MACLAREN RIVER — The Denali Highway summer is a couple of weeks ahead of schedule. Not only is the road open, it has been graded and is as pothole-free as it gets.
Boosting the appeal, grayling are biting at Tangle Lakes. Snow remains along the highway in Amphitheater Pass and there are no green leaves along the roadside there, but parka squirrels are out and birds are singing.
Among the attractions of the Denali area in early summer are moose calves, migrating caribou and myriad birds found above timberline. Denali Highway offers the most-accessible high country along Alaska's road system. Awesome views of the Alaska Range are just a bonus.
Memorial Day weekend saw more travelers along the Denali than I have seen in many seasons. The weather was perfect, and our family took the opportunity to spend an afternoon searching for bird nests along the Maclaren River.
[Where grayling are ginormous]
Birds hide their nests various ways, depending on what predators they need to avoid, though very few birds worry about concealing their eggs from humans. Before departing, my daughter Jona and I cataloged the birds most likely to be near our house.
Wilson's warblers, white and golden-crowned sparrows, Say's phoebes, cliff and bank swallows, arctic terns, mew and glaucous gulls and various ducks all made our list.
The Say phoebe was easy, as she always nests above our window. Cliff swallows were also a no-brainer, with more than 100 nests on the Maclaren Bridge.
We got lucky with a ptarmigan nest when we spotted a hen willow ptarmigan creeping surreptitiously out from under a willow less than 30 feet from our front door. The warbler was tough. Wilson warblers are very small yellow birds with a distinctive black cap. They prefer to nest in heavy willows near water. In spite of lots of patience and much floundering, we never did spot the nest, though both parents flitted around us, tweeting happily.
The river bars of the Maclaren were more productive. A walk of a few hundred yards garnered the nest of a mew gull, a pintail duck and an arctic tern.
Terns, who have one of the longest migrations of any bird, (a 20,000 mile roundtrip) normally are just arriving from their Antarctic wintering grounds the first week in June. This year, many birds were on eggs by the end of May.
[Arctic terns' amazing migration]
Gulls and terns nest in the open on gravel bars. They prepare minimal nests, relying instead on egg camouflage. I wonder how these birds can have successful nests. Glacial rivers, such as the Maclaren, have large fluctuations in water flow. A couple eggs on a gravel bar a few feet above the waterline seem vulnerable to flooding — or prowling foxes, mink and other birds that love to eat eggs.
The pintail nest we spotted was also on the gravel. The female came off the nest right under our feet. While taking a shortcut over glacial moraine for the cabin, we found another pintail nest. This one was on the top of a high hill with great views of the Maclaren Glacier.
The next nest we found was that of a white-crowned sparrow. This very common Alaska sparrow is a medium-size gray bird with distinctive black and white stripes on the top of their head. Primarily seed-eaters, they'll also eat insects during nesting season. White-crowned sparrows prefer to nest on the ground. The nest Jona and I discovered was in a clump of grass next to a horse corral post.
The final nests on our search were easy ones. Bank swallows had holes in the side of the pingo just down the road from our house and a robin was busy working on a new nest in the woodshed.
Bird nests are not hard to find — but it helps to think like a bird.
Once a nest is spotted, use caution not to disturb the birds. Some birds will abandon their nests immediately if they feel the site has been compromised. Ptarmigan are particularly sensitive. If their nest has been threatened, they may leave, never to return.
Fortunately, early nesting means that a failed first nest leaves time for a second chance. Robins are particularly good at this, many times getting two successful broods during our short summers. One of the golden-crowned sparrows near our yard had poor luck; the male was eaten by a merlin over the Memorial Day weekend.
The long weekend is over, but the Denali Highway is a relatively short drive from Anchorage. A weekend trip at leisurely pace is easily doable along our state's most scenic highway. Caribou, magnificent views and birds will reward you.
John Schandelmeier is a lifelong Alaskan who lives with his family near Paxson. He is a Bristol Bay commercial fisherman and two-time winner of the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race.