The weather was perfect my first week here, which makes sense considering we were trapped inside doing training! All joking aside, training was very interesting as we learned about safety, wilderness first aid, and I even got to learn how to use bear spray. Luckily, days are long in Alaska, so I was able to get out on a couple hikes and explore more around Cordova. After the first day of training, a few of us went up and hiked the crater lake trail. The hike was steep and a great workout for me but the view from the bench was amazing. I also saw my first spruce grouse!
After the final day of training we went out to hike Sheridan Glacier. We don’t exactly have these in Texas, so it was cool to see! However, I do not recommend hiking on a glacier in cowboy boots.
The following week it was finally time to get to work. The first few days we went through some nest camera data from the previous year. On Wednesday, we went out to do an eagle occupancy survey on the Alaganic river, which is one of the branches in the copper river delta that we travel through to get to our campsite. The delta used to be a flat marsh, but in 1964 a 9.2 magnitude earthquake rose the area 6 to 9 feet which changed the ecosystem, allowing trees and shrubs to take over. This gave eagles more places to perch and increased the rate at which they predate on dusky geese and their nests. For the surveys, we start with driving the airboat while counting all the eagles we see within three different stretches of the river. Then, we conduct eagle counts from specific points in our study area on land within the delta.
As you can see, the snow was coming down good that day! Ever been on an airboat in a blizzard? It can get a little bit chilly.