Sunday, October 31, 2010

There are unlimited number of stories I can tell you about bears...

Originally posted by at "О медведях, как о чертях, можно рассказывать бесконечно и занятно..."


"О медведях, как о чертях, можно рассказывать бесконечно и занятно... Но всех, кто пожелает послушать о берлогах, о проказах косолапых на пасеках, об охоте на овсах, о случайных встречах с медведем грибников, малинников, пастухов, о медвежьих свадьбах, даже о том, как медведица спасла деревенское дитя и воспитала его в лесу, я отсылаю к охотничьему костру, там любитель подобных историй наслушается такого, перед чем даже иной фантаст спасует и может бросить писать, понявши, что приземлен взлет его и детски слабо вдохновение".
      - В. Астафьев. Собр. Соч. в шести томах. Том второй. "Осенью на рыбалке". М. "Молодая гвардия". 1991 г. С. 543.

Прав классик! Все, связанное с медведем, нам занимательно: от фольклора до физиологии!
Снимок писающего медведя, опубликованный в прошлом выпуске "Доброго утра…" вызвал повышенный интерес публики. Как написал один мой добрый френд: "Чего же с браконьерами бывает, если даже медведи так на инспектора реагируют?". ( Кстати, было такое  такое в моей инспекторской практике в заповеднике "Брянский лес", что задержанному в ночи браконьеру-электроудочнику пришлось полоскать в заповедной Неруссе штаны после случившейся с ним "медвежьей болезни.)
Шутники от физиологии выдвинули немало версий причин секундной слабости Миши, шутники от политики придумали как использовать снимок для символики "ЕР". Проехались и по автору снимка, гадая, в какой форме случилась "медвежья болезнь" от встречи у него.

Раз это так интересно,  вот еще снимок на подобную тему: медведь справляет большую нужду на фоне вулкана Зубчатка.
Помет медведя, между прочим,  для зоологов - кладезь информации. Разглядывая кучки, можно много узнать о происходящем в окрестностях. Я могу не ходить далее одного километра от избушки, но знать, когда появляются детеныши у оленей, когда заходит в реки лосось, созревает голубика, шикша, брусника, рябина, поспевают кедровые орешки.



Брусничная диета.



Голубичная диета.



Рябиновая диета.



Кедровоореховая диета.

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Golden autumn in Kronotsky Reserve.

Originally posted by  at Кроноцкая золотая осень...




























Good morning from Kronotsky Nature Reserve!




This is the first picture I took when I started my shift as a park ranger this year in Kronotsky Nature Reserve. It seems like this bear has never seen a human before in this remote location. Emotions were so strong that he experienced a "bear's sickness"...

Smirnaya river outfall, 14th of September 2010, 9:26am.


Originally posted at Доброе утро из Кроноцкого заповедника!

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Good Morning from Kronotsky Nature Reserve!

Originally posted by at Доброе утро из Кроноцкого заповедника!



I am a "skylark", I always wake up before the sunrise. It is very useful for the photographer because the sunlight in early morning hours is the most interesting for image capturing. Over the years I've accumulated hundreds of morning photos, most of which were never published. And almost every day their number is growing!

Previously I was publishing relatively big photo-stories in this blog, but today I decided to start a new "column" - Good morning from Kronotsky Nature Reserve in which I will publish a single photo from my morning collection with a short description. I hope that it will bring your spirits up during these short late autumn and winter days! Most of my readers live to the east of Kamchatka, so if I publish a post at midday in Kamchatka - in my homeland in Bryansk province, in Moscow and St. Petersburg it will be early morning hours. The photo will be either from today or taken long time ago, but if you see it you will know that everything is ok here with me, in this remote Kamchatka location, in the ranger station "Kronotsky airfield" near Kronotsky volcano.

On the current picture it is 23rd of October 2010, 8:23am. You can see morning frost on the banks of Kronotskaya River.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Next to a Dream.


Hello my dear Readers!

I could not write anything here for a very long time . It has been 45 days already since I started my shift as a ranger in “Kronotsky airfield” – this is the name for this ranger base station in Kronotsky Nature Reserve in Kamchatka.

All the places around this unpopulated area have names that are connected to the word “krontosky”. “Kronotsky airfield” ranger station is situated in Kronostsky tundra on the bank of Kronotskaya River, that flows out of Kronotsky lake (the largest fresh water lake in Kamchatka), and fall into the Kronotsky bay of Pacific ocean. And the majestic symmetrical cone of Kronotsky volcano rises above and crowns all this beauty!

I first saw this volcano from the helicopter 16 years and at that time I gave myself a promise that to come back here. Since then I have visited this place for periods of time from two days to slightly over two months. And never was disappointed in this place. Every time after I had to leave it this volcano would start coming back to me in my dreams. I would see it in such perspectives that I was dreaming to photograph it but couldn’t yet, did not have time.

For this time, if things go as I plan, I will spend the whole winter here. But that is just the plan, we can never be sure in the future. At least my food supply here should last until May. Most of the time I will be spending performing my duties as a park ranger: patrolling the vast territory around my station, collecting the nature information for reserve research, some time I will spend repairing the current “ancient” station building and the surrounding stations, that are not constantly occupied, but rather used for long and seasonal patrolling trips. But every time I step outside I always take my camera with me, and I already have something to share with you.

Once again I wanted to say thank you to my readers. I did not have access to the internet for 2 months, but during this time the number of my readers increased! This obliges me greatly to continue!

This is how my current home looks. There is a family of bears peacefully grazing nearby on this photo.

Kronotskaya river in September with barely visible roof of my home visible on middle left of the photo.

The only way to get here is by helicopter.

And this is how the local tundra looks like in April-May when the snow is stiff enough to walk on it without snow-shoes. This picture is made by my brother, Dmitry, two years ago.

You can comment here or at the original post in Russian..