My wife and I found this beautiful Peregrine Falcon north of Fairbanks in the hills between Fox and Chatnika Alaska.
It was perched atop a dead spruce tree looking for prey. There was a valley behind the spruce that dropped down a good 500 feet if not farther. After the Falcon left, it flew straight down into the valley and out of sight.
The Peregrin Falcon is the fastest bird, and animal, on the planet. In a dive, it can reach over 240 miles per hour. The main prey are smaller birds and sometimes small mammals. They catch their prey in their talons, then use their sharp beaks to break the vertebrae.
The Falcons of Alaska migrate in the winter to Central America. They nest on cliff edges using only dirt or sand for their nest and normally have 3 to 4 eggs.
Tags: Peregrine Falcon Falcon Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) Birds of Prey Raptor Spruce Avian Interior Alaska Alaska Protect Wildlife Preserve Wilderness Canon 80d Sigma 150-600mm DanKingAlaskanPhotography.com
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One of the advantages of seeing the same wildlife on an ongoing basis is the familiarity the wild animal has with the photographer. This particular fox often times hunted in the same area, so I would wait for it to show up. On this wintery day, it not only showed up, but came very close to me.
I love the expression on the fox's face, it almost looks as if it were smiling for the camera. The Red Fox of the Arctic have a very thick coat of fur, much thicker than the fox of the lower 48 states. Spring through fall are times of plenty for the Red Fox. The migratory birds begin to show up in late May and by mid June, there are hundreds of thousand migratory birds nesting on the tundra. Come winter time, food isn't as plentiful. In winter, they listen for movement under the snow and will leap high into the air and dive nose first into the snow to capture lemmings that tunnel under the snow. They will also hunt their smaller cousins, the Arctic Fox. Another source of food for the Red Fox are the various man camps in the Arcitic, where workers will either purposely feed the fox or by accident when food waste is dropped on the ground and left.
Tags: Red Fox Fox Vulpes vulpes close up portrait Wildlife Wilderness Protect Wildlife Preserve Wilderness Snow Tundra Arctic Alaska Canon 80d Sigma 150-600mm DanKingAlaskanPhotography.com
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Fighting over territory, these two Red Fox were really going at it. This was their final forray before the vixen on the left ran away.
This was definately not a friendly skirmish or play before mating, they were trying to hurt each other. The vixen did come away with a bloody mouth.
The tundra is a wide open space and why they couldn't both share the same area is beyond me. I can only assume the female had a den nearby and the male was intruding on her space since this was taken in the spring of the year.
Tags: Red Fox Fox Vulpes vulpes fighting Tundra Arctic Alaska Wildlife Wilderness Protect Wildlife Preserve Wilderness Snow Canon 80d Sigma 150-600mm DanKingAlaskanPhotography.com
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Got to watch two Red Fox fight over territory while up in the Arctic. I was photographing the fox on the left when it stopped sniffing the tundra and froze in place for a few moments. Then it took off running full speed towards the fox on the right. A fight pursued, both of them growling and biting at each other. The fight lasted about three minutes and there was no concern about injuring the opponite. The aggressor, the fox I was originally photographing, came out the loser in this fight. She walked away with blood dripping out of her mouth. The winner of the fight, which was a male, kept on hunting on the tundra that he claimed.
Tags: Red Fox Fox Vulpes vulpes Arctic Alaska Tundra fighting biting Wildlife Wilderness Protect Wildlife Preserve Wilderness Canon 80d Sigma 150-600mm DanKingAlaskanPhotography.com
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A tributary of the Chena River is frozen over and fog hangs in the air. Spruce trees and dying grasses add color to the frozen scene. The ice has vent holes from the still unfrozen water below.
Winter in Alaska is a beautiful time of year. Most of the visitors have left and the locals remain. It is a time of quiet, a time of being alone. Rarely does anyone wander off the roads during winter, so when you get off the road, it is just you and the animals and the scenery.
As I have gotten older, the winter treks have become fewer. My wife and I do get out when we can but I have to be honest, it is not as much as before in our younger years. Old age isn't for the weak for sure. We both hope to be able to get out and enjoy both winter and the warmer months for years to come, just won't be as long and as often as when we were younger.
Tags: Winter Wilderness Ice Chena River River Alaska Interior Alaska Preserve Wilderness Quiet alone Canon 50d Sigma 12-24mm DanKingAlaskanPhotography.com
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