Greetings from the west! Most of you know by now that Linda and I are still out in the field and will be for several more weeks. This trip is turning out to be far better than last year’s winter trip out here and I must say southeast Arizona is really growing on us. As far as birding goes, some descriptions come to mind, productive, educational, strenuous and did I already mention exhausting!?! Best part is my brother Ron had the opportunity to meet us out here recently and we had a couple of solid days looking for our feathered friends in the desert scrub. Ended up missing some target birds (mostly for Ron), but a day of birding is always a good day regardless of the haul…and speaking of hauling, Brad is going to take us on another journey, this time all the way to Alaska for some timber hauling. Take care everyone, I’ll continue to check in from time to time when I have time and more importantly – connectivity.
Take it away Brad…
There we were, unloading ourselves from a small tour bus in Alaska. Jan and I signed up for a guided Wildlife Tour at Icy Strait Point near Hoonah, Alaska. Our tour guide, Amy, was a local who loved nature. We could tell because we could hardly keep up with her stories and sightings of wildlife, even after just leaving the pick-up point. Her family had been on the island for five generations. She was also a volunteer EMT which was helpful in case any tourists went down hard during the tour.
Our first stop was a parking lot on the other side of the small island at the ferry terminal near the village of Hoonah. As the group exited the bus (I was sitting in the way-back), Amy had us stay to the side to avoid being run over by the other tourist mini-buses. No desire to put those EMT skills to use so early in the day.
Jan, of course, was more interested in the wildlife across the road from the parking lot and walked into the middle of the lot by a large light pole.
I had wandered to the edge of the water looking for seabirds that we might not find at home. Then I heard a familiar sound and looked around to see where it was coming from. The sound was of a DSLR at a high frame rate grabbing photos as fast as the shutter could recycle and release. It was a Nikon camera, one of mine, but not the one I was holding. The noise was coming from the camera Jan was using. I quickly tried to see what she had spotted and was taking photos of. Then I saw it.
…and now you have seen it! Hit the jump to read more about this Alaskan resident.
Continue reading Under Construction…by Brad Marks
Life Intrigued 