Archivos de diario de agosto 2022

01 de agosto de 2022

Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska - July 2016

Kenai Fjords National Park covers 1,047 square miles of a portion of the east side of the Kenai Peninsula and off-shore islands. 51% of Kenai Fjords NP is covered by ice (at least it was then) because it contains a portion of the Harding Icefield, which receives 60 feet of snow each year, and has created up to 40 glaciers. The fjords are glacial valleys created by the glaciers and submerged below the ocean by rising seas and land subsidence. We drove into Seward and set out at 9:00 a.m. on the Major Marine 8.5 hour Northwestern Fjord Cruise, the cruise that went furthest into the NP. The cruise started in Seward which is at the head of Resurrection Bay, which is about 18 miles long and up to 5 miles wide. About 35 miles south of Seward we stopped briefly off the Chiswell Islands to see a small rookery of endangered Steller sea lions. The Chiswell Islands are uninhabited and part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. They provide nesting sites for horned puffins, tufted puffins, black-legged kittiwakes and various auklets. From the Chiswell Islands we went through Dora Passage and then northwest up the Granite Passage, between Granite Island and Harris Peninsula, into Harris Bay, then Northwestern Fjord and at the end of it, Northwestern Glacier. Northwestern Glacier extends 7.4 miles from the Harding Icefield on the southeastern side to the Northwestern Fjord. We also stopped to view Ogive Glacier, on the western shore of Northwestern Fjord, south of Northwestern Glacier. We also stopped to view Anchor Glacier on the western shore of Northwestern Fjord at the head of Harris Bay, further south of Ogive Glacer. On the way back we mostly followed the same route, except a little eastward, more out into the Gulf of Alaska and we got caught in heavy 8 and 9 foot swells which had the boat really rocking. About a third of the passengers got really sick. We got back about 5:30 p.m.

We saw bald eagles; sea otters; harbor seals near the western edge of Resurrection Bay and floating on ice beyond Northwestern Glacier and throughout Northwestern Fjord; mountain goats on the steep western side of Resurrection Bay; humpback whales; horned puffins; tufted puffins; Steller sea lions basking on the rocks of the Chiswell Islands; and lots of amazing blue ice on the magnificent glaciers.

Publicado el agosto 1, 2022 12:27 MAÑANA por rwcannon57 rwcannon57 | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

07 de agosto de 2022

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument - Arizona

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument ("OP") in southern Arizona is a 517 square mile UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and the only place in the U.S. where the organ pipe cactus and senita cactus are found. The southern boundary is 62 miles from the coastal port of Puerto Penasco, Mexico and the northern boundary is 128 miles from Tucson, 128 miles from Phoenix and 173 miles from Yuma. The nearest town of any size on the U.S. side is 15 miles from the northern boundary in Ajo, which had a population of 3,705 in the 2000 census. On the Mexico side, Sonoyta is just 2.4 miles from the southern boundary and had a population of 12,849 in the 2010 census. It is one of the most isolated wild places in the lower 48 states. Its east boundary and half of its north boundary is adjacent to the Cabeza Prieta NWR which is 1,344 square miles, 90% of which is wilderness area. Surrounding Cabeza Prieta, creating further buffer for OP, is the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range, which is 2,969 square miles. To the east of OP is the Tohono O'Odham Indian Reservation which is 4,340 square miles and only had a population of 8,576 people in the 2000 census. South of the border, in Mexico, it connects to El Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve which is 2,759 square miles. That is lots of mostly empty space. I've probably been there 15 times or more.

The Ajo Range is a portion of the east end of OP and is often termed a desert island or sky island, where species rich isolated mountains are surrounded by radically different lowlands. Mt. Ajo, the tallest mountain in the range, is 4,808 feet tall. The Ajo Range is a real treasure. The Ajo Mountain Drive is a 21 mile loop over a mostly dirt road. Off that drive are several great hikes, one up Arch Canyon, and the other in Estes Canyon to Bull Pasture. Another great spot in the Ajo Range is Alamo Canyon campground, 3 miles down a dirt road. A great hike starts at the campground, north along the west side of the range to Grass Canyon, up and over the spine of the Ajo Mountains through a saddle, followed by a mostly dry wash back south to Alamo Canyon, making a loop.

