Working Hard...

Ok, I suppose I have a lot to talk about...lets pick up where I left off last. Last Tuesday, I got to take a tour of one of the weirs that the FWS is using to monitor salmon migration. It is really high tech, they have video cameras in the part of the weir that the fish swim through to count the fish when the weir is open. It uses the same software they use in security cameras, so it is kinda like watching criminal fish. We went to take samples, though, so they had closed the weir the day before; however, when we got to the weir, there was only one fish in the weir. Apparently the run is low this year.

The next day, I got to do more fishery stuff which was a lot more exciting. I learned how they use radio telemetry to track radio tagged fish in the river. This is fun because it requires floating 18 miles down the river in a row boat with a large radio antenna and a radio receiver. The receiver beeps whenever we would float past a fish with a tracking tag. We were looking for Steelhead (AKA rainbow trout that migrate between freshwater and the ocean) which are on their way back to the ocean, so there were not that many left in the river. Regardless of the fish, though, it was a really nice day and quite relaxing to spend my work day floating on the river. My co-workers were both very knowledgeable about birds and could identify pretty much ever bird we saw. From what I can remember, we saw loons, cormorants, Arctic turns, Bonaparte's gull, cliff swallows, golden eyes, harlequin ducks, and probably some others that I am forgetting right now.

To continue in the theme of fish and boats and water, I got to go fishing last Thursday! I went with Charlie who lives in the house with me during the weekdays so that he doesn't have to drive the hour and a half home to Homer everyday. We took his boat (a Zodiac which is kinda like a big inflatable raft with a motor) to Stormy Lake which is in the Capitan Cook State Park to fish for Northern Pike. While Northern Pike are found naturally in the Northern parts of Alaska, they have been illegally introduced on the peninsula. This is bad because the Pike have no natural predators in the peninsula, and they are “voracious predators of young salmon” as the posters we have around the office warn. As a way of combating the spread of Pike, the bag limit for Pike has been liberalized which means that people are allowed to (and encouraged to) catch as many as they can. Apparently people have been taking advantage of this on Stormy Lake because we didn't catch anything. Charlie did let me drive the boat for a while which was fun, and the lake is really nice because it is in the state park-no houses. We were the only people on the lake, so it really felt like being out in the middle of the wilderness.

The Kenai Wildlife Refuge hosted their annual wildflower day last Friday, and I got to go the even to see what their Environmental Ed program is like. It was a great day for the event, very sunny and all of the flowers were in bloom. One of the rangers led the walk I was signed up for, and at the end of the walk while I was talking to her I found out that she is a supervisor for some of the SCA interns at the Refuge. Lucky for me, she invited me to come back to the Refuge on Sunday to go on the field day that her SCA interns were scheduled for. With that in mind, I relaxed on Saturday (my first day off in 2 weeks!), and made my way back to the refuge on Sunday.



The other SCA interns are really friendly, and it was nice to hear what their experiences have been like. They are both working at the Visitor's Center on the refuge, so they are required to do hikes on the Refuge to be better equipped at answering questions. I went on two hikes with them; on the first and longest, we hiked to Fuller Lake where we ate lunch. Second, we hiked Burney's trail which led us to a great view of the mountains and lakes surrounding the Refuge. I had a great time, and the trails were beautiful especially since all the flowers were in bloom. The weather on Sunday kept on threatening to rain, but it was nice enough to hold off until after we were done hiking. Today I was back in the office just going through and organizing all of the Environmental Ed stuff and learning everything I can about salmon. I have pictures up from my hikes on my picassa site which the link for is found to the right in the links section.

Oh! Moose update: Bertha (out moose friend) has been back by the house and last time she brought her two calves! Apparently they were nursing from her, but by the time I got outside with my camera, they were done with their dinner and getting ready to lay down and take a nap with their full bellies.



Thats all for now, hopefully we will be getting internet at the house soon, so my posts will be coming more frequently once I don't have to go to the cafe in the grocery store to access internet.