Naturalist Journeys, LLC Support Recognized by the Friends of Cave Creek Canyon (FOCCC)

Naturalist Journeys, LLC supports the Friends of Cave Creek Canyon (FOCCC) as a founding member, and this support was honored by FOCCC today with publication of a founding member’s poster.

The Friends of Cave Creek Canyon is a non-profit organization based in Portal, Arizona, with a mission to:

To inspire appreciation and understanding of the beauty, biodiversity and legacy of Cave Creek Canyon.

Cave Creek is the stunning canyon right outside the door of the offices of Naturalist Journeys, LLC.  Company owner and lead guide Peg Abbott is on the Board of Directors of FOCCC and is happy to help with educational projects, work projects in cooperation with the US Forest Service, Coronado National Forest and more.  Current FOCCC projects include: development of a native plant and butterfly garden at the Visitor Center, assisting the USFS Rocky Mountain Research Lab with songbird monitoring post-fires in the Chiricahuas, developing a brochure for the canyon, staffing the Visitor Center with volunteers to expand its hours, trail work and placement of benches and a meeting area for groups at the South Fork Campground, and educational programs for the public on topics ranging from living with bears to the artistic side of rattlesnakes.

Friends of Cave Creek Canyon has a very active Facebook page where the group posts photos of the canyon, announcements of events, and natural history highlights for the region.  They have a website under development, with material being added each month.  This same beautiful logo that appears on this poster is also on T-shirts for FOCCC, available in black and in turquoise for $20.00 + shipping, from the Chiricahua Desert Museum.  Contact them at: 575 557-5757 or / 575 545 5307 or email your request t: ecoorders@hotmail.com. 

Signature Species of Glacier Bay: Naturalist Journeys Group Appreciates Kittlitz’s Murrelets

Kittlitz’s Murrelet, Glacier Bay

Kittlitz’s Murrelets, when compared to Humpback Whales and calving glaciers, command little attention from visitors to Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska. But when visitors share the tour boat with Naturalist Journey’s guides Peg Abbott and Greg Smith, these veteran’s enthusiasm spreads and many heed the call as they grab cameras and exclaim,  “Up on deck, Kittlitz’s…”   This year, on both our Alaska trips, June, to Seward and July, to Icy Straits and Glacier Bay our groups tallied good numbers.

Despite their small size, Kittlitz’s command our attention for their toughness. Seeing them in the wild seems like a prize given for effort put in. We see Kittlitz’s only when entering their glacier-influenced realm.  Seen up close they are beautiful with speckled plumage, white faces and tail tips. On a moving boat, most sightings are brief, and a camera comes in handy to capture their fine points for later inspection. Knowing their habits helps one pay attention.

Glacier Bay National Park is a vital stronghold for this rapidly-declining species. The species is restricted to Alaska and the Russian Far East, Alaska by far hosting the bulk of the population, and Glacier Bay hosting nearly half of that.  Despite vistas of glorious tidewater glaciers all around, something is amiss here, as estimates for Glacier Bay are a loss of 85% between 1991 and 2008.  It is suspected that wide scale glacial retreat has drastically changed available coastal habitats, where productive feed occurs alongside productive nesting habitats.

Native Americans knew of the mountainside nest habits of this species long before the modern research community recorded it. While most seabirds are colonial, Kittlitz’s for the most part go it alone, a single pair of male and female share incubating the single egg, and feeding a single chick. Widely spaced, their cryptic coloration helps to secure nest success.  One research team found local Peregrine Falcon numbers are on the rise, and noted that young murrelets can make a tasty morsel.  But inclement weather and unpredictable food supply take more of a toll, and many die before fledging. One researcher found nine nests, from which only one chick surviving to reach the sea.

Each Kittlitz’s Murrelet that we see on the water lived through some 54 perilous days of incubation to fledging in a realm of rock, ice, wind, and often snow. Successful adults often chose south-facing slopes where snow retreats sooner, or wind-razed areas that stay open. A few nests have been found on bedrock. Kittlitz’s eggs blend with rock colors of mountain talus slopes and scree and gravels associated with glacial outwash. The main parental contribution is that of incubating eggs and feeding chicks; many young die of exposure or starvation – even seeing one seems a bit of a miracle.  Adults do not feed or tend fledged chicks, and it is thought that these lone and vulnerable fledglings use the water and gravity of fast flowing streams, associated with glaciers, to reach the sea. Weak flyers at first, Kittlitz’s chicks can swim well.

In the turbid, waters where currents cause shallow upwellings, Kittlitz’s Murrelets feed on Pacific Sand Lance, Capelin, herring and other small fishes; at times they also feed on euphasids.  They prefer turbid waters of the middle and upper bay, associated with glacial streams. They seem to prosper in areas near stable glaciers.

