Trying out my New Camera

Man!  I had a great day!  I keep thinking that each day is the last sunny day left before it starts raining for good.  It was absolutely gorgeous today!  I know I say that a lot, but today was definitely in my top 10 favorite weather days in Alaska so far.

Mukluk was even up close to the fence so I was able to say hello to her.  Notice that her horns are coming in very nice.  They have grown about 2 inches since we introduced her to the herd.

 I went to feed snickers his grain, carrots, apple, and even turnips.  After the apple slices are gone he goes for the turnips next.  He was very interested in my camera today.

The female elk were running around today.  There was one specifically that would chase the other females away.  Then their boyfriend was following soon after...

 I was in the moose calf enclosure when I got these pics.  He wasn't very happy that I was hanging around his girlfriends.  He kept charging the fence at me.  Eventually, he would buggel when he heard the roosevelt elk from across the center. 

Gilly was being very social today.  They are completely weaned from their bottles now.  Brush is also no longer being cut.  They get about 20 cups of grain each a day.  Once they are fully grown they will be going through a 40 lb. bag of grain every other day!

Hooty and Snappy had 4 mice each for dinner today.  When we feed them the female almost always eats her mice first.  She flys into the log house, while the male hops down on another perch and takes his time.  He usually gulps the first one down, and then holds onto the second one a bit longer. 

These next 2 pictures are my most favorite pictures from today.  After I fed Adonis 6 hooligan I wanted to see what my camera could do.  I was amazed at how detailed the images came out to be.  Eventually I want to be able to capture Adonis with his beak opened. 

 One of my last duties of the day was to feed the big bears.  Our coyote even made an appearance.  This morning I gave him a few hotdogs as a snack.  I am sure he will have some of the left over dog food from tonight once the bears decide to rest.  He is 7 years old and looking very healthy for a coyote.






I don't think I ever explained where the original herd of Wood Bison came from.  Our original herd of 13 originally came from Canada.  Specifically, they came from Elk Island in Alberta.  In order to pay respect for the original herd we have an american flag along with a Canadian flag by the herd of Wood Bison. 

 Since brush is no longer growing we are now giving our herd bales of hay.  We are getting them delivered just about every other week.  In order to keep the bales fresh we must tape up any holes that are in the plastic surrounding the hay.  As I rounded the corner I noticed that we have some taping to do.  Every single one of these hay bales must be checked for holes and taped up if any are found.  So I guess this is another chore to add to my list. ;)

 I noticed that I haven't placed any pictures of Jack or chimo lately on my blog.  Jack is looking very good.  He has completely shed all his velvet and is currently in with 5 male elk. 









Although Chimo may not have as nice a rack as Jack; he is still a very healthy moose.  He is 11 years old and has the typical body of an 11 year old moose.  He has a bit of arthritis and also does not grow his antlers near as much as Jack.  This is expected of a moose that is 11 years old.  Once their bodies get to this age they no longer produce enough testosterone to even grow antlers. 

I went back to Snickers to drop off some broccoli from our garden.

 Last, but certaintly not least, I went to visit Jewelie and give her some water.  I always like visiting Jewelie.  She is the most friendly animal we have at the center.  She is always welcoming any attention she can get. 

She also loves to give kisses!  Jewelie is 7 years old and is doing very well.  I will miss all these wonderful animals when I go to minnesota in 10 days!!!!!

Goodnight Lower 48,

ErIn

Last Day of Brush

Fall is Here! The leaves are falling left and right, the bright orange colors are out, and snow is just around the corner.    The chickens are growing very fast.  It was just yesterday when we got the little chickens.  This is one of the older chickens, but the new chicks are almost just as big. 

Taquka and Shaggy were waiting for me to feed them.  We don't go in with them anymore since they are getting so big. 

 They probably weigh about 250 pounds now!

In the meantime, all 7 of the bears are getting ready for hibernation.  The bears in the wild are usually gorging themselves right about now on berries and anything they can eat.  They are putting on a lot of weight for the winter that lays ahead. 

 Jonathan and I decided that today was officially the last day of cutting brush.  This is what the fireweed looks like now. 














I think these might be bunch berries, but I am not sure.  They are located across the property.

This is the property that we cut brush off of.  It is railroad property so we have permission to cut brush.  We had a difficult time finding enough brush for the moose calves, musk ox, and reindeer. 

In the end we ended up just giving the moose calves one last huge pile until next year.  Tomorrow is also their last bottle feeding. 

