Remember #1? Alaska is huge. They like to ask you where you are from and then tell you how many times bigger Alaska is to your state. I swear they teach Alaskans that in grade school math class. "Now class, how many times does Alaska divide by Texas?" "That's right Jimmy, 2 times." I can hear it now. I'll ask Mandy about that since she is a grade school teacher.
The vastness of Alaska makes birding and wildlife viewing a challenge. While there are many species to see, you have to drive (or fly) a long way to see them all. You may appreciate our trip by looking at our driving route. We covered 1400 miles in just that little section of the state. (In 8 days!)
Alaska Map
You can imagine that the girls were squirming after our trip across the Denali highway. Our butts were sore from being bounced around in the van. And the van was taking a beating too.
Barbara trying to escape the van
We did see wildlife. Sometimes in the distance and sometimes up close. For instance: this is our first encounter with a Golden Eagle. Can you see it? Its that little pimple on the cliff ridge. We found this bird on our first bus ride in Denali National Park.
Golden Eagle near nest
Here is the view we had on our second (and much better) bus trip in Denali. Can you see the difference?
Golden Eagle
How about this example. These are the Grizzly Bears that we saw on the first bus trip. A mother and 2 cubs wandering in the grass.
Grizzly Bears
On the second trip, we saw these bears. First this guy. This photo isn't cropped. That's how close the bear was to the bus. Poor Todd. His camera lens was so big that he couldn't fit the entire bear in the frame. This is one time that my inferior lens came in handy.
Grizzly Bear
Barbara shot this video on her iPhone when he walked past the bus. He was so close that we could hear him breathing.
Here is a shot of him wandering off. Check out the size of that paw!
Grizzly Bear
We were so excited. Our bus driver told another bus about it but he told her about other bears just up the road. A mother and 2 cubs.
Grizzly Bear - Mom and cub
Grizzly Bear cub
Grizzly Bear cub
You really don't get closer than that. Or cuter! The cubs pretty much laid around and ate every blade of grass and every flower that they could get to and then moved and did it again. Wow.
Another example of wildlife that you can see far in the distance or up close and personal. Remember the Moose that we saw on the first day? Well, we saw many other Moose on the trip including this gal along the creek.
Moose
But then we saw this mother and calves on the side of the road. We stopped the van and they didn't care at all.
Moose and calves
The calves stayed close together.
Moose calves
These next photos are cropped. But really, look how adorable.
Moose calf
Totes Adorbs (that's slang for Totally Adorable).
Moose calf
Some wildlife never got close, like these Dall's Sheep. You take what you get with these high mountain sheep. Lori and Tara did have closer looks on a hike one day but these are the only views that I got.
Dall's Sheep
Same with the Caribou. We saw plenty, but never really close. Here is a video of the herd moving across the mountain slope.
On the other hand, this is the only view of Hoary Marmot from the trip. He was hanging out at the Visitor's Center. While everyone else was inside peeing, Todd, Laura and I were snapping photos. Never saw another one on the trip.
Hoary Marmot
The bottom line is that you have to get out there to see wildlife. Sometimes they keep their distance and other times you get up close views. but you are guaranteed to see nothing if you stay home.
The local dog walking area has been slow but steady so far this fall. There haven't been a ton of birds but a few good sparrows have shown up. I spied a Lincoln's Sparrow a few weeks ago and then another one this week that I posed for me in a little tree. Cute little bird with thin streaks on a buffy chest.
Lincoln's Sparrow
Today, Marty and I headed out along the Delaware River to see what we could see. The weather was spectacular with bright blue sky and crisp light northwest winds. Perfect for raptor migration. Marty was hoping for Golden Eagle since he's never seen one in Philadelphia before. I wasn't hoping for anything in particular. We started the day with a great encounter with a Red-tailed Hawk at Glen Feord Mansion. This big bird flew in and perched right in front of us.
Red-tailed Hawk
Here she is spreading out.
Red-tailed Hawk
She was really focused on something in another tree. Maybe a squirrel.
Red-tailed Hawk
She finally took off for another tree. It is great when you can see the red tail that gives this bird it's name. Zoom in and look at those deadly talons. Wow.
Red-tailed Hawk
We headed over to "POD" - Pennypack on the Delaware to search for sparrows and other ground birds. I couldn't resist photographing the skyline with Tacony Bridge in the foreground.
Philadelphia
But the raptors won the day there too. As if by design, Marty looked up and viola - Golden Eagle soaring just above our heads. You can tell it is a Golden Eagle by the big white patches on the wings and the white band on the tail. When the bird turned, we could even see the golden nape that gives this bird it's name. Unfortunately, I didn't get that shot.
Golden Eagle
I left Marty basking in the memory of the eagle and headed to Nifty Fifty's for a burger and fries. Yum.
I have so much fodder from our trip that it has been difficult to pull it all together into stories rather than just post a mile-by-mile recount of our trip down the coast. So here is the last installment of the trip notes. Highlights include Golden Eagle sitting in a field, Gray Ghost, Elephant Seals and Coyotes.
The Golden Eagle was spotted south of where we saw the Condor where the land started to flatten out a bit down by Hearst Castle. We originally saw the bird flying erratically and then land in the middle of a field. I screeched to a halt on the side of the road and ran across the highway to take a few shots.
Golden Eagle
It turns out that the Eagle had harassed a Red-tailed Hawk into dropping something and had landed on it to claim it. A few minutes later, the Hawk worked up enough courage to chase the Eagle out of the field and out of sight. Having the Red-tail chasing the Eagle gave us perspective as to how big the Golden Eagle really is. Trust me, its a big raptor. Second only to . . . you guessed it - the California Condor.
A few miles after this, we saw another raptor flying over another field and pulled over. This time it was the male Northern Harrier which is known as the "Gray Ghost". This bird is not rare. It is not uncommon in our area. I have seen many. But it is cool to see the gray ghost. It also brought back memories of my first Harrier which we saw along this same stretch 20 years ago.
Northern Harrier - "Gray Ghost"
It is sad to say that these birds were not the highlight of our day - which they would be on any other day. It's just that we saw so much, including the Condor and Elephant Seals, that it was just one more WOW for the day.
Oh yeah, we saw Elephant Seals. They were hauled out of the water on a protected beach. The State Park system put in a nice parking lot and boardwalk so that you can get up close to the seals without disturbing them. We could have stayed for hours.
Elephant Seal flinging sand to keep the sun off
Elephant Seal grunting at a neighbor
Squabbling
Look at the pink inside his mouth!
There were hundreds of seals out on the beach laying around and squabbling with their neighbors. Oh, and it is a good thing that the wind was blowing away from the boardwalk because they STINK!
While in Pasadena, we birded the Arroyo Seco which is a little canyon that ends up at the Rose Bowl stadium. I have posted about this before. This time, we had pretty good birds but that was not the story. The story is that we felt like we were going to be lunch for this Coyote!
Coyote
Look at those eyes - YIKES!
Although he looks mean, he was more interested in the gophers than the people. He obviously roams this very busy park often and is not bothered by the people, dogs, or horses.
