Columbia Glacier and Heather Bay

Columbia Glacier and Heather Bay

Rather chilly near the glacier, 50s surrounding

Animals: Puffins, barnacles, seagulls, fish, Artic terns, crab, jellyfish, snail, limpets, shrimp, MOSQUITOES, evidence of bears found

Plants: Seaweeds, algae, willows, shooting stars, Sitka spruce, marsh marigold, Siberian aster, sundews, Caribou lichen, lily pads, bog beans


Our awesome Natural History class got to explore the terminal moraine of Columbia Glacier last Thursday (07-10). Columbia’s treacherous ice field kept us from going near the glacier itself, but we got a good view of it any how, and examining the ice bergs themselves satisfied us. After lunch we explored an island in Heather Bay.

The terminal moraine didn’t have many grasses or trees around it. Most of the plants and animals were in tidal pools. There were plenty of seaweeds and algae supporting the small fish, shrimp, snails, and barnacles that also lived in the pools. Like I said before there wasn’t too much found that couldn’t live in the sea, but we did find a willow and baby spruce on the high part of the moraine.

We spotted a part of the moraine where birds were gathering, and so we tried to make our way towards it. The water surrounding that part would be too deep for us to cross over, but we did happen upon a couple dead jellyfish, including a moon jelly that Emmanuel picked up. Around this time, an iceberg DROPPED into the water! The sound was sharp, loud and sudden, and we must’ve jumped about 9 feet!

We hopped back into our boat and made our way across the bay (rhyming not intended, but hey, make a way out of no way) to another island with a trail (or ‘easement’). We set up a grill and I grilled up some burgers (with everyone making sure I didn’t torch them). After our lunch, we headed up the easement into a meadow with a lake and lily pads. It was a meadow of peat moss and grass, with shooting stars and bog beans near the lake and stream. A forest surrounded this meadow, and someone mentioned that the moss growing on the trees meant that they had be at least a hundred years old. Dr. Julie lead us into the forest, and then the bugs came…They travel in CLOUDS. Our bug spray did nothing; Emmanuel would later say “it was like deodorant for them”. There were plenty of nurse logs with moss and baby trees growing on them. We found berry bushes, mountain heathers, and huckleberries. Dr. Julie also spotted a nice sized fungus growing on a tree.

We came out of the forest, but went BACK in. The bugs were unbelievable. I’d breathe them, eat them (when I’d open my mouth), and smear them whenever I wiped my face. Sheeeeeeesh…….We came out on the other side and into another meadow just like the other one, except this one had a stream. There was no other way to the shore from here, so we had to head BACK into the forest. We made it back just in time to spot our boat coming to get us. While boarding, I received a mosquito bite on my top lip, which swelled during the evening but went down the next day.

If you’ve been reading our blogs and aren’t convinced that you should come up to Alaska, you should be convinced now…

Columbia Glacier

On Thusday July 1oth,2008 we went on a tour to Columbia Glacier on a boat called Kimberly Cat, the captain of the boat was called Brat.

the weather was sunny,and temperatures was about 36 degree f. on a board were kayakars, we all landed at the glacier shore and parted ways. the pictures above will show how beautiful and amazing Columbia Glacier is and the awesome living creatures and vegetations are found there. the shore at the columbia glacier was very rocky, rocky because the glacier brought them up from the mountains as the eruded from above down to the water shore. glaciasion is known as the number one facture of erosion and the ice moves from up the mountains, it carries along tiny and large rocks and even some minerals as it moves till it were it deposited and better place it could deposit these debris is at the water shore this can be seen when we saw some rock particles hung on the large pieces of ice burgs exibiting what took place as the ice was moving from up the hills to the bottom of the hills.

