Category: The Whole USA

 

  Seldovia is a small island town in Katchemak Bay that is accessible only by boat or plane.  It was our mid-way destination when we took a wildlife and sightseeing boat trip from Homer.  

 

  

Our Captain took the slow route getting there, with a lot of stops so that we could look at  all the wonderful sealife and scenery that I posted about here (and more that I didn't get pictures of).  Then he docked at Seldovia where we had almost three hours to eat lunch and stroll before re-boarding the boat for the return trip  (which was faster,  pretty much without photo-op stops).

 

   

 

We walked all around the little town.  There were a few nice homes, an interesting old Russian Orthodox Church, several sweet little pocket parks on the main street, and an awful lot of homes and buildings that had seen better days.

 

 

 

Seldovia was very heavily damaged by the Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964.   It used to have boardwalks throughout the whole town, but most of them were destroyed during  the quake or in the following "urban renewal" projects.   One person told us that the town, which was a fishing village really, was just beginning to recover from the severe quake damage when the bottom fell out of the fishing industry.  Now it is mainly a  destination for tourists and  sports fishing charter boats.      

 

The tourist literature said that artists  and craftspersons also find it a good place to live and work, but in our limited time there we did not find a whole lot  that interested us.  (We weren't in the market for art in any case — not much room in our teeny tiny RV for art or crafts.)   There were a lot of rustic chainsaw carvings, which normally don't impress us much, but I rather liked these puffins.

 

 

A few of the sights  as the boat pulled away from Seldovia on the return trip.

 

SHARING WITH OUR WORLD TUESDAY with thanks to the wonderful ladies of the hosting team.

  

 

 

 

 

Mama Moose and her baby came strolling right toward us as we drove down the road to Cook Inlet State Park.

At first the little one looked quite wobbly on his feet.   It just might have been his first long-term outing.

 

He seemed to get more sure of himself though as we watched.

 

  

 Heading for greener pastures.

 

 

 

 Let's try going a little faster now!

 

 

 

 

Mom, Mom, MOM, look at me — I can do this by myself!! 

 

 

 

Stop right now and wait for me before you cross that clearing!!

(All pictures taken from window of parked car — we pulled over as soon as we saw them walking down the road.) 

 

Linking with SATURDAY CRITTERS.  Thanks to Eileen.  

 

 

 We really loved Homer.  It was one of those places that called our names — where we felt right at home — where we could almost imagine ourselves living happily ever after.  At the Southern  end of the Kenai Peninsula Homer is literally the end of the road …   the Sterling Highway ends in the town and you can't drive any further.   When you are ready to leave, you have to turn around and go back the way you came.  

 

 A seacoast town, with a slight counter-culture vibe existing side-by-side with a working fishing village.   Birds and whales and fish and boats.  Nice people …  and even some pretty darn good restaurants  ….  what's not to love!

 

 And of course the amazing views!

 Glaciers, ice fields, and volcanic peaks are visible across the bay from the Homer Spit (the very end of the land, down on the fishing wharf and docks.)  

 

 

 

 

We stayed in an RV Park on the Spit … about 2 minutes from the dock area and about five from the town itself.    All of these pictures (except for the one from the wharf with the glacier) were taken on different evenings as we walked on the beach.    In front of where we were camped.  At around 11 p.m.  (Yeah, I still haven't quite gotten over that!)

 

 

 SHARING with SKYWATCH FRIDAY and SCENIC WEEKENDS.    Thank you to THE HOSTS.

I sort of hate it when a  bird I've never seen before is called "Common …" but since we saw hundreds and hundreds of this bird on a tour of Katchemak Bay it's apparent that "Common Murre" is an appropriate name.

 

 

 

What's definitely not common is this bird's ability to "walk" — or more aptly, "dance" on the water.  

That is such an amazing behavior to watch.  

Here's a closer look.

 

 

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Below is a look at some other common — or maybe not so common — birds.  We saw hundreds of these two kinds of birds on the piece of floating real-estate called (surprise) "Gull Island".    

 

If these birds have a round black spot on the bottom of their wings, then they are  Kittiwakes  - a bird found pretty much only in Alaska (according to our tour guide).  

If they have no black spot, then they are a glaucous-winged gull found in pretty much every landfill in every state (again according to our guide, but we all know this).       I have seen the black spot clearly several times, but it is definitely harder to get  excited about this lifer.  

 

This boat trip from Homer to the little island village of Seldovia was a great experience.  

Other birds we saw (not lifers) included puffins, oystercatchers, eagles — more eagles — there are  so many of them in Alaska (I'll have a post about that another week).  

 

And, though the picture below isn't about birds, I think most birders enjoy viewing all wildlife, so just because I love these guys, I think I 'otter' end  this way:

 

 

 

 FOR WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY.  Thank you Stuart.

