I got to start my day off by waking up to this....

He is a very curious moose calf...

 and a very hungry one as well.

 

 I had the AM shift for the bears.  The first thing we always have to do is walk the 18 acre perimeter to make sure that the bears are not digging any holes close to the fence. 

Joe Boxer is on the left and Patron is on the right.  I called them out and rewarded them with pieces of hotdogs and hamburgers.

Hotdogs are their favorite food!

 Joe Boxer always sits up when he is waiting for us to give him a treat

 

Joe Boxer was getting tired of waiting.  We do not feed them every time they are sitting in front of us.  If we did that they would just sit all day, instead of acting like bears.  We do not want them to start the habit of begging for food in a way.









Tuesdays are one of the slowest days of the week.  After I was done working at the bears I went to visit Mukluk.  I also let her play with her new ball....the basketball!

Snickers had a gourmet meal today....

 

The baby moose calf needed to be fed again.  He gets fed about 5 times a day right now.  We have a mixture that we prepare for him at every bottle feeding.  He is getting 12 oz at every feeding for now.  Once he gets into the routine of taking every bottle at every feeding we will up his amount to 14oz.

Towards the end of the day I cleaned Julie's (Sitka Black Tailed Deer) enclosure. 

The lack of sleep that I have been getting due to longer days has finally caught up with me.  I am exhausted.  But it is a good kind of exhausted.  Istill feel like I am on vacation.  Every day I go to work loving my job and love working with the animals.  I can not imagine doing anything else.

Goodnight Lower 48,
ErIn

29 Glacier Cruise

I began work today at 8:15am, and the mosquitos were ready for work as well.  The Lead Intern, Kristin, and I began with working in the garden.  So after 3 layers of bug spray we were ready to go.  We planted a few rows of artichokes and cabbages.  At 10:30 I received a call from Kelly asking, " Do you wanna ride a boat?" 

"Um I have work today"

"No you don't I talked with Kristin, and we are sending some people on a boat cruise."

So I said my goodbyes to the mosquitos and quickly changed.  Half of the AWCC workers were going on the cruise today and the others are going tomorrow. 

The cruise was based out of Whittier.  Whittier is known as the weirdest town in Alaska.  There are only about 185 residents in the winter, and 85% of them live in the same building. 

The boat loaded up at noon.

They gave us lunch just as we were heading out.  It was a traditional baked alaskan cod with chips.  It was delicious. 

From left to right: Scott (intern), Meredith, Marcie, and Jeremy are gift store employes, and me :)

There where so many glaciers that we saw!  I guess there is a reason why the cruise is called 26 glaciers.

We even got to see the glacier calve twice.  This is when the glacier has ice break off; also known as icebergs.  When you see icebergs in the water they may not look as big.  However, only about 10% of the glacier is seen above the water. 

The waterfalls are from the ice at the top of the mountain that is melting.  There are a few pictures where itdoesn't even look like we are in Alaska.  It looks more like a winter in Hawaii. 

Later, they had signs the people could hold for pictures. We decided to hold 5 signs at the same time.

We saw this glacier actually calve 2 times!

We passed about 5 thousand sea gulls on this rock face.  They lay their eggs in the rocks which also hide them from predators such as Bald Eagles.  As we passed by later on we even spotted a bald eagle higher up on the mountain looking at the sea gulls. 

This clip is of the glacier calving.  What looks like a little waer fall is actually the end of the iceberg falling into the water from the glacier.

A very busy day

Today started off to a nice and slow move ino the day.  I was up and ready to go at 8am before the the visitors really started to pour.  I prepared the diets, woke up the bears with hotdogs, and had my daily rockstar (energy drink).  There weren't any tour buses in today which was nice since there where only 3 interns working.  I was able to feed the moose calf at 10:15.  He was still pretty full from his breakfast.  He is taking his bottles well.  Doug, the AWCC's photographer, was around late rto get some really cute pics of a few interns.

I was at the ticket booth helping out during this particular feeding session.

Our 2 musk ox males where doing their thing later and knocking each other around.....

