What a thrill to be looking back three years to June, 2014. It was a very active month. As usual I will search my archives for some interesting memes among the 368 photos processed out of the thousands I took that month. I will find lots of Critters, including plenty of Wild Birds, some beautiful Skies and Reflections, Wordless scenes that depict All Seasons, and do hope to continue my string of Fences. Let's get started.
We began the month at our permanent residence in south Florida, where, on June 3, I photographed a female Northern Flicker (I know it is a female because appropriately, she lacks a black mustache):
I cannot resist including another photo taken the same day, a portrait of a Muscovy drake in our back yard. I think he is so ugly that he curved back across the line to beautiful:
A White-tail buck in velvet was an irresistible Critter (June 5):
Alas, already overburdened with Critters, I still must honor the singing Eastern Meadowlark who greeted us on June 8, when we returned to our second home in NE Illinois:
On June 13 we embarked on our Alaska cruise. On the way out of Vancouver, BC I captured this lighthouse scene which inspired me to "paint" it (using Corel PaintShop Pro):
Three days later, approaching Hoonah, Alaska, the water was too disturbed to provide me with needed reflections:
I see a couple of fences at the dock!
In Hoonah, this boat looked as if it had been up on dry-dock for many years, so I decided it certainly needed to be "painted:"
The next day June 15), only the heads of these two Bald Eagles were reflecting-- not entirely satisfying:
A roar and tidal waves as the Hubbard Glacier is calving:
The docks at Seward, Alaska, with our ship "Radiance of the Sea" in the background:
On the way back to Anchorage on June 23, a last look at Denali (Mount McKinley) through the train window...
...and finally a real reflection amd a beautiful sky, though blurred by the train's movement:
To spare the reader more boredom, I left out the remaining 354 photos, but if you need more punishment, feel free to skim my Alaska blogs (Critters galore!)
Cruising to Ketchikan, Alaska
Cruising to Alaska's Icy Strait and Hoonah
Visiting Juneau and Skagway
Hubbard Glacier and Seward, Alaska
Denali National Park
Riding the rails from Denali to Anchorage
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Linking to Misty's CAMERA CRITTERS,
Linking to Eileen's SATURDAY'S CRITTERS,
Linking to FENCES AROUND THE WORLD by Gosia
Linking to SKYWATCH FRIDAY by Yogi, Sylvia and Sandy
Linking to WEEKEND REFLECTIONS by James
Linking to BirdD'Pot by Anni
Linking to Wild Bird Wednesday by Stewart
Linking to Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday) by NC Sue
Linking to ALL SEASONS by Jesh
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Please visit the links to all these memes to see some excellent photos on display
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After departing from Ketchikan we continued up the Inside Passage with the Coast Mountains on the right (north and east) of our ship. These mountains divide Alaska from British Columbia. Some of its peaks rise above 10,000 feet, and the mountain continues into the ocean to form the Alexander Archipelago, a 300 mile chain of islands that shelter the Alaska coastline. Chicagof Island is the fifth largest island in the United States, and lies entirely within the Tongass National Forest.
We sailed through Icy Strait under clear skies to reach the City of Hoonah (population 860 in 2000) in the northern part of Chicagof Island. Hoonah is populated by the indigenous Tlingit people, and its economy depends upon tourism, fishing and logging. As we approached the port of Hoonah we could see the evidence of clear-cutting of the virgin forest. Lowland areas selected for timber harvest include a disproportionate share of old growth, a density of about 12 times more per acre than normally found overall in Tongass National Forest. Logging roads fragment the wilderness and must later be maintained, at a cost to the US Forest Service of about $20,000 annually for each logging job that is created.
Our ship anchored offshore in deeper water as we rode in a tender to the dock.
The Hoonah cannery stopped operating in the 1950s, and its buildings now serve as a spacious Visitor Center.
I processed my photo of this old fishing vessel as an oil painting, juxtaposed to the cruise ship in the background.
Many Bald Eagles roosted and flew in the port area.
The majority of eagles were in their second and third years. Their heads and tails become fully white when they are 4-5 years old.
This bird is in adult plumage except for some dark tail feather tips.
Although the salmon run had not yet begun, there was a bounty crop of herring, which the eagles devoured rapidly.