 

 

 

 

 This small adventure in OUR WORLD happened last week when we were still staying in Soldanta.  We've moved on a couple of places since then.  I might still be blogging about Alaska next winter — so much to see and do here.  (And such iffy Internet connections.)  

 

We hiked a 6 mile out-and-back trail up to the Russian River Falls (uphill both ways, it seemed like to me). It  was the beginning of the run for the red salmon (Coho).

 It was amazing to watch the fish try so hard to swim up these falls.  There were so many of them.  And people told us that this was just the beginning.  Soon there would be even more. 

 

 

We watched several parties netting the fish from the bottom of the Falls.     In assigned places, rural Alaska residents  are eligible to catch salmon using dip nets.    It used to be only Native Americans who could do this, but now most  residents of the State are eligible. 

 

 

It was interesting to see families hauling their nets, ice chests, and other paraphanalia along the trail.  I think if they are willing to go to that much work, they certainly deserve to put fish in their freezer for the long winter ahead.

 

 

The beautiful  day was perfect for a hike.   New spring growth and lots of wildflowers.   In spots of clearing we could see snow-covered mountain peaks, but we were in shirtsleeves the whole time.   

 

 

 For  OUR WORLD TUESDAY and  SCENIC WEEKENDS

 Thank you to the hosts!  

 

After Midnight,  June 20 2014.  Soldanta Alaska

 

 

 

There was more color in the sky that night than we had seen since we'd been in the State.

 

Mostly the nights have  been — well — not night.   Just pale blue daylight all the time… until we go ahead and go to bed anyway.  And still the same color when we get up the next morning.   Takes a little getting used to.

 

The next day it rained almost all day.  So I guess the color was the storm clouds gathering.  That was June 21, the longest day of the year.   Not a good day for the city's Solstice Celebration.  We decided to skip it and we probably weren't the only ones.

 

 

FOR:  SKYWATCH FRIDAY.  Thank you to Yogi, Sylvia, and Sandy

 

We really wanted to see puffins — and we did see some on our dinner cruise out of Resurrection Bay,  but not close enough to get decent pictures.   A couple of days after the cruise, we went to the Alaska Sea Life Center   (on the same Bay — in Seward) and I took all of these pictures there.  

 

 

The horned puffin above is the kind we saw from the boat … and the kind we were hoping to see.  Didn't even know there was such a thing as a Tufted Puffin  (like the one below) until we visited the Center.

 

 

(Looks like a real bad hair day.) 

 

 

I still hope to be able someday to spot and photograph puffins in the wild, but the Sealife Center is the next best place.  And  we have at least seen the horned puffin in its natural state so I can add it to my list.

 (When I first became interested in birds, it was pre-digital camera, so back then whenever I saw a new bird it was a great day.  Nowadays, I don't quite feel like it counts unless I get a picture.)  

 

LINKING TO:  WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY brought to us by Stewart, who hosted his 100th edition of WBW while we were traveling.  Belated congratulations and, as always, thanks for hosting Stewart.   

 

 

 

      

 

We hiked to the edge of Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park.  It was a pretty good little jaunt for a couple of great-grandparents …  Had we been here only a few years earlier, it would have been easier.    The chart below, seen along the trail, shows the glacier's retreat.

 

 

Although it has been receding since the end of the little ice age, it has lost mass at a much faster pace in the last few years as shown.  

 

 

 

 

 

Small signs as you walk along the trail from the parking area show where the edge of the glacier would have been in earlier years.  The distance between them was an excellent visual of  how clmate change  has affected the glacier.

 

 

 

 

Linking this post to NATURE NOTES (Thank you to Michelle) and to OUR WORLD (Thank you to Lady Fi and the other wonderful bloggers of the OWT team).

 

 Everything about Northern Sea Otters is so darn cute.    I could watch them all day (and almost did). The bay was full of Otters.

 

Looks like he might be saying grace before dinner (or praying for a good catch).

 

And  it worked.  A few minutes later —  after a quick backflip underwater  – he was up again and enjoying a yummy shellfish dinner! 

 

Time for an after-dinner nap!

 

Northern Sea Otters are a member of the weasel family.  They are the only marine mammal that does not have blubber to keep warm.  Instead they rely on their very dense fur [1200 hairs per square inch] which keeps their skin dry.  That rich fur contributed to their near-demise after hunters nearly wiped them out  by the early 20th century.   They are now protected and the species has rebounded.  But they are still considered an endangered animal because of habitat loss.

The next day we visited the sealife rehabilitaion center and learned more about them.  Sea otter diet consists of shellfish.  Due to their high metabolism and the cold they eat about thirty percent of their weight daily.  At the center, we were told that they eat more than a Sea Lion, and are much more expensive to feed [shell fish vs herring type fish] They are one of the few mammals to use tools — they sometimes place a rock on their chest and pound the shellfish against it to crack it.    

 

LINKED TO SATURDAY CRITTERS.  Thank you to Eileen for hosting.