For the fish family,we saw a Moon Jelly fish also known as aurelia aurita it sizes 16in(40cm)wide. told by white, translucent, bell-shaped bady with fringe of stinging tentacles. and leave on surface of the ocean, commonly washes ashoure following storms, and be careful when handling it because it causes an itchy rash. also, we saw blue mussels known too as Mytilus edulis, size to 4in(10cm) with blue-black shell is oval-shaped and relatively smooth and leaves at intertidal waters and is commonly found throughout the state and can be seen attached to pillings,rocks and other solide objects along the shores. still on the category of shell fish, is the rough keyhole limpet with size of 2in(5cm), has cone-shape shell has side ribs and a hole in the top, found intertidally on kelp and rocks.

looking at the wild life family, we saw a baby spruce tree, wood ferns, Arctic willows,Mash marigold, we saw a beautiful purple shooting stars, caribou lichens,mountain herdal,fungus,all of this were identified at the herdal bay. at the herdal bay, was a wide area of peatbog, a lake with surrounding land compose of peat bog. we went to to bush and we saw a gray like lichen that hung on trees that are said should be at least a hundred years old, they look like old age gray hair on the backs of the trees. Also was the yellow pond lily, found through out most of Alaska, excep wetern coastal area and north of the Brooks Range. i blooming time is july ana August. a large plact with small, thin submerged leaves and large, long-stermmed floating leaves. they are supported by larg, fleshy stems. this plant has been used as a source of food by many native groups. the thick roots.

On our way back, we saw three fasinating sea lions taking a nape, from the looks of things, its like they were two female sea lions and a male and they were trying to prove their point to the male sea lion on who is the most active from the was the female played around the male.

we also saw birds like the seawolf, glaucous-winged gull, Arctic tern. our stay at the herdal bay was short leave because we were very much disturbed by bugs and mosquitos, who gave us no breeding space to explore more and see more.

Seawolf seeking for f

Columbia Glacier & Heather Bay

Columbia Glacier and Heather Bay

1. July 10th, 9am- 6pm

2. Mostly overcast, some sun, humid, 50s- 60s

3. Prince William Sound, Tidewater Glacier, Rocky beach, Peat Bog, and Old Growth Rainforest

4. marbled murrelets, sea lions, gulls, puffins, sea otters, barnacles, geese, shrimp, muscles, snails, arctic tern, limpets, mudfish (blenny), clam, tube worm or clam holes, mosquitoes and no-see-ums, kitiwakes, large black spider, jelly fish, duck with ducklings, robin, loon, pink salmon, and bear scat

5. Sitka Spruce, including a wee little one, black salt-tolerant lichen, sea lettuce, rockweed, algae, beach greens, dwarf fireweed, mosses, including reproducing parts, alpine willow, beach grass, orange lichen, peat moss, shooting star, butter cups, dwarf dogwood, bog blueberry, marsh marigold, crowberry, skunk cabbage, purple aster, starflower, columbine, violets, juniper, caribou lichen, sun dews (which are carnivorous!), bog bean, lily pads, hanging lichen, regular and dwarf blueberries, cladonia (a gorgeous red lichen), mountain heather, huckleberry, mushrooms, including shelf fungus

What an amazing day we had! We saw so much and so many different ecosystems in such a short amount of time. The peat bog and old growth rain forest were definitely unlike anything I had ever seen before. They were well worth the mosquitoes, and I actually wish we'd had more time to explore them slowly. We set out on the Kimberlain's Cat, which took us out of the Valdez arm into Glacier Bay, near the Columbia Glacier. We disembarked on a rocky beach, which we learned was the terminal moraine of the Columbia Glacier. We saw where the glacier came down to the sea on two sections, depositing rocks and debris at the terminal moraine. We also saw the stripes on the edges of the glacier and in the mid-stream of it, which are the lateral and medial moraines. These are formed by the scraping of rock and debris from the channel from whence the glaciers flowed, the medial moraines being where different channels met.

We explored the Intertidal zone at low tide, searching the tide pools and grounded icebergs, some as large as a bus. What at first seemed just a rocky beach revealed itself as teeming with life.

