Summer journal: Happy Fourth

Submitted by Rob Wilder

Photo gallery

Happy Fourth!

Jack’s Weather Report:

Today was a gorgeous day in Barrow.  It was sunny all day with very little wind.   A perfect day to get out and swim, go for a run, ride a bike, go for a picnic,……you name it. 

Current Temp: 43 °F….the high was 44 °F

Winds: out of the north at 6 kt (7 mph)

This morning was a field day to test our sampling machine, the LI-COR 6200.  It had been acting up some so we took both 6200s that we have to test and see if they were recording the same values.  The results were good so tomorrow will be my last diurnal shift before leaving on Friday evening and heading back to South Carolina.

As I came out of the biocomplexity site, I noticed a very agitated golden plover near the boardwalk.  Having been birding with Nathan two nights ago I decided to move back, keeping my eye on the bird to see where it would go.  The hunch was that it would return to its nest and then I could get close for a look.  The plan worked perfectly, the bird returned to the nest, and here is the nest I found after identifying its location.

While I took a look, the parent came running over making quite a fuss over my presence.  Here it is faking a broken wing to try and lure me away from the nest.  When that didn’t work it came over and gave me piece of its mind for being close to its eggs.

I backed off quickly and left the bird, nest, and eggs alone.

After returning to BASC we headed over to Barrow for the parade held each Fourth of July.  Our float was titled “Barrow Arctic Surf Club”.  Several people worked on the float but most of the credit goes to Jason Shone, one of the guys in my group.

After the parade I ran in the Claire Okpeaha Memorial Marathon.  It was about a 9-mile run based on my time, a little over 58 minutes.  We ran three loops around the town, each one taking about 20 minutes to complete.  The women ran two loops.  It was an interesting race.  There was no course map, no course monitors, no lead vehicle, no t-shirt, no entry fee, and practically no runners.  I didn’t count but I believe there were about eight males and eight females.  I ran the first loop with Hiroki.  He is a graduate student originally from Japan and is also working on a project at BASC.  He dropped back after the first loop and I was on my own to run the final two.  Which I did within a few seconds of the first loop and came across as the first male runner.

After the race I ate some caribou-on-a-stick and went back to BASC for a cookout, bonfire, and even another swim in the Arctic Ocean.  The temperature is about 2-3 °C, or 36 °F.  Needless to say it was a short swim.