeast to Southwest to Southcentral

After two successful projects, we found ourselves in opposite sides of southern Alaska. For a quick map, check out this link:
The arrow points to Jim's locale. Draw a line due east and that's about where Ayme ended up!
Ayme went on a seven day teacher training course entitled The Whales of Icy Strait (southeast AK). She spent her days with ten other teachers, discussing teaching philosophy and digging deep into the water with paddles. Time was taken to balance beach rocks, dig through bear poop, and swim in an icy cold creek. The humpbacks and sea lions sang and splashed day and night. It was an experience everyone should have at least once in their lifetime! (hint hint...Alaska is waiting for you!)

Jim buzzed over to King Salmon (on the AK peninsula) to help on a project, with hopes to resight more shorebirds that he banded in Chile. He was successful in finding 3 of "his" birds. Given the population size, the proportion of those caught and banded, and the numbers of birds in the area, he was stoked to have resighted those birds! He also resighted a bird which spends it's non-breeding season in Australia. His observation has shaken up the worlds of Australian shorebird biologists. Pretty exciting! He also saw this pair of juvenile peregrin falcons getting ready for flight:

Back in the big city, we joined with friends before an AMAZING Wilco show. It was an outdoor show, and it rained all night. The good thing is, you can only get so wet! They played a fantastic set and we left inspired and with a lighter step.


The next two days were spent working on getting Turnstone set up. Dr Wells jet setted down from Fairbanks in the nick of time for the voyage. We spent four or five days watching orca's splash, dropping and casting lines, hiking through muskegs and getting lost in the beauty of Prince William Sound. Another experience everyone should have (hint hint).

Aropuk Lake

Another successful trip to a remote field site in Alaska! Jim and I were joined by 6 students (3 from Anchorage, 2 from Kwigillingok, 1 from Bolenas,CA), 1 teacher (Bethel), and 2 shorebird gurus (Nils Warnock and Bob Gill). The project was very exciting for me because it was the first big step towards a life goal: to bridge the gap between field biology and education. Students helped capture, retrieve, band birds, and record data such as molt, bill and leg length, fat storage, sex, weight, and of course, species names. We also had a small study of our own taking place, which entailed recording observations of habitat use by age class of the Western Sandpiper. On top of all of this, we searched for Hudsonian Godwits, banded in 2007 or 2008 by Jim in Chile.
We arrived via float plane, to a well established camp (thanks to Jim, Bob, Nils and Noah) on a hot summer day, with not a breeze to speak of. Aropuk Lake is the largest on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, yet it is not deeper than 36 inches. That means a lot of mud, and a lot of prime mosquito habitat. We prayed for wind that day, and our prayers were answered! It remained cold and windy for the remainder of the trip. Phew!
We ate many cookies & jelly beans, played riveting card games, and all learned a couple of songs on Patrick's mandolin. It was an enriching experience for all. Jim and I feel especially fortunate to have had the opportunity to catch a glimpse into the Yup'ik culture. Carolyn and Kira are two amazing teenagers from a small coastal village, "founded" by Kira's grandfather. They taught us many Yup'ik names for the birds, and in turn, they were amazed to learn the different species names for shorebirds.
We shared many laughs. We hope to extend these opportunities to students who share the same "backyard" birds during the flip side of the "Great Circle".
Watch our movie

Teshekpuk Lake - Living the dream

We just returned from three weeks in the NPR-A (National Petroleum Reserve-AK) working on a shorebird study. We got to travel in a helicopter to different plots daily. Our tasks were to identify bird density, locate nests, and capture adults for a few short moments. Highlights include a Dunlin laying an egg in Ayme's hand, chill time in camp with our ten compadres, Jim taking over the helicopter stick for awhile, our fearless helicopter pilot and his funny sayings, burrito night, and one relaxing hot evening before the bugs emerged. My camera is currently MIA, but this is a shot of a male King Eider which turned out to be the shot of the trip, by Jim.

We go back in the field this week - this time to the western AK to look for Hudsonian Godwits (Jim's Chile bird). More to come upon our return - standby...