Icy Bay, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska

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Swimming in Icy Bay, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

I think I’m going to title my first book, ‘From One Disaster to Another’.

I got back, safe and sound, from my most recent trip to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, but somewhat earlier than planned. I’ll tell it to you over a few posts, starting here.

I flew from Anchorage to Yakutat, a small town down on the coast, in northern South East Alaska. I was aiming to go from there to Icy Bay, an inlet on the Gulf of Alaska, and one of the few areas where the park touches the coast. I’d heard bits and pieces about the bay over the years, but knew very little about it. Everyone who’d been simply said ‘Oh, you GOTTA go to Icy Bay’. I’ve always been one to do as I was told, so, in time, I headed for Icy Bay. Continue reading →

Male Barrow’s Goldeneye, calling, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska

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Male Barrow’s Goldeneye, calling, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

Guess who should be back tomorrow? Here’s a hint: you might get to see something besides birds on here real soon. Of course I’m writing this post 2 weeks in advance, so there’s a chance you might not, too. But by the time this goes online, I should be just about back from 2 weeks in ……?

I ain’t telling.

So here’s the male of the Barrow’s Goldeneye again. I liked this image because his bill is wide open and he’s looking at me. I had just moved slightly, where I was more visible to him, and it was as if the bird was saying ‘dude, I so TOTALLY see you’. This was one of the last images I made of this duck. What a cool bird.

Male Barrow’s Goldeneye, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Cheers

Carl

Female Barrow’s Goldeneye, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska

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Female Barrows Goldeneye, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

Here’s the female of the 2 Barrow’s Goldeneye ducks I photographed recently. I couldn’t have asked for a more co-operative pair. They were surprisingly tolerant. I didn’t have a blind setup or anything, just slowly and gingerly made my way around the pond, through the woods, hid behind a small bush, and waited for a few hours, and they gradually started coming over my way from time to time, where I could get some images.

It’s wild to see the different between the male and the female of the species. The male of the species, in breeding plumage, is way sharper looking than the drab female. This is pretty common in numerous species, but particularly birds.

Female Barrow’s Goldeneye, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Cheers

Carl

Rainbow over Rock Lake, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska

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Rainbow over Rock Lake, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

OK, here’s a Wrangell-St. Elias National Park landscape again. This one from a few days on the north side of the park, at Rock Lake. I had been cruising around looking for waterfowl, with little luck on this particular day, and headed over to Rock Lake because (a) I had seen ducks on it the day before, and (b) it’s a nice place to spend the night. There’s a little camping area just near the lake, and with a great view of Mt Sanford in the background (when it’s clear) it’s a sweet little spot.

I was actually in the midst of cooking some dinner when I turned around and saw this rainbow. At first I thought, ‘oh no, it’s just another rainbow’, and paid it no mind. But it became more and more intense. The colors were about as vibrant as any rainbow I’ve ever seen. So I grabbed my gear and ran around to the end of the lake to take some images. I didn’t have my ultra-wide angle lens with me, because it’s still getting repaired, but made do with what I had. I ended up liking some of the tighter frames, like this one, but wish I had a real wide lens, because at times the entire half circle of the rainbow was clear. Maybe 10 minutes later, it was gone.

Cheers

Carl

Great Horned Owlets, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska

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Great Horned Owl chicks, perched on a spruce tree, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

Yep, birds again. Here are 2 of the 3 Great Horned Owl chicks I got to photograph recently. I could never manage to find all 3 perched together. I also never managed to find them in any kind of decent light, so had to shoot at the higher end of the ISO range on my camera – which is a total disaster. The D2x is terrible at higher ISOs (anything over 250, IMO), which makes life miserable late in the day for shooting wildlife – the best time, of course, to find wildlife.

So, these little guys are probably flying around the park now, racing each other through the boreal forest as they swoop, silently, down on the snowshoe hares that are really abundant right now.

