Dengler Images

Nature’s Window: Snowy, quiet day in Haines

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It has been snowing on and off for the past several days. I love the quiet when it snows, and I’m sure the heli-skiers that flock to the world-class death-defying vertical slopes in the Chilkat River valley like the snow too. This 30-second video features scenes of the historic Fort William H. Seward area in Haines, Alaska, including the large soldier barracks building and the homes of Officers Row. 

Fort Seward, located on the Lynn Canal in southeast Alaska, was the last of eleven military posts established during Alaska’s gold rush between 1897 and 1904. Its purpose was to preserve law and order among gold prospectors and to provide a military presence in Alaska during boundary disputes with Canada.

LINKS

Sharp-tailed grouse video published by Audubon Magazine

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I’m pleased that the online version of Audubon Magazine used my video of Columbian sharp-tailed grouse to accompany the still photographs by my friend Noppadol Paothong. Over the years, I have accompanied Nop on several trips to this lek. His photos and my video were from our most recent visit last spring. The link to my video is about ¾ down into the story. As the story says, traveling to the lek is via snowshoe in the dark, and the conditions are typically windy and very cold. That’s just the beginning, though. Shooting video of sharp-tailed grouse is an even greater challenge. Even with state-of-the-art cameras, shooting video of sharp-tailed grouse is difficult due to their incredibly fast and erratic movements. However, witnessing the highly animated dancing courtship displays to impress females to mate is worth the effort. 

While it is a fun challenge, it is, more importantly, a subject whose story needs telling. First described by the Lewis & Clark expedition, Columbian sharp-tailed grouse were once the most abundant grouse in the West. Today, Columbian sharp-tailed grouse occupy less than 10 percent of its historic range. It is currently considered a Species of Concern in several U.S. states.

LINK TO AUDUBON MAGAZINE STORY WITH THE VIDEO: https://www.audubon.org/magazine/spring-2023/a-dancers-stage

Spectacular view of beautiful Haines (video)

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Haines, Alaska, and its surrounding mountains, rivers, and ocean is perhaps the prettiest towns I have traveled to. The panorama video above is an attempt to show the scope of what that beauty entails.

The picturesque coastal fishing community in southeast Alaska is located on the Lynn Canal between the towns of Skagway and Juneau. Haines is one of the few towns in southeast Alaska that is connected with the North American highway system. The Haines Highway (Alaska Route 7 or AK-7) travels through British Columbia and the Yukon (Yukon Highway 3) to connect with the Alaska Highway in Haines Junction, Yukon.

Haines is also an Alaska Marine Highway System stop, with ferries arriving from Skagway and Juneau. The ferry travels on the Lynn Canal, North America’s longest and deepest fjord.

Wildlife viewing opportunities are abundant. The Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve on the Chilkat River, near the confluence with the Tsirku River near Klukwan, is famous for the world’s largest concentration of bald eagles. At its peak in November, the American Bald Eagle Foundation sponsors the Alaska Bald Eagle Festival.

Moose and both black and grizzly bears are inhabitants. Grizzly bears, in particular, are seen on the Chilkoot River banks at the Chilkoot Lake State Recreational Site.

Additional outdoor activities include fishing (Chilkoot Lake, Chilkoot River, Chilkoot Inlet, Lutak Inlet and Mosquito Lake), hiking (Mt. Ripinski, Mt. Riley, and in the Takshanuk and Takhinsha Mountains), camping at Chilkat State Park and Chilkoot Lake State Recreational Site, kiteboarding in Chilkat Inlet, and in the winter, heli-skiing, snowboarding, cross country skiing and snow-machining.

One of the prominent features of Haines is Fort William H. Seward. Built in 1904, Ft. Seward was the first permanent United States Army post in Alaska. Today the fort is no longer owned by the military.

The fort is located near the cruise ship dock. Cruise ships travel the Lynn Canal, a part of the Inside Passage, for its beauty — magnificent mountains and glaciers and marine wildlife such as whales, sea lions, and seals. From Juneau to Haines, cruise ships and ferries pass lighthouses at Eldred Rock and Sentinel Island and stunning views of Davidson Glacier and Rainbow Glacier.

Tourism, fishing, and mining are the main economic contributors to the local economy.

The area is rich in Tlingit culture. A great place to learn about the Tlingit Culture is at the Jilkaat Kwaan Cultural Heritage Center in the Tlingit village of Klukwan, located on the Chilkat River 22 miles northwest of Haines.

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Glacier Bay’s enormity is hard to fathom (video)

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The main bay of Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in Southeast Alaska is vast, stretching 69 miles from its mouth to the furthest extent. It is hard to imagine that the area shown (a small portion of the bay) was a single large glacier of solid ice only a little over 200 years ago.

In the mid-1700s, this view (and quite a bit beyond) would have been covered by a glacier nearly a mile in thickness. Since then, the massive glacier that filled the bay has retreated 69 miles to the heads of various inlets. Recent research determined that there is 11% less glacial ice in Glacier Bay than in the 1950s. Still, even with the earth’s rapidly changing climate, Glacier Bay is home to a few stable glaciers due to heavy snowfall in the nearby Fairweather Mountains.

The pictured view is of the Beartrack Mountains looking from Tlingit Point to North Marble Island and South Marble Island.

The park is an important marine wilderness area known for its spectacular tidewater glaciers, icefields, and tall coastal mountains. A popular destination for cruise ships, the park is also known for its sea kayaking and wildlife viewing opportunities. Glacier Bay National Park is home to humpback whales, which feed in the park’s protected waters during the summer, both black and grizzly bears, moose, wolves, sea otters, harbor seals, Steller sea lions, and numerous species of sea birds. The dynamically changing park, known for its large, contiguous, intact ecosystems, is a United Nations biosphere reserve and a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Editors note: The video is a panoramic composite of several overlapping still images.

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