Birch Lake (publ. 2025-06-16)

My family spent this last weekend (2025-06-13 through 2025-06-15) at Birch Lake, camping with other relatives on my wife's side of the family. This is a recreational park about 40 or 50 minutes drive SE of Fairbanks, near Salcha. I was able to take a few botanical and ornithological notes.

2025-06-14

3:44am

I am finding bluebells in abundance. The colors are blue, light blue, and pink. I note also some "small white flowers in clusters of about 20, up to five feet off the ground". The memory of what I saw has faded, but likely this is northern yarrow.

4:31am

I find a bed of larger white flowers, with five petals each, and a yellow star in the middle, up to about 2cm in diameter. These are wild strawberry plants — but no strawberries yet!

I also observe wild rose flowers, with five petals each, about two inches in diameter. The center is yellow while the petals are white-pink at the edges, and dark pink toward the middle.

4:41am

Down by the lake, from the dock, I see the sun is just a few degrees off the horizon, a little above some hills. Nearby, a fish occasionally jumps in the water. Up the shore, about 50 yards to the west, I see two adult ducks and some ducklings.

4:45am

Several more fish begin jumping around the dock, in multiple directions. I hear a bird tweeting a warbling tweet, that is a steady sound ending a quick jump up in pitch. Another bird gives off short tweets in triplet. Another bird lets off a steady, rapid vibration that last for about 1.5 seconds each time. Another repeats a slow "dee dee dee" sound.

4:52am

The duck family is closer now. There are six large ducklings near one of the parents, and another two ducklings a little further up the shore, on the bank. The ducks are white or light gray underneath. They have grey stripes on top, or dark gray in the case of the ducklings. The adults have wingtips that are iridescent green at the furthest edge, and dark black a little further in. Pondlily leaves and flowers are visible in many places, sticking out of the water a little distance from the shore.

5:31am

Many Iris blades are growing along the beach. I find a small stand of willow trees that have the female and male catkins; the former consisting of pods that are teardrop shaped but curving up slowly as you look toward the point; the latter consisting of a messy fur mixed with little green projections.

In a wooded, shaded area, I find some large, flat leaves, that are growing on slender branches that lay prostrate across the ground. Each leaf has three large lobes pointing forward, forward-left, and forward-right, and two smaller lobes or bumps near the stem. These are currant leaves, most likely American Red Currant.

2025-06-14

2:30pm

Sitting on the beach, I observe a large white bird flying far away on the opposite side of the lake. Comparing it to the trees around it, it must be the size of an eagle or maybe a little smaller. I can see it a little better with my 2.1x42mm binoculars. It seems to have a short thick neck, as opposed to a long, skinny one like a goose. It makes no sounds and can glide a long distance without flapping.

From looking at my Birds of Alaska book (Armstrong) the most likely candidate is an adult short tailed albatross. However, the book says that these are white on the bottom and grey on top, whereas I can only remember seeing white. And also the book indicates that there are no known sightings in central Alaska.

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