We wanted to get some last minute photos of the bottle feeding and giving them brush.   Gilly is on the left and Nelson is on the right.

To finish up the day I cleaned out the fridge.  And headed on home before the bad weather started to set in.  Tomorrow should be an interesting day...we are having a gift store employee work as an intern tomorrow.  It should also be bad weather all day long.

I will let you know how tomorrow goes.....

Goodnight Lower 48,

ErIn 

New Camera and 2 weeks to go!

 I decided that since I am staying in Alaska a bit longer than I expected that I needed a nicer camera to capture my time up here.  I had to run a few errands today after work.  After a quick trip to Best Buy and a beautiful drive home I was able to put my new toy to the test.

I didn't drive back so I took a few snap shots on the drive back to the center. 

The sky was blue, the mountains had snow on the tops, and the sun was out. 

This is probably one of the last sunny days of the year.  We could even be getting snow tomorrow night!

 The mountains have snow on the top 1/3 of the mountain. 

As soon as I got back to the center I knew exactly who I wanted to get pictures of....

Nelson and Gilly!  They still needed to get their daily brush.  When I went to cut the willow and alder; I realized there is only a few days left of cutting brush.  Everything is starting to die.  The calves also have only a few days left of bottles.  They now get about 44 oz. bottles.  Every day we add water to the bottles and take away formula so that they can be slowly weaned. 

 After feeding the calves I wanted to go to my favorite spot at the center, black bear mountain. 

Eventually, I hope to get a panoramic view of this spot. 

I still had to feed the birds.  Hooty and Snappy were getting 8 mice today.  Hooty, the female, almost always eats first. 

Snappy, the male, prefers to eat the mice from the lower branches.

Tomorrow I will have another day of work outside, and that means another day of getting lots of pictures!

Also, 2 weeks till I go to Minnesota!!!!!!

Goodnight lower 48,
ErIn

8 months already!

All righty fellow readers.  Sorry I have been slacking lately...however I would like to blame my absence on these 2 hooligans....

  This is Scout

and this is Ginger....

I have been house sitting for the past few days.  when I get home from work they keep me busy.  It has been almost a vacation being able to have a vehicle, quite place to sleep, and just lounge around the town's coffee shop on my time off. 

Here is what has been going on around work...

The past 3 days we have had high tides...in fact one of the tides was the highest in decades!

These next few photos are from the morning of the 28th...it was a 33ft. tide that came in....

This first picture is the bison enclosure completely filled with the tide water.  The bison had already been moved to a different enclosure.

The elk and moose enclosure also gets a lot of the tide.  There is high ground in all the enclosures for the animals.  Even with the tide in it the animals are still ok to get around.  The tide only lasts in the center grounds for an hour or so. 

Jack and Chimo just hanging out till the tide leaves....

This next pics are from the morning of the 30th.  It was only a 32 ft. tide....

Mike, our executive director, moves the bison every morning and evening during the high tides....

 what the pictures don't show is the mess that Jonathan and I have to scoop up the next morning...

NOTE: If one ever needs to shovel bison patties a nice coating of WD40 on the shovel, or any other tool to scoop with, makes the patties slide right off.

Well, I thought I would post this blog before I headed in for a few hours of work at the center.  Of course, it is a very rainy and windy day.  I think I will be doing some indoor projects once the animals are all fed.

All of the photos that were used in this blog were courtesy of Doug Lindstrand.

Goodnight Lower 48,

ErIn

Last gorgeous day



 Tuesday was one of the last gorgeous days of the year.  Soon the snow will set in along with the dark.  I intended to use as much as the day as possible to work outdoors.  Even the bears seemed to be enjoying sunbathing for one last time. 

As I did the morning walk around their enclosure; Joe Boxer and Hugo were just laying around. (Hugo on right and JB on left)

 The animals are getting fluffier every day!  It almost happens overnight!  I noticed shaggy seems to be building up her winter coat.  The kodiak cubs are eatting about 4 pounds of dog food daily!  This is almost the same amount as the adult black bears are getting!

I spent a large amount of time goofing around with the moose calves.  They are now getting only one bottle a day.  They are getting 54 oz. of bottle, about 20-30 cups of grain, and will be getting brush for a few more days.  The willow has basically all died for the year.  There is still a bit of alder around, but it won't last much longer.    The moose calves have gotten so big that later this same day our maintenance man added a shelf for their grain bowls to sit on so they don't have to kneel anymore.  This is Gilly on the left.

