Wednesday, June 29, 2011

A taste of Glacier Bay

This is my first chance to upload some photos from Glacier Bay, Alaska. I have been here for a week and a half and will be taking off for Juneau tomorrow. My trip mainly consisted of collected foraging data on sea otters. Which means that we pick a spot (hopefully with otters!) and sit there for several hours hoping to get as much data as possible. Some days were booming with foragers and other days I spent a large amount of time looking for otters, enjoying the view and watching the other wildlife such as whales, harbor porpoises, sea lions, bears, etc.

I was graced with wonderful weather for most of the trip (which I deserved because last year I got mostly rain!). Southeast Alaska is known for its summer rain, much like rain in Seattle, workable and light but not ideal for photo taking. There are only a few photos for now, but many more to come in the next 2 weeks!

First I will start with the Alaskan Gyre (one of the boats we used while working in Glacier Bay) in front of a foggy mountain setting. 
Looking east in the central bay.

Looking east in the central bay.


A black oystercatcher (Haematopus bachmani) who was not happy that we disturbed their nest area. (see below)

The oystercatcher eggs that we were near. (When we realized that we were near the eggs, we moved to a different part of the island so we would not stress out the birds)

Raft of sea otters (about 300 plus pups) at Rush Point that is near the mouth of the bay. This is something you don't get to see in California!

South Marble Island. South Marble is home to several hundred Steller sea lions and nesting sea birds.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

An unruffled kestrel

Today I only have one photo. It is from May 31 in Big Sur. I was out tracking and saw this American kestrel (Falco sparverius) sitting in a tree with its feathers fluffed out. Usually once a kestrel spots me (and my camera) it is out of there fast, but this one didn't seem perturbed by my presence. Kestrels are the smallest members of the falcon family (in the US).