Long-leafed Sundew (Drosera anglica)
Kupreanof Island, Alaska
Our home in this land is an island, mobile upon the sea. The soothing sounds of liquid in motion accompany our transit from place to place. That connection to water in multiple forms was there in the background constantly throughout the day. It was the common thread that tied our day together for activities and explorations were varied and diverse.
Water in frozen form, compacted and dense, searches for sea level. Pulled by gravity it moves downhill slowly scouring the bedrock beneath, carving valleys and leaving sharp mountain peaks. From a float-plane it could be seen crumbling, disintegrating, casting portions of itself to drift slowly away. Harbor seals peppered the surfaces of these rafting bergs. A helicopter provided a closer view to where meltwater cascaded a thousand feet or more, deep into a tunnel of incredible blue.
Cold and nutrient-rich water is filled with life from tiny floating plankton to massive multi-ton whales. Five species of salmon search for their ancestral streams to return to and procreate. Many attain their goals but many still meet their fate trapped in a fishing net. The town of Petersburg is dependent upon these inhabitants of the deep. Gill-netters and purse-seiners vied for position at the processing plant doors. Rapidly unloaded, the fish were prepared in front of our eyes for their journey south to please palates far away. Skeins of eggs were removed from each female and given gentle care becoming high quality caviar en route to Japan. We learned too of the challenging life of a fishing family, of children raised at the edge of the sea.
Rivulets coalesced into ponds, their dark tannin-filled waters no source of nutrients or even moisture for life in a habitat known to Alaskans as muskeg and to the outside world as a bog or a fen. A boardwalk protected, not our booted feet, but delicate saturated spongy mounds of sphagnum mosses and dozens of species of specialized plants. Jewel-like beads glimmered at the end of each bright red hair on miniature carnivores, falsely advertising a sweet nectar reward. Unwary insects are snared, wrapped tightly in a folding blade and robbed of their lives by round-leafed and long-leafed cousins.
As night fell, so too did the rain and as if to celebrate the gifts delivered by each droplet, a humpback whale breached.
Kupreanof Island, Alaska
Our home in this land is an island, mobile upon the sea. The soothing sounds of liquid in motion accompany our transit from place to place. That connection to water in multiple forms was there in the background constantly throughout the day. It was the common thread that tied our day together for activities and explorations were varied and diverse.
Water in frozen form, compacted and dense, searches for sea level. Pulled by gravity it moves downhill slowly scouring the bedrock beneath, carving valleys and leaving sharp mountain peaks. From a float-plane it could be seen crumbling, disintegrating, casting portions of itself to drift slowly away. Harbor seals peppered the surfaces of these rafting bergs. A helicopter provided a closer view to where meltwater cascaded a thousand feet or more, deep into a tunnel of incredible blue.
Cold and nutrient-rich water is filled with life from tiny floating plankton to massive multi-ton whales. Five species of salmon search for their ancestral streams to return to and procreate. Many attain their goals but many still meet their fate trapped in a fishing net. The town of Petersburg is dependent upon these inhabitants of the deep. Gill-netters and purse-seiners vied for position at the processing plant doors. Rapidly unloaded, the fish were prepared in front of our eyes for their journey south to please palates far away. Skeins of eggs were removed from each female and given gentle care becoming high quality caviar en route to Japan. We learned too of the challenging life of a fishing family, of children raised at the edge of the sea.
Rivulets coalesced into ponds, their dark tannin-filled waters no source of nutrients or even moisture for life in a habitat known to Alaskans as muskeg and to the outside world as a bog or a fen. A boardwalk protected, not our booted feet, but delicate saturated spongy mounds of sphagnum mosses and dozens of species of specialized plants. Jewel-like beads glimmered at the end of each bright red hair on miniature carnivores, falsely advertising a sweet nectar reward. Unwary insects are snared, wrapped tightly in a folding blade and robbed of their lives by round-leafed and long-leafed cousins.
As night fell, so too did the rain and as if to celebrate the gifts delivered by each droplet, a humpback whale breached.
