Farewell

Days remaining: 1 day

New bird count: 22 (northern shrike outside the office today)

So long, Bethel, and thanks for all the unsolicited salmon.

My time living in Bethel has been, let's say, bittersweet. I was not particularly happy here. I can't blame this entirely on the town itself - the bunkhouse has been a particularly nettling situation. But there were many things wrong with Bethel. The rampant alcoholism, and the subsequent lack of beer. The subtle and not-subtle racism between the natives and the whites, in both directions. The lack of suitable vehicles and roads (I'll be home soon, my lovely little 'Scort). The ridiculously expensive groceries ($9 for a gallon of milk) and terrible produce (I bought a brand new head of garlic and when I got home and peeled it open, it was moldy inside). The cancelled field work. The nearly constant sickness since I got here, and the emergency room trip.

But I can't be completely negative. Or, I can, but as many people tell me, I need to not dwell on the horrible things so much (especially after the migraine.)

The Delta is infamous among waterfowl researchers and enthusiasts. At Chico State, we couldn't think of one person who had taken the waterfowl class that had been to the YK Delta. Without Bethel, I wouldn't have gotten the opportunity to live in the Alaskan bush for the summer, seeing geese and ducks during the other half of their life.

I got to go out onto the Kuskokwim River three times. Since I was little, I have always loved being on the water. Being on the river and the sights and smells were a real treat and very comforting to me.

I've gotten over 21 new life birds here, and nearly half of them were in Bethel! It was easy to start taking common redpolls for granted, and when out doing field work red-necked phalaropes became boring. Breeding birds behave differently than when they're wintering. and aren't spooked nearly as easily, and because of this, I got up and close views of familiar faces, like the white-fronted geese, and with new beautiful birds, like the emperors.

I met a lot of fun and fascinating people. Some were fellow biotechs with similar senses of humor (thanks, Zach and Nathan, for all the fairy ball, Thai food, and driving me to the hospital) and waterfowl heavyweights, like Jim Sedinger and Bill Henry (who I made chocolate chip cookies for). The refuge staff has been incredibly helpful while I've been here, including Brian, who got me medication after the migraine, and Tom, who had us over to see his young goshawk.

I don't know if I want to come back to Bethel again, but at least I can look back and find some humor and joy in the time here. Already the whole migraine incident is hilarious to me, and I'm sure at some point the bunkhouse hellishness will become a funny story. Probably not until after I'm home in my own bed, with my cats, where I don't have to worry about resetting the water heater everyday and where the water doesn't taste like metallic ass.

Tomorrow I fly out of here for the largest city in Alaska. You better be on your A-game, Anchorage, because I seriously need a beer.

Up the Kwethluk, Part II

Days remaining: 5 days

More pictures of my trip upriver. These are mostly of the SaRON camp. The purpose of the camp to monitor salmon and trout populations, but also supports other research including beavers and moose, as well as the science camp for teenagers that's happening this week.Bear poop! They had a bear come by the camp on Tuesday, and at this rate this is the closest I'm ever going to get to seeing a bear in the wild, so a picture of bear poop. Hooray!
Kitchen tent.
Lab and computer tent.
One of the sleeping tents.
This camp burnt down last summer, so it was rebuilt this spring. It's looking pretty good.
The lighting was kind of amazing when I was there.
Behind the kitchen tent.
Looking down towards the river. The camp is on an elevated plateau.
From here, the kitchen tent is on my left and the lab tent is on the right. To give you some perspective.
Inside the kitchen tent. I like the poison sign.
The ladder/stairs up to camp. I took the pictures above standing at the top of this.
A little springbrook off to the side of the trail up to camp.
This is the little offshoot off the Kwethluk that runs by camp. There is a path that goes out to the main river on shore, but if you have waders on, it's just easier to move gear by walking along the offshoot. The fence is up around the tarp is electrified, it's there to discourage bears.

I have one more set of Kwethluk photos, and that should get me through the next week. As you can see by my countdown, I only have 5 days left (4 if you're not counting today). After that, I'll be taking a weekend in Anchorage, and then back to California. I hope to have a few more entries about Anchorage, but after that, I'm not sure what to do with this blog after that...

So keep your eyes out for a few more entries at least!

Up the Kwethluk, Part I

Days remaining: 6 days

Yesterday I had the opportunity to go up the Kwethluk River to the refuge's salmonid monitoring camp. I was nearly denied this due to that stupid migraine, but our aquatic resources biologist had to make a day run with gear, and since we weren't staying the night, we figured it was safe enough for me to come up.

I didn't get pictures of the really cool things we saw (red-throated loons, beavers everywhere, osprey with a fish in its talons), but I got enough for a few blog entries. Here's the ones from the ride up.
Oh, man I took pictures of people! Weird!
My sweet ride up.
At Mud Hut, halfway through our boat ride up.
Zach and his creepy walrus/trucker 'stache.
Dustin having a Swisher Sweet.