Warm, sunny weather was with us again today. We’re both wishing the sunblock had made it into one of the bags we brought with us to the island. Bald Eagles are still drifting over our heads and tormenting the murres, but we did have some encouraging success today.
After a morning exploration, I returned to camp [...]

Early this morning we woke to clear skies and readied the boat for departure. We launched from the beach at high tide and made our way several miles north to Duck Island, another piece of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. The island is small so at low tide we were able to clamber around [...]

Today we rose early and boarded a small plane for our flight across Cook Inlet. After forty minutes of flying we landed at low tide on a long, sandy beach in Lake Clark National Park. As we descended, we were excited to see several coastal grizzly bears grazing on sedges and digging for razor clams [...]

We’ve spent the last few days getting organized in Fairbanks, picking up some gear we left behind in Anchorage, and traveling to Soldotna, a community south of Anchorage on the Kenai Peninsula. From here we’ll travel across Cook Inlet by seaplane and then head south by boat to a small island. There, we hope to [...]

The last four days have been fantastic. We located and made outstanding recordings of Gray-headed Chickadees in a remote and beautiful corner of the world. Calm morning hours were spent recording chickadees in dense willows. Afternoons were left for catching up on rest and hiking the terrain surrounding the Canning River. One early morning on [...]

It’s hard to believe the world is a crowded place when you travel by air over most of Alaska. The vast uninhabited terrain one crosses to get from one place to another alters one’s perception of scale. A lifetime of potential explorations passes beneath you. Not long ago it took prospectors and trappers several difficult [...]

We’re recharging ourselves and our countless batteries today in preparation for an evening flight to Anchorage. Tomorrow morning, we’ll fly by commercial airline to Fairbanks and then head north via bush plane to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. There, we hope to fulfill a long-standing wish for the collection: to make recordings of North America’s [...]

We slept well into the day today and then packed for our boat trip to the mainland. Right on schedule, our captain arrived at 3:00 P.M., and we made the transition from land to sea. Before heading toward Sitka, we made a quick loop around the north end of the island to look at the [...]

Sleeping on Saint Lazaria Island is difficult. There is always something going on. Though the weather has not been completely cooperative for recording, and a few species have been inaccessible, there has been constant sound. We’ve had great success in capturing the acoustic essence of this place. We have also recorded our two most-wanted species: [...]

This morning, after an exciting flight over rugged peaks, glaciers, and fiords, we arrived in the small coastal community of Sitka. Though we are still in Alaska politically, ecologically this part of the state is very much part of the Pacific Northwest. Forests of towering Sitka spruce cover all but the steepest slope, and the [...]