Spring up close... and wild orchids

Spring this year looks pretty much as it did last year in Fairbanks. To avoid repeating photos of water fowl and sandhills at Creamer's Field, chokecherry trees, and the like I thought I would focus on more subtle details of Spring's awakening.

In Goldstream Valley the hills are now green, the willows a subtle lavender and the black spruce a green that from a distance appears black.

Much is budding right now...

I set off the other day on Calypso Trail -- a nature trail on the UAF campus. It is named for the Calypso Orchid (Calypso bulbosa). The orchid blooms only in May and I missed it last year as I didn't learn of it until it was too late to catch it. I set off on the trail last week not really expecting to see one, but to my great delight I came across a patch of them after about an hour's walk.

Calypso bulbosa

They are quite small and absolutely the only things flowering in the woods at this time of year. What a gift to be able to see them. Someone asked if I had dug them up and I could only respond with astonishment and laughter. Wild orchids are sacred and, in any case, do very poorly in cultivation.

The Green Bog Orchid (Limnorchis hyperborea)

These orchids are real members of the Orchidacea family and I saw a lot of them on Willow Run. As I remember, they are quite fragrant. These photos were taken later in the summer last year.

Spotted Lady's Slipped Orchid

This orchid also blooms on the Calypso Trail. I was fortunate to have seen rather large patches of them when I took this photo last summer.

The dawn sky viewed from my cabin window.

Tomorrow the sun will rise at 3:54 am and set at 11:45 pm. The day will be 19 hours, 51 minutes and 02 seconds long, but with Civil Twilight it is really light all the time. We will not see the night sky again until fall.

The moose have reappeared on Willow Run...

... and the Snowshoe Hares have now changed from pure white to their summer colors.

This guy was right outside the outhouse.

A Gray Jay at the suet feeder.

The new camera really makes a difference. They always came out blurred with my other one. The following photos are from a recent walk on another of UAF's nature trails. This one leaves from Ballaine Lake.

Paper Birch leaves in sunlight.

Everything is budding but I have no idea what most things are. Someone said Alaska has only 5 species of trees so you would think it would not be too difficult to identify them, but I can only reliably recognize paper birch and black spruce.

Another mystery...

Plants on the forest floor...

... and another.

These photos have been taken mainly to experiment with the new camera. I really wish I knew what these things are. I should probably pay a visit to the UAF Botanical Garden and become more educated.

USF eat your heart out. All of this is on the UAF campus.

... and finally, the Alaska Range from the top of Ballaine Hill. I think this is the best one so far. I know, I know.

This may be my last post for awhile. I leave June 3rd for training to become a Marine Mammal Observer this summer. The training will take approximately 3 weeks and includes Cold Water Survival and Helicopter Underwater Exit Training (HUET). Although it is not yet clear how many assignments there will be nor when they will take place, I am hoping to spend at least a good part of the summer on the Arctic Ocean watching for whales, walruses and polar bears -- doing my part to protect our environment.

Wishing all of you a wonderful summer ...