Animal Stories

Bill Sherwonit

Description

These timeless, beautifully written essays share encounters and observations on a variety of Alaskan wildlife and include natural history information.

In these essays about Alaska’s best-known and most charismatic animals—grizzlies and wolves, moose and Dall sheep, bald eagles and beluga whales—Sherwonit also introduces readers to many of Alaska’s largely overlooked species, from wood frogs to redpolls and shrews to lynx and wolverines. The stories are geographically diverse, stretching across the state, from the Panhandle to the Arctic, and also from Alaska’s urban center, Anchorage, to its most remote backcountry.

Sherwonit examines the complicated relationships humans have with other animals and consider different ways of knowing, and relating to, these critters. Animal Stories increases readers’ awareness and questions their own relationships with wild neighbors, wild relatives, and the inherent value that these animals have, irrespective of what they give to us.

In the Company of Bears
It’s cold out here. Fingers and toes are tingling. My small field thermometer reads in the upper forties, but with the gusting winds, the chill is probably closer to freezing. Classic hypothermia weather. So, here I am, behind a shelter and cloaked in wind shell, fleece jacket, capilene shirt, nylon pants, wool cap with rain hood pulled over it, and fleece gloves—and starting to shiver. Meanwhile bear, lying on an exposed bench and faced into the wind, shows no discomfort at all. If he’s not chilled at all on a day like this, does he overheat on the bright, sunny, warm days of summer (which admittedly seem to be few and far between here)?
The bear naps more than an hour before rising. Immediately, he resumes feeding. He does little else for the next two hours except chew mouthfuls of tundra greens. He barely lifts his head, except to see where the next patch of food might be, and seldom has to take more than a few steps to get there. He continues to ascend a rocky rivulet surrounded by low-lying but lush green plants, until reaching a rubbly pile of lichen-bearded boulders. He then tops a brownish knoll that apparently has little to tempt him, and ambles to another lush swale, where he resumes his feasting.
It would appear the grizzly has entered the late-summer phase that biologists sometimes call hyperphagia: an almost around-the-clock gorging, in preparation for winter’s months-long fasting. At one point the bear finds a spot so luscious, all he can do is sprawl in the midst of it.
The more I watch the grizzly, the more I’m confident he’s a heavily muscled mature male, perhaps in his prime. He has little to fear, except, perhaps, for a larger bear—which seems unlikely here—or hunters bearing guns. That’s one good thing about this weather: no hunters are likely to come this way today.
Introduction/Author’s Note
I. Meeting the Neighbors
The Songs of Robins Stretch Across Time and Space
The Hidden Lives of Hares and Shrews
Living with Moose Through the Seasons and Across the Years
Watching Belugas
Point Woronzof’s Spectacle of Swallows
Squirrelly Behavior
Leaving the Nest
Ravens in Winter
Redpoll Serenade: Celebrating the End of Winter
Of Bears and Bird Seed
Listening to Owl
II. Along City and Highway Fringes
A Gathering of Swans
Called to a Primeval Presence: Anchorage’s Sandhill Cranes
Nesting Goshawks
Arctic Terns, the World’s Greatest Long-Distance Flyers
Campbell Creek’s Silvers
On the Trail, Finding Lynx
Valley of the Eagles
III. Backcountry Encounters
In the Company of Bears
Crossing Paths with Porcupine
Looking into Wild Eyes
Seeking Caribou, Touching the Arctic Refuge’s Coastal Plain
Fourteen Ways of Viewing Alaska’s Wild, White Sheep
Meeting a Legend: Wolverine
Paddling with Porpoises
Wilderness Music: Sharing a Valley with Howling Wolves
IV. Oddities, Surprises, and Dilemmas
A Gift of Halibut
Leonard Peyton’s Redpoll Project
Otter Catastrophe
“Nice” Weather Gets Seals Hot
Mystery of Alaska’s Deformed-Bill Chickadees
An Overlooked Marvel: In Search of Anchorage’s Wood Frogs
Of Waxwings and Goshawks and Standing Up to Power
A Tale of Two Wolverines and One Beloved Dog

Sujets

• Essays
• Sciences et techniques
• Animal Stories
• Nature

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 15 septembre 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781941821305
• Langue: English

