I’ve just returned from a wonderful Alaskan adventure complete with bone breaking cold temperatures, snow, erupting volcanoes, avalanches and oceans that never freeze. I have said it before and I will say it again, Alaska is the real deal when it comes to wildlife and wild places. No where else can you find such abundance of birds, land and sea mammals.
Winter may seem like a crazy time to visit our largest state but I think it is a magical time. The snow covered mountains and winter landscapes make it a great time to be in the land of the mid-night sun-even if the days are incredibly short. I spend most of my time along the coast of the Kenai peninsula. This is a stretch of land the juts southwest out of Anchorage and is surrounded by the Kachemak Bay.
Driving through the mountains which dominant the landscape I saw more moose in 10 days than I do in several years of my normal travels. The streams flow with a slushy green water the consistency of a slurpy. At first glance the water looks uninhabitable but swimming amongst the flowing ice are Common and Barrow’s Goldeneye. These stunning black and white ducks dive beneath the rushing ice to retrieve aquatic insects and crustations off the bottom of the river.
Along the banks of the rivers lives a small gray bird that looks somewhat like an American Robin or Gray Catbird. The Dipper is another amazing cold tolerant bird. With much zest and gusto it dives head first into fast moving streams that would sweep you or me away to our deaths in seconds and retrieves tiny aquatic insects which is brings back up to the edge of the water to eat. After eating it simply turns and dives back into the water for another fishing trip. What an amazing tiny bird.
One of my all time favorite mammals is the Sea Otter. Just about anywhere along the coast you can see these playful critters. At one time I had stopped to photograph a huge flock so Rock Sandpipers when I noticed about 300 otters swimming and loafing in the water and floating ice burgs. I have seen larger groups of otters in Southern California but never this large. I watched as some would roll around on their backs enjoying the sunshine and feeding on clams and other shellfish while others were play fighting. What a delight.
You may have seen in the news a couple weeks ago the irruption of Mount Augustine. This was my first experience with volcanoes and I can tell you I kept my eye on the smoking plume. Thankfully it didn’t erupt during my stay but just seeing the volcano just 75 miles away was exciting.
The weather alternated between days of snow and days of sunshine. I don’t believe it got much above 30 degrees during the day and the nights were in the single digits until the last two days when the temps dropped like a rock. One day while photographing Boreal Chickadees, similar to our Black-capped Chickadees, the temps never got above 20 degrees below zero. Coming from Minnesota I was completely prepared for such extreme conditions but that kind of weather can really make you feel alive.
But the main reason I went to Alaska was to photograph Bald Eagles. Homer Alaska is the winter home to several hundred of these magnificent birds. I spent many days photographing the eagles fishing from the ocean, flying and banking with snow covered mountains in the background and resting on the rocky beaches. I took thousands of images of these birds documenting all their behaviors and natural history. Even after a week of photographing I was still excited to get up each morning before day break and get out to photograph these birds. Most of these images will go towards a new book I am writing to celebrate our national symbol.
I am never disappointed whenever I go to Alaska because as I said before and will say again. Alaska is the real deal. Until next time…