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Road Trip, California to Alaska
Road Trip USA. Salton Sea to Arctic Ocean PDF Print E-mail
Written by Jos   

  

 Black Bear

 

 

Desert to tundra, Greater Roadrunner to Spectacled Eider, blistering heat in lands ninety metres below sea level to snow on the heights of the remote Brooks Range in Alaska, this trip was an ambitious undertaking not least due to the fact I was not sure how or if I could actually complete the last leg of the journey.

 

 

 

 

 

The aim of the trip was simple, get from end to the other, enjoy a juicy bonanza of mammals, turning out to be over 60 species, along with oodles of birds.

Last Updated ( Sunday, 29 November 2015 )
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Part One. California & the West Coast. PDF Print E-mail
Written by Jos   

 Burrowing Owl

 

Skillfully managing to time my trip to coincide with record-breaking temperatures in southern California, this segment of the trip sweltered under temperatures reaching near 55 C and totalled 4600 km from Salton Sea in the south to Yosemite and Monterey in the north. An amazing array of wildlife recorded, including Bobcats, Black Bears and Blue Whales, as well as Burrowing Owls, Great Grey Owl and Black-backed Woodpecker.

Last Updated ( Thursday, 28 May 2015 )
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Part Two. The Great Route North, Alaska. PDF Print E-mail
Written by Jos   

Saw-whet Owl

 

 

 

From the fjords of south-east Alaska to the tundra of the Arctic coast, this leg of the journey took me a total of 6640 km and encompassed an amazing variety of wildlife from pods of Killer Whales and delights such as Aleutian Tern and Ancient Murrelet to Grizzly Bears, Musk Ox and the speciality birds of the Arctic.

Last Updated ( Saturday, 31 August 2013 )
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Road Trip USA. List of Mammals PDF Print E-mail
Written by Jos   

 Collared Pika

 

 

A total of 62 mammals were recorded on the trip from southern California to northern Alaska, this including 40 species in California and 27 in Alaska. Of these, three were only seen as road kills (North American Porcupine, American Marten and Striped Skunk) and one only recorded through the presence of signs (American Beaver).

Last Updated ( Sunday, 01 September 2013 )
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Footnote. The Death of A Bear. PDF Print E-mail
Written by Jos   

Blondie

 

 

With some distress, I was to later hear that the blond Black Bear in Yosemite that had provided one of my most memorable encounters of this entire trip was euthanized just days later. Seventeen years old and a long-term resident of the Glacier Point area, the powers that be decided she had indeed become a ‘problem bear’, that she was becoming emboldened and potentially a threat to human health.

 

 

 

My photographs are the last ever to be taken of her. Visitors to Yosemite are told time after time not to leave food in view, not to leave windows open. And yet a minority still do. They, not the bear, are the guilty parties. To them, an epitaph for this fine bear should be inscribed ‘You came, you killed'.

Last Updated ( Monday, 02 September 2013 )