Extrait

Sherwonit takes us around Anchorage and its fringes, and over much of Alaska, showing us creatures we rarely take time, or have the good fortune, to see, like the lynx on Turnagain Arm Trail: it is April, there are catkins and early mosquitoes, and right there, a lynx staring at him, becoming part of his relationship to this forest trail. But he also takes us to Denali Park for Dall sheep, the Chilkat Valley for this meeting of eagles, the largest in the world at the Bald Eagle Council Grounds. We go to Kodiak for brown bears and also discover it is an unexpected treat to be paddling among porpoises off Homer. Bill shows us the fur seals at St. Paul, the wolf in the John River Valley whose howl will haunt his memories and dreams. Thought of it may haunt us too. He walks unarmed in bear country in the Brooks Range and calls to mind his totems: bear is one, squirrel, chickadee, wolf, spider they are teacher, messenger, guide for him and become so for us. I want to understand what wilderness means to me. And what sacred means, Bill writes. And every account of animal, bird, or fish encountered includes a mini-encyclopedia of information about the creatures he sees.
Like porcupine whom the Koyukons call the off the beaten path wanderer, Bill Sherwonit s Animal Stories takes us on trips that give us greater vision and a better understanding of our world.
-GARY HOLTHAUS, author of Learning Native Wisdom and From the Farm to the Table

Whether tracking beluga whales in a citizen science project or tracking robins on his front lawn, learning lessons from a charging brown bear or stopping to listen to wood frogs, Sherwonit writes with grace and ease about his encounters with Alaskan wildlife. Commuting ravens. Insouciant wolverines. And the redpoll s exuberant chorus of song. The author combines personal experience and careful research in a journey that will compel and delight.
-SHARMAN APT RUSSELL, author of Standing in the Light: My Life as a Pantheist and An Obsession with Butterflies: Our Long Love Affair with a Singular Insect

A well-crafted, eclectic, and engaging combination of memoir, natural history, and keen insight, Animal Stories delivers a fine read. Bill Sherwonit s three-plus decades of experience with Alaska wildlife, and his love for them all, from grizzlies to robins, shines forth.
-NICK JANS, author of A Wolf Called Romeo

Whether writing about grizzlies, dancing cranes, or mad hares, Bill Sherwonit enchants and inspires, reminding us that wildness surrounds us, even if we don t live in Alaska.
-TIM FOLGER, series editor, The Best American Science and Nature Writing

In his Animal Stories , Bill Sherwonit reminds us that community is built and sustained not only by humans caring for one another, but by humans noticing, coming to know, and caring about their animal neighbors. From the black-capped chickadees at his feeder, to the wood frogs in an urban pond, to the wolverines he encounters on the alpine tundra, Sherwonit celebrates Alaskan wildlife in all its forms with his eyes, ears, heart, and curiosity wide open. In prose that s clear as a rain-washed sky, he observes and writes as a true citizen-naturalist and nature writer.
-EVA SAULITIS, author of Into Great Silence: A Memoir of Discovery and Loss Among Vanishing Orcas
Animal Stories
Encounters with Alaska s Wildlife
BILL SHERWONIT
Text 2014 by Bill Sherwonit
The essays in this book have appeared, often in different form, in the following newspapers, magazines, journals, and books: Alaska; Alaska s Accessible Wilderness: A Traveler s Guide to Alaska s State Parks; American Nature Writing, 2001; Anchorage Daily News; Anchorage Press; Appalachia; Backpacker; Best American Science and Nature Writing 2007; Changing Paths: Travels and Meditations in Alaska s Arctic Wilderness; Christian Science Monitor; Crosscurrents North; Danger! True Stories of Trouble and Survival; Defenders; Living with Wildness: An Alaskan Odyssey; National Wildlife; Orion; Pilgrimage; and Wildlife Conservation.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sherwonit, Bill, 1950- author. [Essays. Selections] Animal stories : encounters with Alaska s wildlife / Bill Sherwonit. pages cm ISBN 978-1-941821-08-4 (pbk.) ISBN 978-1-941821-30-5 (e-book) ISBN 978-1-941821-35-0 (hardbound) 1. Animals-Alaska. 2. Natural history-Alaska. I. Title. QL161.S526 2014 591.9798-dc23

2014017708
Front cover photo 2014 by Tom Walker Edited by Michelle Blair Design by Vicki Knapton
Published by Alaska Northwest Books An imprint of

