I had a good mix and variety of things to do my last week here. More Dusky island maintenance was a good part of it, but I also got out to see some more of the salmon run, spent half a day at Sheridan Glacier photographing some recently dislodged ice chunks and seeing the transition to fall, and taking one last trip out to the Motus tower we set up this spring. With a lot of rain recently (close to 50 inches in August), I was in the office and had the chance to test, and pass, my Dusky knowledge on the Washington Department of Fish and Game Southwest Canada Goose Test. It is a test that all hunters must pass that hunt in Southwest Washington to help with the identification of Duskies and other subspecies while hunting. I was also able to indulge in some historical photographs of the Copper River Delta and experience years of accelerated ecological succession in seconds. After another awesome wee...
With a storm pushing in later in the week last week, we left camp a day early to beat the weather and sift through some more nest island camera data. We maintained 73 islands before the storm, and will finish the rest in the coming weeks. Beginning with the furthest islands from camp, we fixed anchors, re-drilled island collars, landscaped completely bare islands, and even re-anchored islands that washed to shore. Most of the islands only needed landscaping, so the majority of the work was transplanting Sweetgale, and a few other species, from shore to the islands. Sometimes the Sweetgale digging got tough, so willows and even spruce trees became cover on some islands. On most islands, we would dig three or four clumps of Sweetgale, pile it into out boats, and bring it to the island. Transporting Sweetgale to an island. Group of molting geese with their fledging youngsters along the banks of Alaganik Slough. We bumped this...
T he Dusky Canada Goose ( Branta canadensis occidentalis ) (Dusky or Duskies) is a subspecies of Canada Geese ( Branta canadensis ). They breed almost primarily in the Copper River Delta in South-Central Alaska and winter in the Willamette Valley and Lower Columbia River floodplain in Western Oregon and Southwest Washington. The Copper River Delta is the largest coastal wetland on the Pacific Coast at about 700,000 acres, and the Willamette Valley is the largest inland river valley in the Pacific Northwest. Currently, the Dusky Canada Goose population is hovering right around 15,000, giving them one of the smallest goose populations in North America. In late September, Duskies depart from post-molt staging areas down the Pacific Coast of Alaska and Canada until they reach their wintering grounds in Washington and Oregon in early November. They leave those grounds for the migration north in late March and early April and reach the breeding grounds ...
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