Revisiting the Cloud Forest

Alaska is back to it's usual gloomy weather and we are expecting the snow to start falling within a week or two. During these times all I want to do is escape, if only in my mind.

A while back I did a blog post about hummingbirds, most of which were from the Ecuadorian cloud forest. At the time I intended to do more posts about Ecuador but I got distracted by other things. So now is a good time to escape back to the Ecuadorian cloud forest. It is also just about as gloomy as Alaska but much warmer. This time I will concentrate on things other than the incredible hummingbirds.

My artist friend Gary and I spent a month in Ecuador several years ago. While we were visiting a magnificent bird refuge near Mindo, called Paz de Aves, we ran into another group of birders from Victor Emanuel Nature Tours. In case you dont know, they are one of the world's best bird tour groups. We enjoyed birding with them for several hours.

A typical view of  the wet cloud forest.

There is a whole lot of green everywhere.

These strange bugs were mimicing thorns on this branch. Each one was nearly an inch in length. There were many odd insects, and an unbelievable variety of colorful moths. i may do a post just about them.

Amoung the many insects were these Rhinocerous Beetles. I was fortunate to get the male just as he was getting set to fly away.

The Ecuadorian cloud forest is one of the very best places on earth for bird diversity. This is an endemic Choco Toucan of the lower elevation cloud forest.

Chestnut-crowned Antpittas are shy ground dwelling birds of the dense undergrowth.

Ornate Flycatcher

Only the male White-lined Tanager has white lines. This is the more attractive female.

Woodcreepers are a tree hugging family of Neotropical birds that look similar to Brown Creepers and Tree Creepers, but woodcreepers are much bigger and not closely related. This is one of the largest of the group, Strong-billed Woodcreeper.

White-sided Flowerpiercer. I may have used some of these photos in earlier blog posts, but I dont really remember. Hopefully that means you dont really remember either.

My Mountains, Part 2

This evening after dinner I walked through the weedy field next to my apt. complex to photograph the saturated evening light.

The rock cairn in the foreground looks like some kind of a shrine from prehistoric times but more likely it is just a pile of rocks placed there by an excavation crew from some past construction project. You can see the spires of the nearby Russian Orthodox Church in the background.

The colors were intense in the waning light.

This would make a good setting for a painting of a fox or a coyote.

It is unusual to see a cloudless sky in this part of Alaska.

I found out that this church is where I will be going to vote next month. I'm curious to see the inside of it.

The setting sun is reflected in the windows of these recently built condos.

Finally one last photo before I returned home. The temperatures were dropping rapidly after the sun went down. It was a good day but I did'nt do a lick of work.

My Mountains

When I was 10 or 11 and living in Carpinteria, Ca. my friends and I made tentative forays into the mountains above the town. This was the Los Padres National Forest. Not really forest, it was Chapparal habitat. We followed the boulder strewn streams up into the rugged hills and seldom encountered other people.
Those coastal mountains were loaded with wildlife, mysterious caves, and beautiful waterfalls. All this had a profound effect on my young personality. How I grew to love those mountains. They were sacred to me. I felt such a strong connection to them that I thought of them as belonging to me, as I belonged to them.

Since then I have felt similar affection for all the mountains, and any natural area that I have visited.

Here in Alaska, my mountains are the Chugach Mountains above Anchorage. I have mentioned them in numerous blog posts, and I expect to continue doing so. Right now is the time that termination dust is appearing on the mountain tops. This dusting of snow is called termination dust because it signals the termination of the Fall season. The above photo was taken last evening out my back window.

Only a few buildings are visible in this photo from last evening, but a good swath of Anchorage lies between my window and these mountains. That's because I live at the very edge of town near a military base.

Another view of the Chugach Mountains near Palmer Alaska.

The mountains enshrouded in clouds.

These photos were shot along the Knik River bottomland. Moody, ominous, and heartbreakingly beautiful.

King Mountain and the Matanuska River.