Great Horned Owl chicks, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.
Cheers

Carl

Trumpeter swan, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska

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Trumpeter swan on pond, and reflection, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

Continuing with the bird theme again, here’s a trumpeter swan I found on my recent travels. The trumpeters were the first birds I saw back in the park as spring began, 2 of them actually swimming on the Kennecott River as it first opened up.

Once the river is ice free, it becomes a silty chocolate brown color, and quite a raging river, the last place a swan might frolic.

But early on, as the first ice melts back, the water is a deep aqua blue, clear and cold, and not as torrential as it becomes in the summertime, once the glacial melt increases. So I was kinda surprised to see trumpeter swans there early on. Then I saw them on the ice, from where I posted a photo or 2 a month back.

Now the ponds are all open and the swans grace their way along the surface (I know, ‘grace’ isn’t a verb, but it sounds nice). They’re definitely an awesome bird.

Trumpeter swan, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Cheers

Carl

Grizzly bear, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska

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Grizzly bear, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska

Hey Folks,

I’m out in the field again, so I’ll pre-post a few more images from my last trip here, scheduled for every other day or so while I’m away. I’ll be gone 2 weeks, so we’ll see how it goes.

Beth asked ‘did I get close enough for any images with the bears’ in a recent thread. Well, this particular evening, I was shooting Lesser Scaups (ducks) on a small pond in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, and had been waiting for about an hour for the ducks to come close enough.

They’re pretty savvy, for relatively small creatures. They know how far they have to remain from me to avoid getting their pictures taken, depending on what lens I have on my camera.

So, after a while, I look in my rear vision mirror, and here’s a grizzly, about 30′ behind my truck. I like ducks and all, but I’ll take a grizzly photo over a duck, any day. Particularly when the ducks are too far for a decent photo.

So I hopped out of the truck to get a better angle, and took a couple of images before this young fella wandered into the brush nearby.

Grizzly bear, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Cheers

Carl

Great horned owl chick photo, Wrangell St. Elias national park, Alaska

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baby Great Horned owl chick, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

I was gunna call this post “You Can Call Me Al”. 🙂 🙂 🙂

I really wanted to get some owl photos this winter, and I heard them outside the cabin nearly every night. But i could never manage to spot one. I did run across a nest towards the end of winter, but it was buried in a thick grove of trees, and too high up to afford any photos, without seriously disturbing the nest.

So I pretty much figured no owls for me this year.

Until this particular evening comes along. I’d photographed trumpeter swans, loons, some flowers, and was poking around just as dark rolled in (dark as it gets in Alaska in June) and look what I find. Eventually there turned out to be 3 Great Horned Owlets, and an adult in the area. The adult was kinda skittish, and bailed, so I didn’t stay around long, and the light was toast anyway (this was shot at 1/30th of a second, f4). But I was overjoyed to even see, nevermind get to photograph, these little guys.

They’re SO cute!

Cheers

Carl

Arctic Loon, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska

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Arctic Loon, Wrangell St. Elias national Park, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

I think of all the birds in the world, the loon has to be the most beautiful. I think the saying should be ‘beautiful as a loon’, not ‘crazy as a loon’. I’ve spent a bit of time watching loons lately, and have yet to seen them do anything crazy. But oh my, their beauty is immeasurable.

Absolutely amazing.

This pair are, according to my bird guide, ‘Arctic loons’, or Gavia arctica, as the Latin name would have it. I thought they were Pacific loons, or Gavia pacifica, but some other photos clearly show the front of the neck to be green more than purple. – so I’m gunna call them Arctic loons.

Of course, the same guidebook says the crown and nape are ‘pale gray’ – I saw a blend of creamy tones none of which could be described as ‘gray’, by even the most bland scientific measurement. So much for guidebooks and trying to be objective.

So here’s a ‘thank you’ to my new friends, the Arctic loons, the most beautiful birds in the world.

Cheers

Carl