P.O. Box 56118 Portland, Oregon 97238-6118 503-254-5591 www.graphicartsbooks.com
For the animals, who enrich our human lives And for my grandchildren, Tristan and Alyssa
CONTENTS
Author s Note
Acknowledgments
I. MEETING THE NEIGHBORS
The Songs of Robins Stretch Across Time and Space
The Hidden Lives of Hares and Shrews
Living with Moose Through the Seasons and Across the Years
Watching Belugas
Point Woronzof s Spectacle of Swallows
Squirrelly Behavior
Leaving the Nest
Ravens in Winter
Redpoll Serenade: Celebrating the End of Winter
Of Bears and Birdseed
Listening to Owls
II. ALONG CITY AND HIGHWAY FRINGES
A Gathering of Swans
Called to a Primeval Presence: Anchorage s Sandhill Cranes
Nesting Goshawks
Arctic Terns, the World s Greatest Long-Distance Flyers
Campbell Creek s Silvers
On the Trail, Finding Lynx
Valley of the Eagles
III. BACKCOUNTRY ENCOUNTERS
In the Company of Bears
Crossing Paths with Porcupine
Looking into Wild Eyes
Seeking Caribou, Touching the Arctic Refuge s Coastal Plain
Fourteen Ways of Viewing Alaska s Wild, White Sheep
Meeting a Legend: Wolverine
Paddling with Porpoises
Wilderness Music: Sharing a Valley with Howling Wolves
IV. ODDITIES, SURPRISES, AND DILEMMAS
A Gift of Halibut
Leonard Peyton s Redpoll Project
Otter Catastrophe
Nice Weather Gets Seals Hot
Mystery of Alaska s Deformed-Bill Chickadees
An Overlooked Marvel: In Search of Anchorage s Wood Frogs
Of Waxwings and Goshawks and Standing Up to Power
A Tale of Two Wolverines and One Beloved Dog
About the Author
AUTHOR S NOTE
I first began writing regularly about wild nature in the mid-1980s, while employed as an outdoors writer at the Anchorage Times . My interest deepened, and my approach shifted, when I began life as a freelance nature writer in the early 1990s. At the newspaper I d primarily written articles, but as a freelancer I became a student of the essay form, which has allowed me greater latitude in the ways that I explore the nature of Alaska s wildlife and wildlands. I have especially embraced the personal essay, which enables me to weave my own experiences, observations, perspectives, and insights, with what I learn through research plus interviews with people who represent a wide range of experiences and expertise, for instance scientists, managers, conservationists, hunters and trappers, and Alaska s Native peoples (recognizing overlap among those groups).
Over the past two decades, I have written scores of essays about Alaska s wildlife, which have been published in assorted newspapers, magazines, literary journals, and anthologies. Some I ve included in my own books, either as essays or woven into a larger, nonfiction narrative. Here I have collected thirty-four of those essays.
These animal stories have a wide reach, in a number of ways. Besides essays about Alaska s best-known and most charismatic animals-for instance grizzlies and wolves, moose and Dall sheep, bald eagles and beluga whales-I introduce readers to many of our state s largely overlooked species, from wood frogs to redpolls and shrews. Other essays describe encounters with well-known animals that people rarely meet in the wilds, for example lynx and wolverines. The stories are also geographically diverse; they stretch across the state, from the Panhandle to the Arctic, and also from Alaska s urban center, Anchorage, to its most remote backcountry. Part of the intent is to remind people that we share the landscape with other creatures wherever we are, even where we least expect it. And that even the most easily overlooked or ignored animals lead remarkable lives.
The essays also show, and examine, the complicated relationships we humans have with other animals, and consider different ways of knowing, and relating to, these critters. In sharing what I ve learned in my own explorations (near and far), I intend to open up new worlds and possibilities to readers, just as my own life has been enlarged by both firsthand encounters and what I ve been able to learn from research and interviews. The essays are intended to be thought-provoking as well as entertaining: to increase readers awareness and get people thinking about their own relationships with our wild neighbors, our wild relatives, and the inherent value that these animals have, irrespective of what they give to us.
The stories are organized into four sections: 1) Meeting the Neighbors; 2) Along City and Highway Fringes; 3) Backcountry Encounters; and 4) Oddities, Surprises, and Dilemmas. The first three sections start close to home and gradually move farther afield. The fourth section is a grab bag of sorts-many of the essays in other parts of the book could have ended up here, but these eight seemed to present encounters or discoveries that seem especially provocative or unsettling.
While the stories are grouped by geography and theme, they are not in any kind of chronological order. In other words, the essays skip around in time. It will therefore help the reader to know that from 1993 through 2006 I lived with Dulcy Boehle in the foothills along Anchorage s eastern edge, an area