South of the visitors center is the dirt South Puerto Blanco Drive that follows very close to the Mexico border most of the way to Quitobaquito Springs, a little more than 12 miles. Quitobaquito is a natural spring that creates a fairly large pond. The Senita Basin is reached by a 4.3 mile dirt road north off the South Puerto Blanco Drive and leads to the only senita cacti in the U.S. Bates Well Road is a dirt road that goes 12.2 miles through the northwest corner of OP and then heads into Cabeza Prieta NWR.

I've seen some amazing things. Coues or white-tailed dear in the Ajo Mountains, coyotes, several gila monsters in Estes Canyon, Arizona desert whiptail, Clark spiny lizard, peccaries, quite a few western diamondback rattlesnakes, regal horned lizard, zebra-tailed lizard, American coot, summer tanager, gila woodpecker, white-winged doves, red-tailed hawks, saguaro cacti, including flowering and in fruit, organ pipe cactus, flowering and in fruit, chain-fruit cholla flowering, hedgehog cactus, flowering and in fruit, buckhorn cholla flowering, teddy bear cholla flowering, fishhook cactus flowering, barrel cactus, including the Sonoran barrel cactus, flowering, prickly pear cactus, flowering and in fruit, silver cholla cactus flowering, and in good rain years, thousands of Mexican gold poppies covering the ground. Palo verde trees flowering and in fruit, desert thorn, ironwood tree flowering, agave, chuparosa, creosote and ocotillo. One of my favorite places in the world.

Publicado el agosto 7, 2022 10:22 TARDE por rwcannon57 rwcannon57 | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

09 de agosto de 2022

Aransas National Wildlife Refuge - Texas (November 2021)

Aransas NWR is found on the Gulf Coast of Texas and consists of 115,324 acres situated northeast of Corpus Christi. It is divided into five units. The Matagorda Island Unit, the largest, is 56,683 acres and covers most of the 38 mile long Matagorda Island, a barrier island off the Texas coastline. It is a buffer to the coast from hurricanes, winter storms and ocean waves. The ocean facing beaches and dunes are nesting grounds for Kemp's Ridley sea turtles and habitat for piping plovers. The side facing the coast has freshwater lagoons that are used by whooping cranes and reddish egrets.

The Aransas Unit, situated on the Blackjack peninsula, opposite the southwestern end of Matagorda Island, is the main unit and consists of 47,261 acres. It is surrounded by Saint Charles Bay on the west, Carlos Bay on the southeast, Mesquite Bay a little further north and San Antonio Bay on the northeast. These shallow bays are impacted by winds which cause the land to go from salt, to brackish and then to freshwater marsh, which provide a wide diversity of wildlife. The salt tolerant plants diminish the impact of waves and tides, filter pollutants and provide habitat for hermit crab and young flounder. Further in, brackish waters provide habitat for young fish, blue crab and shellfish, which are food sources for whooping cranes and herons. Further in, the freshwater marshes begin which provide habitat for alligators, turtles, frogs, snakes and other species. Further inland are oak woodlands, oak savannahs and sandy prairie.
The Tatton Unit is 7,568 acres and is on the upper west side of Saint Charles Bay and connects with the Aransas Unit at a strip of land that separates the upper portion of Saint Charles Bay from Burgentine Lake.
The Lamar Unit is 979 acres, isolated by itself, about half way down the Lamar Peninsula opposite the Blackjack Peninsula on Saint Charles Bay.
The Myrtle Foester Whitmire Unit is 3,440 acres and located quite a bit northeast of the Aransas Unit and north of the northeastern end of Matagorda Island, just north of Powderhorn Lake on the west side of Matagorda Bay.

