Green Day 2016

Mountainside snow provides backdrop for the Green.

It happened overnight. Having grown weary of meth addiction, detoxing, and general young-woman angst, as I woke up this morning I searched for some other occupation for my mind at least for a while. There was this letter that needed to be mailed but it seemed difficult to justify a drive into town, 20 miles round trip to post a letter, especially since I had made the same trip just the day before.

Then the thought of driving around the countryside looking for any sandhill cranes that might have stopped in the fields on their way to nesting spots farther north. So, I threw the camera into the Jeep and took off.

It only dawned on me when I had almost made it halfway to town. Everything was green. It hadn't been like that just one day earlier; to paraphrase the Mamas and the Poppas, all the trees were brown and the sky was gray Wednesday. Everything has been earlier this year but this came as a surprise. Green Day is supposed to happen in May.

Green Day! For those who haven't seen the explanation before, there is a day in spring when seemingly overnight all the buds in the deciduous trees turn green and the forest canopy takes on a definite green hue. Farther north people call it green-up. That usually happens in May. For example, Green Day was May 17 in 2012 and May 12 in 2011. In the years I have been watching and documenting, it has never happened in April and there are still

 Fairbanks NWS Chart shows average greenup days there.

10 days left in this month. Greenup in the Fairbanks area happened five days later on the 26th.

So, after I left that vital piece of mail at the Post Office, I headed out into the farmlands in search of cranes, but also now looking for a good illustration of Green Day. The first didn't take long, the latter never happened. Sunshine covered the landscape and highlighted the green in the trees, the white on the higher mountainsides but never touched a crane in this valley as far as I could see.

There's a lot going on in this picture. Overhead
a hang glider flies by.  The white in the lower
center is the reindeer about to give birth. In the
background is the Butte itself.

I made a wide circle among the fields, many with tractors working in them, on my way home and since I had to pass the reindeer farm that's about two miles from my house, I thought maybe there would be some calves around. At the fence I pulled off the road where a few adults were grazing nearby. I made a few snapshots but nothing worth saving. Most were on their feet nibbling at the short grass, but one I noticed had laid down and was not moving much, not a very interesting photography subject at all.

I was about to pack it in when I saw a hang glider come into view off the top of the Butte itself. I followed it around through the lens and made a couple of pictures, but again, nothing worth saving. I had gone back to the car and started packing the camera equipment away for the trip home when I chanced to look across the field and saw that one reindeer stand up. As I watched a large dark object dropped out and onto the ground. Holy Crap! She just had a calf. I had to change lenses in a hurry and hustle back to the fence where I was able to watch her clean the calf, watch it take its first halting steps, falling down a couple of times and then finally standing on fairly solid legs, all in a matter of 10 minutes or so.

Who needs cranes? What a treat to watch such a rite of spring, and on Green Day of all days. I watched that cow and calf for some time, then left them after half an hour or so and headed on home, but for the first time feeling the promise of spring. As I drove away I noticed at least four more reindeer lying down in the pasture, the promise of more calves coming soon.

Shortly after the birth, the calf is able to stand fairly steadily.

 Alaska Reindeer Farm      Green Day 2012     Green Day 2011