Category: Alaska Wildlife
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Days 3 and 4, Valdez
We are spending 3 nights in Valdez. September 23 and 24 we slept in both mornings, lovely. Two more beautiful days with sunshine and negligible rain. We watched wildlife near the fish hatchery – sea lions, black bears, sea otters, seals, and bald eagles. I hiked out Dock Point Trail and looked at the…
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Day Two, Palmer to Valdez
Beautiful day! It was shockingly sunny, barely rained at all. The scenery was gorgeous – snowcapped mountains, sparkling rivers, shimmering waterfalls. We saw various stages of fall color throughout the day, often brilliant yellow, but sometimes all green and sometimes past peak. We stopped for two glaciers. The Matanuska is a relatively stable glacier that…
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Day One, Healy to Palmer
It was snowing in Healy our last morning. The night before we saw the above bull moose in Denali National Park. What an awesome Alaskan summer we have had! Now it is time to meander back to Virginia, by way of Valdez for one last fishing trip. The mountains were beautiful with their fresh snow,…
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Perky Pikas
I worked hard to see my first pika back in July. The two this week were much more cooperative! I was even able to quietly run get C who was looking for sheep, come back, and watch one who was still busily harvesting and eating vegetation. These little rabbit relatives are so cute as they…
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Alaska Sealife Center
While in Seward last week I managed to go to the Sealife Center three times. I especially liked the bird habitat where the birds are used to people and let you get really close. After months of trying to identify unfamiliar birds that won’t sit still, I greatly enjoyed this exhibit. If I lived…
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Termination Dust, Weather, Week 25 in Healy
Yesterday and today we had a dusting of snow at elevation. Summer is over! Low of 39 degrees and high of 58 (we hear Virginia is sweltering at 98). Saturday was a rare sunny day so we went into the park. Hard to believe we only have a few weeks left before we start the…
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Coho Count II
C and I caught 12 coho salmon over a 9 day outing. I caught 2 coho (both on the last day!). C caught 10 coho, releasing 2. It rained 7 of 9 days, sometimes raining very hard. Those 2 days without rain were marvelous! August 22 – half day of fishing at Sheep Creek Slough. …
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Sea Otters in Seward
This evening I watched 2 sea otters for awhile. C pointed out the first one while we were walking. Then he headed further down the beach to fish for salmon. It is drizzling, a great improvement on the driving rain we have been getting off and on the past 3 days. If it had rained…
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Sandhill Crane Festival
I spent much of the day at the Sandhill Crane Festival in Fairbanks (while C was working). First I spent several fascinating hours at the Alaska Songbird Institute’s (ASI) bird banding station during a busy morning of banding around 60 wild birds. The birds are caught in mist nets, then gently banded, measured and released.…
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Long Weekend with Coho Count
Salmon: 11 coho, 5 pink, 1 chum Rain: 6 out of 6 days (never all day) Foraging: red raspberries, highbush cranberries, sea lettuce seaweed Glaciers: Lots! (At a distance) August 10 Melissa worked in a.m. then we drove south to Montana Creek. Lots of pinks and chum, not many coho though we saw someone catch…
Me & C 