Friday June 6th 2008
Birding and being Tourists in Anchorage
We began the day with a little shopping. Nick had to have an Ulu knife so off to the Ulu factory we went. While there I found an adorable Eskimo girl doll trimmed in mink, playing a drum that will be perfect for the Christmas tree.
Outside of the store we found baby magpies in a tree.
Arlene then indulged me, the birder and Nick the geologist and showed us some of the great birding spots:
Potter's Marsh
Arctic terns!!!!
I saw lots of these graceful, swift, beautiful terns but here they were so close…
Mew gulls
Red necked grebes
Canada geese
Green wing teals
Bank swallows
(I don't know why there's a blue setting on my camera, nor why I accidentally set it to blue either.)
Point Woronzof Park
Here is where Nick took off to hike down by the shore and poke around the rocks. Arlene and I looked out at the scenery, the coast, the ocean, the trees. It was all good till someone came by and said that a grizzly had been spotted nearby earlier in the day. EEEEP. We stayed closer to the car, and I must admit to worrying till Nick came back in sight. He’s so stealthy that he’s likely to surprise a bear, which is NOT a good thing.
Bank swallows
Robins
Glen Alps (Flattop Mountain) (walked the Anchorage Overlook Trail)
Dark eyed junco
I’ve seen so many of these swift little birds that I can now identify them on the wing. WHOO HOO I never though that would happen. The view of Anchorage from here was fabulous.
Anchorage Zoo
This was really a neat zoo. They focus on native wildlife so they had lots of bears. This was the only place we got to see Polar Bears, Wolves, and Snowy Owls.
Ponds by freeway
Mew gulls
Mallards
Canada goose
Greater scaups
Lesser scaups
Red necked grebe
Northern shovelers
American wigeons
Hudsonian godwits
Bonaparts gull
Herring gulls
We ate dinner at Arlenes and headed for bed early, the 4:00 wake up call was going to be coming and I couldn’t wait.
Receipts:
Ulu Factory (souvenirs) – Anchorage AK
Arctic Roadrunner – Anchorage AK
FM Fuel – Anchorage AK
Fred Meyers (grocery) – Anchorage AK
Photo set 'Out and about Anchorage': http://www.flickr.com/photos/jsemenza/sets/72157605628323677/
2 comments:
2nd point to the hiding out from bear thing: Nick also had the keys to the car in his pocket, so we had nowhere to go if the bear did show up.
I forgot about Nick having the keys. The one time on the trip when having my own in my pocket would have been useful.
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