Alaska!

We are on day 8 of our Alaska trip and I finally have time (and Internet access) to get a quick post out. One word - WOW! Alaska is awesome. It's huge. It's beautiful. It's ... wow. Our first day in Anchorage was spent with a "local" who is a friend from our hockey team. Mandy and her husband moved to Anchorage 8 years ago and she offered to show us around. She took us to Chugach NWR for a great view of the area.

She took us to Potter Marsh which is a pretty famous birding destination right along the main highway.

It has a boardwalk where we saw a few birds including this Arctic Tern.

Arctic Tern

And this Lesser Yellowlegs dive bombed us and hung out on the railing. I think they had a nest near the boardwalk. BTW, that's Diane and Barbara in the background.

Di and Barbara (Lesser Yellowlegs)

The main attraction though, was this Momma Moose and her twin calves.

Moose

The babies mostly laid in the grass but then had a quick milk break.

Twins get some milk

Mandy told us that mother Moose can charge and trample people who get too close to the babies. We were all safe up on the boardwalk. Mom felt so safe that she actually wandered closer to the boardwalk after the twins laid down again.

Momma Moose

On top of dragging us all over Anchorage, Mandy then invited us to the house where she and Mike made us this feast of 3 different fish (all caught by Mandy and Mike)! Now that's hospitality.

Yum!

More with Mandy later.

Catch Up - Before I'm Old

Sorry for the gap in posts.  I've been busy at work and also took my first backpacking trip of my life last weekend which kept me away from the computer. Here is a quick catch up.  First, some other photos from our trip to Maine because I would feel bad if I didn't post them.

 First up - Common Eiders which are one of the largest ducks. You are all very familiar with these ducks if you own a down comforter since they use these feathers in alot of those products. Don't worry, they don't kill the ducks (most of the time). We see these ducks off of the Barnegat Light jetty in winter but they are usually pretty far out in the water.  Here they are on their home turf. The first photo shows a female sitting on seaweed. She blends in pretty well.

Female Common Eider

 I did a pretty good job of capturing birds in flight on this trip - including both female and male.

Female Common Eider

Male Common Eider

 Here is a group of males sitting on the rocks. They are probably trying to get out of nest work.

Male Common Eiders

The coolest bird of the trip for me was Arctic Tern.  They look alot like every other mid-sized tern. Most people wouldn't give them a second look. But I know that they are only found up north and I'm glad that we had some experts on the boat that could point out the field marks for me. The first photo shows Arctic Tern. The second photo shows Common Tern.  Can you tell the difference?

Arctic Tern

Common Tern

I'll post a story about our backpacking trip later this week.