You notice their quivit which is the layer of fur that is shedding.  This is 8 times warmer than wool and softer thn cashmere.  Only the natives are actually allowed to harvest quivit.  Musk ox actually went extinct in alaska in 1865 from hunting.  They have made a comeback now, but are still protected in the wild. 

The bison bulls are also looking very handsome...

   I will make sure and get some pics of me with the moose calf very soon!  Well, I just got back from a 12 mile bike ride and am exhausted!  I better get some sleep since I have another long work day aead of me.

Goodnight Lower 48,
ErIn

no internet!

There has been absolutely no internet for the past 2 days!  It has been killing me not to post a blog! 

Ok, well, now back to the Friday and Saturday.  Summer is now off to a start!  The tour busses are rolling in, the gift store is busy, and the smell of pastries, soup, and churros are filling the air.  The animals are moving about, calves are chasing each other, and most of all interns are running around crazy!  Yesterday was the hottest day of my stay so far!  I know I know, you think there is no way Alaska can have a hot day!.  Well, when you add about 12 hours of afternoon sunlight and thousands of mosquitos you feel like you are in Texas on a summer day in August.  I never thought that I would get so many bug bites and a very nice sunburn so soon.  It was Jack's 3rd birthday yesterday.  Vanessa set up a table with a few items for people to look at.  She had his first tooth, moose hair, last year's antlers, and visitors could even make Jack a birthday card.  Vanessa also had a donation box available.  The moose have the most expensive grain at our center.  Each bag costs about $30 and they go though a bag every 2 days!  Speaking of moose.....
we have a moose calf!!!!!!  We just got him in today (Saturday), but I will get back to that!

Back to the subject of food.  Our bison go through about 700 pounds of grain a day!!! In addition to about 3 bales of hay.  Our center is a non-profit organization so we depend on donations, ticket sales, and gift store sales to feed our animals. 

We were giving the coyote some hotdogs on Friday.  He just turned 7 years old this month.  He is in the same enclosure as the 3 brown bears.  They do fine together, and it also helps both the bears and the coyote to not get bored in there.  They are always staying aware of the other. 

So friday ended with a cookout/meeting.  We had some very yummy BBQ, roasted corn, baked beans, and cole slaw.  I felt like I was in Texas. 

Saturday was off to a quick start.  We had 2 tour buses rolling in at about 8:30.  We were literally running out the door to hop on the buses.  I gave about 4 tours on the buses.  The day was perfect compared to yesterday's weather.  There was enough wind to keep the mosquitos at bay, and the weather was a little cooler.  We were also preparing to receive our moose calf.  We cleaned out the trailer, added straw, and cleaned the bottles out.  The moose calf finally arrived and he is adorable!

This is scott, a new intern.

We will be feeding the calf about 5 times a day for now.  I am very excited to get to help raise him.

Later, mike was loading up the tractor with halibut and hams to feed the brown bears.

After a long day of work we were invited to go dip netting for Hooligan.  Hooligan are a small silver fish.  They are more popular among the natives to eat.  They are also used to make candles.  Our bald eagle, Adonis, loves them!  Since we are not natives or residents of Alaska we can not actually hold the nets.  We could only help Jeremy and Kelly empty the nets into buckets.

I was trying not to laugh......

Lots of adventures in 1 day!

Today we had a field trip scheduled for a Portage Glacier tour.  Me and Amelia went with Kelly at 10 am to take a cruise to the glacier.  It was an overcast day, but these are the best days to see a glacier.  You are able to see the blue in the glacier a lot better on an overcast day.  The sunlight is filtered through the clouds which brings out the bright blue. 

This is the entire Portage Glacier!

You can really see the blue in the ice.....

Amelia and I with the captain of the ship.

The lake has a lot of Glacier ice.....

Later, after the cruise we also went to visit the visitor's center.  The center is located across the street from the Lake.  We also had lunch at the one and only restaurant in Portage...The Lodge.  They have the BEST grilled cheese on sourdough with sweet potato fries....yummy!

When we got back to the center we decided to walk around since the sun decided to come out.  The animals were also loving the weather.

The Wood bison were up and moving since the guys were driving the tractors around and planting seeds for the summer. 