Researchers across their Bering Sea-centered range are concerned. Kittlitz’s Murrelets are in the spotlight as global climate change occurs. We were heartened to see park-sponsored research teams braving the elements on the cloudy, cold day we visited. From boats and from small islands we watched them counting, sorting, and collecting data to better understand what the limiting factors might be.  Outside the bay, in adjacent Icy Straits, another research team (Kissling, M. et al), from 2005 to 2009 banded 340 birds, radio tracked over 100 adults and four juveniles and found eight nests. The Southeast Alaska Inventory and Monitoring Network (SEAN) reports annually on research for this species.

Worldwide, both Birdlife International and the International World Conservation Union list Kittlitz’s Murrelets as critically endangered. The US lists them as a candidate species under the Endangered Species Act, a listing that issues a strong call to management agencies, local fisheries, tour operators and others to come up with plans to stabilize the population ahead of actual listing.  The Center for Biodiversity listing petitioned their in 2009, and their summary is excellent for further reading.

Under these odds we were thrilled to spend time watching this tenacious little species, at home in its glacial realm.

Read more: Piatt, J.F. et al. 2011 Status and trend of the Kittlitz’s Murrelets.

Brachyramphus brevirostris in GLACIER BAY, Alaska

It’s a (Wild) Dog’s Life: Botswana

Wild Dogs, Naturalist Journeys 2010 – Botswana

What could you possibly have in common with one of the most feared and hated predators of the animal kingdom? Finding comfort on a full tummy is one shared feature. For us it’s a couch, for a Wild Dog in Botswana, it’s the curve of cool sand left behind from a tire track. Something that conforms to the spine. Something to support the telltale,  distended belly of gluttony.

We found African Wild Dogs after several days of searching. We went no further, content to watch them full bellies and all.  At first in the hot afternoon there was little action. A few changed places as they sought deeper shade as we observed subtle gestures that acknowledge dominance (or lack of dominance), comfort maneuvers to scratch, stretch, or sniff; one longer foray to the bathroom. Our guides looked up, “did we want to go?” Even our ardent birders declined. Wild Dogs are rare, the opportunity to view them even more so. We’d wait for something to happen. One would roll, two would entwine, young ones got restless and then resigned. This group was going nowhere; they were bloated, full of the life blood of something recently fleet of foot, but not fleet enough, the ultimate recycling.

Dusk approached, we cranked the ISO settings of our cameras up to quadruple digits. Two fat adults moved within meters of our vehicles, seeking comfort in the embrace of soft sand. One less endowed adult, perhaps a young mother, slung low to the ground as she approached the three youngsters as if she were a textbook omega. She took on their exuberant, tooth-bearing kill tactics in style. It was time for lessons. There would be a day when prey would not come so easily and it was her job to see they were ready. Africa brings moments to stare into other’s eyes. That those others live across a chasm of understanding is monumental food for thought.

Perhaps that is why we lingered at watching Wild Dogs. We declined the chance to move on. Their grimaces, gestures and beings emulate dogs, the ones we have at home, the ones that invite us across that chasm again and again. Our most precious relationships challenge us to accept all sides, remnants of human’s elemental anchor-sharp killing skills — survival behaviors,  allied in angst at times with social comforts and bonding. This pack, this poignant afternoon, both seem elusive. The answers are there, but our questions are yet unformed….

Crazy about Canids? Try our Yellowstone Winter Wolf trip this January http://www.naturalistjourneys.com/jcalendar/jc_YNPwolves11.htm

LION CUB – Botswana Journey September 2010

Lion Cub Six Weeks Old...

What could be cuter than a tiny lion cub, playing with its mother’s tail? Our appreciation while watching this precious creature at close range was tempered by knowing the reality that a very small percent of lion cubs make it to adulthood. This little one would have many hurdles to face, and unless this mother would return to the pride where other lionesses also had cubs, it would be off cycle with siblings, cutting its chances all the more. We found ourselves wrapped up in a dozen “what-ifs”, particularly as a BIG male was within close range and definitely aware of the female. We watched him follow her scent trail, lifting his head to fully sample the smells, bearing his teeth in the process. Africa is a raw place, with much to teach us about impermanence. For this moment, this day, we felt the magic of new life, the bond of mother and young that crosses species boundaries without anthropomorphizing. That we had a good half hour to watch these two groom, play and sleep, and that we would find them again, two kilometers away with one VERY tired cub following that long tail was a marvel. That we were alone with them, far from other vehicles was all the more so, thanks to the efforts of our amazing camp crew. One of the best things about going MOBILE, on a camping safari is that sense of wilderness gained away from lodges, airstrips, and other centers of activity.