There were still a few birch branches left over from a donation.  I added the remaining branches and watched them eat away. 

The moose calves will be fully weaned in about 9 days or so.  I will slowly start to add water to replace the milk until they are drinking straight water.   

After the moose calves got their daily brush; I headed over to give some birch to the musk ox. 

This is fluffy.  He is the younger bull that we have in the herd.  He is only able to eat peacefully because slide, the dominant bull, has not yet figured out that I threw in branches.  Typically the herd has to wait while slide decides which branches he wants.  I spread them out also so that the younger musk ox have a chance at eating the brush.  Mukluk, our orphaned musk ox, is doing very well.  This will be the first winter she spends with the herd.  The herd has been treating her very well.  I notice her laying closer and closer to the females every day.  It also helps now that the new born calves from this spring are much larger and do not need their mothers protection. 

After I threw the musk ox their share of the birch; I rode the four wheeler to go cut alder for the reindeer.  I also gave a few branches to jewelie, our sitka black tailed deer. 

Our garden is seeing its last few days.  I plucked the remaining lettuce from the garden and tossed it to the elk. 

Tomorrow I will clean out the broccoli, and also start pulling cabbage.  Snickers and Jewelie will be very pleased to see some more broccoli.  I will be sure to snap some photos of jewelie and snickers enjoying their broccoli!  Until then.....

First freeze

Sunday morning was off to a nice start.  It was a little foggy, but it would soon clear up.

Only 20 minutes after I took the previous picture the fog was rolling away.  The mountains were peaking out, the sun was arriving, and best of all the rain was on vacation!

I was ready for a full day of work.  I fed the moose calves at 11AM, woke up the big bears, checked all the hot fences, and even started cleaning snickers' enclosure. 

Now that winter is around the corner most of the animals are going to start putting on weight.  One of the animals that may need to add a few pounds is Jewelie.

She currently gets 6 cups of reindeer grain a day, along with fresh brush, and a few fruits and/or veggies.  Every once in a while we give jewelie an extra cup of grain.  The sitka black tailed deer are not very adapted to the winters in Portage.  They are not in the wild in our area.  They do very well in the summers, but never make it as far south as portage.  Jewelie becomes much less active in the winter.  We really have to watch her weight.  She is at a very healthy weight right now and she is 7 years old.   I am also cleaning out the garden and pulling the remaining veggies before we get a big freeze.  I plucked some fresh broccoli, lettuce, and cabbage for jewelie and snickers.  Jewelie loved the brccoli.  We are always open to take donated fruits and veggies.  COSTCO donates pallets of mostly fruit every once in a while.  The pallets are huge and they are always a big help.  Members that come often will also donate fish from cleaning out their freezer, meat from hunting trips, or just come by to watch us give their donated food to the animals.  We are ALWAYS very appreciative. 

Jewelie always goes for the flowers on the broccoli first!  She also loves the broccoli leafs.

 The moose calves got their daily lunch.  A 44oz. bottle each along with 20 cups of grain.  They also had birch leafs that were donated by a member.  He cleaned up his yard and knew that our moose would be more than happy to take the branches.

 Around noon it was so nice outside that I wanted to feed the bison a little early.  This particular group of bison are the bulls.  Total amount of grain that I fed to all the bison in one night was 720 pounds!  Can you imagine the food bill!

 I also did a porcupine presentation.  Snickers was very interested in watching me clean his house.  It was his annual cleaning before winter arrives.  Boy!  Did his house stink!  If you have ever smelled a North American Porcupine try smelling where they live!  Well, anyways, it is clean now...at least for the next few days....

Snickers had the remainder of the cantelope along with fresh lettuce and broccoli from the garden. 

As I was passing the garden I saw a great opportunity to get a picture of one of our caribou.  For the most part he didn't mind me taking a few pictures.  He just huffed at me a few times but never really moved. 

I finished off the day by going back to the garden for some last minute cleaning before winter arrives.  Sunday night we had our first freeze and it was just a glimpse of what is coming soon.  On monday morning I walked outside and there was a very thin layer of ice on the ground.  It was very exciting.  I may be excited for winter now, but we will see how long the excitement lasts when the snow won't stop coming! 

I have a long day of work outside tomorrow.  I will finish up working in the garden after all the daily chores.  It is supposed to be a very nice day again I plan to take advantage of the last few sunny days left.

Goodnight lower 48,
ErIn