We spent a morning in the main Aransas Unit and drove the 16 mile long Auto Tour Loop, including a stop at the Observation Tower that provides a great view of the wetlands below and San Antonio Bay. I also hiked the 1.4 mile roundtrip Heron Flats Trail. In the afternoon we took the three hour Whooping Crane and Coastal Birding Tour with Rockport Birding and Kayak Adventures out of Rockport, Texas. We boated across Aransas Bay into the dredged shipping channel between Bludworth Island on the east and the peninsula which forms the eastern barrier for Dunham Bay. We saw 30 whooping cranes on our tour.

We saw: quite a few alligators, including six laying side-by-side on a bank; sandhill cranes; American white pelicans; bufflehead ducks; neotropic cormorants; great blue herons; great egrets; lesser scaup ducks; a redhead duck; ring-necked ducks; snowy egrets; tricolored herons; a juvenile little blue heron; an osprey; Rio Grande wild turkeys; turkey vultures; an eastern phoebe; crested caracaras; an American oystercatcher; ring-billed gulls; laughing gulls; a reddish heron; and lots of whooping cranes, including quite a few brown juveniles.

Publicado el agosto 9, 2022 01:06 MAÑANA por rwcannon57 rwcannon57 | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

Padre Island National Seashore - Texas (November 2021)

Padre Island, off the coast of Texas, is the longest barrier island in the world. It stretches 113 miles, north and south, from Corpus Christi in the north (the upper end of the island is a district in the mainland city of Corpus Christi) to the community of South Padre Island, near the mainland city of Port Isabel, in the south. It is bordered on the east by the Gulf of Mexico and on the west by the Laguna Madre. It is the second largest island by land area in the contiguous U.S., after Long Island in New York.

A barrier island is an island formed by wave and tidal action parallel to a mainland coast and consists of flat and/or lumpy areas of sand. Other barrier islands I've personally visited in the U.S. are Galveston Island in Texas, Sanibel Island and Miami Beach in Florida and Jones Beach Island off Long Island in New York.

Padre Island was split into two islands, that have become known as South Padre Island and North Padre Island, in 1957 by the Port Mansfield Channel, a privately built channel, 30 miles north of the south end of the island. The channel was destroyed later that year and then built again by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1962 to its present state. The channel permits tidal exchange with the Laguna Madre, the inland water area, and provides ocean access to the fishing port of Port Mansfield. The man-made Packery Channel, which separates North Padre Island from Mustang Island to the north, is just one of several channels that replaced the natural and much larger Corpus Christi Pass that silted up and was closed by the 1940s.

South Padre Island, which I visited in September 2019, is becoming quite commercial and a beach destination. North Padre Island, which we visited over Thanksgiving weekend in November 2021, is mostly preserved in its natural state as part of Padre Island National Seashore ("PINS"). PINS extends for 70 miles and has 65.5 miles of gulf beach. There are paved roads from the entrance down to Malaquite Campground and Visitor Center, into Bird Island Basin, and to North Beach. Below Malaquite Visitor Center it is possible to drive on the beach for about five miles without four-wheel drive. Beyond that, you can continue by vehicle, but four-while drive is strongly recommended. More than 380 species of bird have been seen on PINS and it is also an important nesting ground for the critically endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtle.

We visited on a cold, rainy Thanksgiving Day, early in the morning. We encountered a Texas white-tailed deer just inside PINS and continued past Malaquite Visitor Center down to the seashore and drove along it. We drove back, drove into Bird Island Basin, then drove north to Port Aransas on Mustang Island. Then we drove back to PINS and drove all five miles of the beach down to the five mile marker and back.

We saw Texas white-tailed deer; royal terns; a sandwich tern; Forster's terns; Caspian terns; black-bellied plovers; brown pelicans; double-crested cormorants; great blue herons; laughing gulls; ring-billed gulls; willets; long-billed curlews; red knots; ruddy turnstones; sanderlings; a California gull; a great egret; American white pelicans; and a crested caracara.

Publicado el agosto 9, 2022 01:16 MAÑANA por rwcannon57 rwcannon57 | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

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