A Fairbanks biologist recently cupped in his hand a tiny bird whose arrival he had been rooting for. That bird — a female Hammond’s flycatcher — now holds the title of the oldest known of its species. A few days ago, Robert Snowden of the Alaska Songbird Institute in Fairbanks felt his heart beat a […]
Image: Jay Cable of Fairbanks hikes a ridge of cottongrass on a trek from the Dalton Highway to Eureka. Photo by Ned Rozell. On a Saturday morning near the summer solstice, nine people stood on a smoothed pile of gravel at Mile 5 of the Dalton Highway. A man talking to the group, the […]
Alaskans love fungi. This was evident one Saturday when author and mycologist Lawrence Millman offered a mushroom walk at Creamer’s Field on one of the wettest days of the yellow-leaf season. “Eighty people showed up in the rain, all eager to learn about fungi,” Millman said by email after returning to his home in Massachusetts. […]