The rocky beach on which we lunched was picturesque and had a lovely brook babbling down it from the peat bog. There was a waterfall nearby that provided us with some dining music. There were birds and even a sea otter to watch while we ate.

The Peat Bog was squishy and full of fascinating plants wherever we looked. They were all in full bloom and doing their reproductive thing. It was hard to imagine the place in the dead of winter.

The Old Growth Rain Forest was really amazing. It contained so many plants and lichens and mosses and mosquitoes. It seemed that the whole thing was built up of layer upon layer of trees that had died, decomposed, and provided nutrients and haven for new plants and trees, etc. etc. What a rare opportunity to explore a gem of an ecosystem!

Columbia Glasier Trip

10 July 2008

Temp: 64 degree, calm and cloudy on the sky.

We sailed with Kayaking tourists throught the Columbia Glasier early in the morning. The weather was just perfect for me not windy and sunny at all way. When we got off the boat around the area of Glasier, we identified different type of vegitations, seashores, birds, and others including puppies. We identified the following seashores NATIVE LITTLENECK CLAM, ROUGH KEYHOLE LIMPET, BLUE MUSSEL, AND MOON JELLYFISH inside the bay of the sea. There were ROCKWEED all over the wet land. Bottom of the glasier edge got a lot of rock and but two little SITKA SPRUCE were growing around the 10 cm tall.

E

Mineral Greek Trail

July 08, 2008 On Thuesday
Weather: 68 degree and rainy and sun blocked with thick rain clouds.

We went on trip Mineral Greek Trail in Valdez, reosan why they called this place mineral Greek is there were gold and copper minning a long ago. We studied variety of plant and vegetations such as Siberian Aster, Common Fireweed, Nagoonberry(which was we had seen before in Dock Point), Elegant Paintbrush, Coastal Paintbrush, Wild Celery, Goatsbeard, Sitka Valerien, Alaska Spiraea, Tall Cotton Grass except these plants we have indentified two new type of cranberry which had not seen yet to us. These were called Low-bush Cranberry, and High-Bush Cranberry. In Mongolia we do have low-bush Cranberry a lot in the mountain. People eat the cranberry also they boil the cranberry leaves as a tea and drink it when they got cold in the winter time. Mongolian name of cranberry is ANNES. At the same time we do not have High-bush cranberry based on my sophisticated knowledge of mountain fruit vegitations.

We had seen bunch of Chocolate Lily, it was my sight of highlight in this trip. So, I would like to share my Chocolate lily's (my favorite flower) photo by Emmanuel.

Field trip to the Mineral Creek.

Today tuesday july o8, at 1:30pm, we went up to the Mineral Creek.
Temperatures were 56 degree F, climate was cold and rainy.
The vegetations at the Mineral Creek was green and beautiful.

On walking along the trail at the Creek, we first identified;

- Groups of wild Celery, also known as Heracleum Lanatum, from Parsley/Alpiaceae family, they are mostly habitated at moist fields, woodlands and alpine meadows. they bloom around July to mid August. a tall plant with large hollow stems and very large leaves deeply divided into three with deep extra incisions. secondly, we identified a yellow Anemone from the crownfool/ Ranunculaceae, and mostly found in moist woods near streams and alpine meadows throughur most of Alaska. its blooming time is early June to mid-July. Also, there was a coastal paintbrush, low bush cramberry,high bush cramberry with blooming time june and early July. the low bush cranberry is found on acidic soil,hummocks in bogs,woods and alpine slopes and is a low ever green shrubs, while the high bush cranberry is usually an upright shrup up to 8feet tall with smooth branches. To add, there was a group of cotton grass, pitt moss, dwofdog wood. we also saw a Caribou lichen, sybarian Asta,Narcissus Flowered Anemone, a water melon berry, Sitka Valerians and goats beard. We also got news of bears around were we were which scared Isaiah and i most so we had to use the common defence mechanism by talking loud and shouting bear bear go away come in back another day, just to scare them away from us.