The Chugach Mountains from the Palmer Hay Flats, which are an important stopover for migrating waterfowl and shorebirds. They are a protected wildlife refuge.

The best known of the many peaks in the Chugach range is Pioneer Peak, which dominates the landscape around Palmer. People who are in far better physical condition than me, climb the peak in one day.

In this photo, Pioneer Peak looms above the Matanuska River.

Walking in the Boreal Forest

This week I spent a few days staying with friends at Dan's cabin next to Goose Creek, which is typical Boreal Forest habitat. It was the tail end of the Fall season and most of the trees had already shed their leaves.

Most of the land is privately owned and there are signs like this scattered throughout the forest. I dont think most people pay much attention to the signs.

The forest was pretty quiet this time. We saw no other people and very little wildlife. No mammals, and only a few chickadees, redpolls,  magpies, ravens, and two Steller's jays.

Since there was no wildlife to photograph, I was challenged to find ways be creative with my photographs of the forest. I like to concentrate on a mouse's eye view of the forest floor.

The base of a Birch Tree often looks quite different than the rest of the trunk.

At first I thought this was some strange kind of fungus. It is a plant with it's leaves curled inward against the frosty weather.

I believe these are Willow leaves. They are rimmed with ice crystals.

These are black Cottonwood leaves in the morning light.

Highbush Cranberries and a frozen dew drop.

This is my favorite photo of the trip. I like this early morning view of Goose Creek with it's soft atmosphere..

This rock was included in an earlier post this summer. It was used in a small, and mediochre loon painting. The rock looks far different in the late fall than it did in mid Summer.

Another moody photo.

There were two spawned out Silver Salmon left in the creek.

A simple photo of sunlit grass. I tried to find unconventional perspectives of conventional subjects, but my approach is hopelessly mundane. My limitations are caused by my own impatience, and lack of photographic knowledge. However I am improving ever so slowly. No doubt I will use some of these photos in future paintings.

The Moose and the Moth

These photos I shot last December along the Chester Creek Greenbelt during the Audubon Christmas Bird Count. I like the photos so I decided to play with the idea in paint.

First I painted a small scene without knowing what animal I would include, or where I would put it. After the rest of the painting was finished I chose this moose in the upper Eagle River Valley.

The Christmas Moose, 8x10". Someday I may do a more elaborate version in a larger, and more creative composition.

This is a very uninteresting moth that I found on my cutting board in my kitchen. It was only about a half an inch long so I decided to see how well my camera could handle such a small subject. It is incredible to me how well digital cameras handle macro subjects.

I dutifully released the little guy outside and photographed him on top of my balcony rail.

El Morro

El Morro, spanish for 'the knoll', is a huge pink rock that looms above the surrounding Pinion/juniper landscape in western New Mexico. The closest town to it is tiny Ramah, but nearby Zuni is visited by more tourists.

Few people have heard of El Morro National Monument, but it is an important historical location.

This slot canyon channels water to a small pool at the base of the knoll that is the only water source for the pre-columbian people who built a pueblo on the top.

These people left their marks on the rock wall above the pool.

The rock is the biggest landmark for miles around and it has been used as a signpost by various travellers through history. Most of this inscription is too hard to read but I can make out the word conquisto, (conquest) and the year 1602. Another year was chisled into the rock at the bottom of the photo, 1858.

Presumably this inscription was left by another Spaniard more than a century after the first inscription. I can make out ___ del mes de junyo de este ano de 1709, Paso paraquy para Suni. Ramon ______. The rough translation goes something like, Ramon _____ passed by here on the ___ of June of 1709, bound for Zuni.

Pasamos por aqui el sargento mayor y el capitan........ That's all I can make out. It means The sargent major and the captain passed by here......

History progresses and control of the territory has changed again.

There is a trail that leads along the base of El Morro, and up to the ruined Pueblo at the top. There are many inscriptions left by passing travellers along the way that tell the story of the history of New Mexico.