To Homer

On the road again, looking for birds and other cool things... We left a little later in the morning than we usually do, a side effect of arriving home after 11 p.m.

The drive to Homer is gorgeous. At the requisite Beluga Point stop we saw Dall Sheep a bit further on we saw our first Moose.  The birds were out but elusive. We could hear them in the trees when we stopped, but they are tiny tricksy things that do not want to be seen.  At one of our stops I spotted a snowshoe hare, complete with big white feet ducking under the wooden plank trail.  

As we got closer to Homer we spotted a few more moose. A stop at Deep Creek State Recreation Area found us the inlet and a few more birds. It is also where we found the field of Bald Eagles. They were everywhere, in the trees, on the ground, on stumps, rises, hollows, and even a juvenile delinquent in the river playing.   We decided there must be a conference/convention.  Why else would there be so many in one spot?  

More moose sightings and we were at Homer.  We checked into the hotel. I tried to get us a cruise for the next day, but that just didn't end up panning out. We drove around town and out on the spit. We saw birds and more birds, more than 20 of the cutest sea otters ever floating around, and a few more moose, bringing my total to 9 sightings for the day.   

Dinner at Fat Olives was interesting. Arlene recently read an article which talked about how people who eat organic food are more judgemental. I don't know how true that is but you should have seen the servers ire at us not taking the other halves of our dinners.  Seriously though, why not offer half portions to begin with?  

Tomorrow we are going to do a bit of walking and birding and drive back to Anchorage.  Alas, Melinda and I have planes to catch on Thursday.

1. Arctic tern
2. Mew gull
3. Canada geese
4. Scaup
5. Cliff swallows
6. Northern crows
7. Common ravens
8. Sandhill cranes
9. Bald eagles
10. Varied thrush (Melinda & Arlene)
11. DALL SHEEP
12. SNOWSHOE HARE (Jenny)
13. Magpies
14. Green winged teals
15. Greater yellowlegs
16. Lesser yellowlegs
17. Semipalmated sandpipers
18. MOOSE! (9)
19. Greater white fronted goose
20. OTTERS (20+)
21. Boneparte's gulls
22. Black legged kittiwakes
23. Herring gulls
24. Surf scoters
25. Glaucous winted gull
26. Black scoters
27. American wigeon
28. Mallards
29. Northern shoveler