Out the Teller Road from Nome is a rocky dirt road that snakes up a hill. At the top of the hill our group parked, looking for Golden Plovers--both American and Pacific--and Red Knot (which we never found). We walked back and forth on that road, spying a fox slipping into its den and enjoying the Redpolls that bounded about. But what I was most taken with was the color. This is a seemingly bleak, even barren landscape. But then I took time to look closely. On the rocks grew lichens shading to a range of greens; in between the rocks were flowers. Short, colorful, flowers that seemed so hardy and fragile at once growing in such a vast, changing landscape. I did not bring a flower book on this trip so instead, I took photos in hopes of identifying them later. But does naming them change anything? Usually I feel that naming adds precision to my looking. Here, I just wanted to have the beauty and mosaic of colors.
As we walked, one birder noted a nest in a low willow bush. A Hoary Redpoll flew in to sit on her four eggs. We saw many nests during this trip: a Gyrfalcon on its nest, high on a cliff face; a Semipalmated Plover on a nest on the ground next to a stream; Raven nest in the Satellite dish in downtown Nome; a Rough-legged Hawk nest on a steep cliff in Gambell. The world is reproducing; the flowers are blooming.

Flowers above--anyone identify them?
The final picture is of the flower "field"