Our day started with a wildlife cruise, in search of whales, a very successful venture! Our granddaughters waved from the top deck of our catamaran as we pulled out to see wildlife.
Whale sightings were guaranteed-- money back if none are sighted (no refunds have ever been granted). This Humpback Whale is "sounding," waving its tail good-bye as it dives deeply.
Individual whales may be identified by the pattern of pigmentation, barnacles and scars on their tails, like fingerprints. See: Identifying Individual Humpback Whales
Of course, I had my eye out for birds. This gull is probably a Western x Glacous-winged Gull hybrid.
Common Murres were, well, common.
Following the cruise we took a bus into the forest in the northern reaches of Chicagof Island. As I related in an earlier post, I saw my first Red-breasted Sapsucker, the third "lifer" of the trip (the earlier were the Rhinoceros Auklet and Red-legged Kittiwake).
Soon after the sapsucker sighting, our daughter Jackie again proved her prowess as a wildlife spotter. As we walked across a wetland on the boardwalk she said she saw a very large yellowish tan bear very briefly up ahead of the group. No one else saw anything and I feared her credibility was at stake, so I kept a sharp eye out as we walked to a bluff that overlooked a wet grassy area. Sure enough, I spied movement about 1/4 mile away, and my telescopic lens view confirmed it was an adult Coastal Brown Bear, a "blond" sow known to our guide as also having a yearling cub.
To our surprise, the cub, which weighs about half of its mother's 600 pounds, suddenly appeard out of the deep grass quite nearby, and waded across a small stream.
We had packed quite a bit into our short stay, and at 5:00 PM started steaming to our next port, Juneau.
Visit these links to view the entire series of blogs on this Alaska trip:
Cruising to Ketchikan, Alaska
Cruising to Alaska's Icy Strait and Hoonah
Visiting Juneau and Skagway
Hubbard Glacier and Seward, Alaska
Denali National Park
Riding the rails from Denali to Anchorage
We have just returned from two weeks of travel with our daughter's family and her husband's parents, a troop of eight. Mary Lou and I flew first to Illinois to join the others, then flew to Seattle, rode in two vans to Vancouver, British Columbia, and boarded a seven-day cruise up the inside passage to Seward, Alaska. During stops in Ketchikan, Icy Straits/Hoonah and Juneau we joined coastal wildlife and whale-watching excursions. From the dock in Skagway we took a scenic train ride 64 miles to the summit of White Pass, at over 2800 feet elevation. After debarking in Seward we participated in a tour that took us north to Alyeska, Talkeetna and Denali National Park.
Although they were nature oriented, the wildlife excursions searched for large mammals and eagles. They did not 'brake for birds," and many photo opportunities were lost. Now I am working from my iPhone and my post must be brief, but I will relate one of the birding highlights.
On Day #4 of our Alaskan cruise we visited the Icy Straits and the port city of Hoonah. Our shore excursion started with a whale-watching cruise in a speedy catamaran to Point Adolphus. This was followed by a visit to an interior forest on Chichagof Island to look for bears. More about this later, but as soon as we started walking a boardwalk through the wet forest this bird appeared. It was very cooperative, suddenly landing on a small tree only about 20 feet off the trail. It is my life bird #582.
I had time to snap only three photos of this Red-breasted Sapsucker before it flew off.
The Red-breasted Sapsucker was one of my "nemesis birds," the only species that Mary Lou had on her life list and I had never seen. She saw it in 2000 when I was trailing behind a group of Elderhostel participants in California, letting them look through my scope at a roosting hawk. By the time I made it to the front of the line the "Jelly-belly" was gone.
The day we returned to our Illinois home, we were asked to help find sponsors for members of a student exchange group from Spain. They were scheduled to arrive imminently but several unexpectedly had difficulty in finding lodging. Our daughter and we each agreed to house one of them. We have been very busy showing them the sights and participating in their activities. As to be expected, dealing with a group of over a dozen teenagers and their various crises requires a great deal of our time and attention, but we are thoroughly enjoying their presence in our lives.
This may help explain my lack of computer face time and inability to clear the backog of correspondence that accumulated while we were off line during the Alaska cruise and tours. It may be a couple of weeks before we will be able to return to our normal schedule.