After we fed the animals around the center we decided to go on our 12 mile bike ride to Portage Lake.  It as a gorgeous day!  I even wore shorts and a T-Shirt.  We saw evidence of a beaver hanging around....

We saw a female moose...

We even saw a black bear!  This was my first bear to ever see in the wild!  The bear was walking across the  same avalanche shoot that we were on just days ago!  I will post pics tomorrow of the bear when I get the pictures from another intern.  I even picked some fiddle head, which is a type of fern, to try and pan fry later in the evening.  (It turned out to be delicious) 

Also, we still do not have any moose calves.  However, SUPPOSEDLY we are getting one that is currently at the anchorage zoo.  We are just waiting for the permits to go through. 

Well it is almost 2am and I am exhausted!  I have a long day at work and I think I will be going for a hike tomorrow. 

Goodnight Lower 48, ErIn

New Arrivals?

Waking up and seeing a dreary, rainy, and cold day is not what I want to see when I look out my window.  However, when I look past the rain clouds and see mountains, bald eagles, and remember that I get to work with bear cubs...it doesn't seem so bad afterall.  Since the weather wasn't at its best; there wasn't that many visitors.  We did have a volunteer return so it was fun getting to take her around the center again. 

Last night I grabbed a cantalope from the bunkhouse that no one wanted to eat.  Snickers, mukluk, and Jewelie will be getting cantalope for lunch today. 

Snickers had a feast today for lunch.  He had 1 cup of reindeer grain, cantalope, fireweed, and a nut mix. 

                                              Snickers eating fireweed.

We did some training with the cubs.  I didn't realize until I compared pictures that they are getting so big!

Just a few months ago Taquka was about 40 pounds less than he is now!

The day continued to be rather slow but it ended on a very good note.  We may be getting two moose calves in this evening!  Although this means that something happened to their mother it will be a very neat experience to help raise the calves.  I will let you guys know if we have any new arrivals to the center tomorrow!

Goodnight Lower 48,

ErIn

A REAL day at work

Last night after I blogged we went out to Portage road.  There is an avalanche shoot that we wanted to climb.  Avalanche season is basically over so it was safe to climb. 

                                          At the base of the avalanche shoot.

                                           about midway up the shoot....

The view was gorgeous!

                           We were about 1000 feet up the shoot.  The little speck at the bottom is Jeremy.

The sun was starting to set.  It was about 10:00 pm!

The ice was frozen enough that we were able to climb the shoot.  Otherwise we could have sunk right down to the bottom.  That would not have been good.

Today felt like the first day of summer.  We had visitors from open to close.  We even had a tour bus arrive just as we were walking out the door to go to work.  There where 2 tour buses back to back at 9:15!  I gave a total of 3 tours today.  I love giving the tours and meeting new people.  The cruise ships are starting to come in.  We had a bunch of tourists from New Zealand and Australia. 

We had to find time to prepare the diest, water the bowls, and clean a few enclosures.  That was a first!  The day went by so much faster.  I am just worried that it means the summer will go by fast. 

Jordan did some training with the cubs.  He used applesauce.

When we had some down time we made a few paper maches for snickers. 

2 more rainy days

On thursday it was just a plain nasty day.   It wasn't even worth dedicating a full blog to.  So, I thought I would put it with today's blog. 

Yesterday, I went for a quick jog around the center before the weather got any worse.  There were not that many visitors due to the weather.  We started our day of by seeing if the bears were awake.  We brought them some hotdogs as a treat.

  We were finding indoors projects to stay warm and dry.  Fortunately, Eve the store manager had a cleaning project for us.  The outside part of the store needed a little dusting.  Amelia and I grabbed the brushes, rags, and bucket and set off to clean.  The excitement wore off very soon....

We ended the day by going to Anchorage for a midnight showing of Pirates of the Carribean.  I guess you could also say that's how we started our Friday.

As I was walking to work I noticed Taqoka was having a blast in his new swimming pool.

I was able to go in with the bears today since I needed to scrub the bird poo off of the logs in their enclosure.  Jordan was training Taqoka. 

Even though the day started out drizzly it ended with a beautiful rainbow!