The Halibut Fishing Capital of the World

Homer, Alaska is known as the Halibut Capital of the World. It wasn't the halibut season when we were there, but the harbor (at the end of a 4-mile "Homer Spit" jutting out half way into the bay) was still very crowded.



Note how deep the harbor is? And how long the poles are? Kachemak Bay has some of the highest tides in the world. Check out the pole below - see how high up the wet section with the mussel growth reaches? That's how high the tides got that day. The highest tides reach 28 feet!


The signs below were surely born of painful experience... The seagulls (actually kittawakes) breed right in the harbor.


My Guardian friends will get a kick out of this:


At the end of the Homer Spit, the scenery was absolutely stunning.




Kodiak Ferry coming in:


While waiting for birds, I watched a Coast Guard plane practice take-offs and landings multiple times:






The mornings in Homer can be very serene.




But the calm never lasts two longs. Cloud so thick that you can almost touch them can descent in a minute.


In Homer, keeping old buses is a thing. We saw them in more than one location. (Those who read "Into the Wild" will recall that the story took place not too far from Homer - and also in an old bus.)




Some other cool sights around Homer:

Alaska - Anchorage and Girdwood

We flew into Anchorage at the end of the day, but that being May, there were still a few hours of daylight left. This picture was taken around 11pm at night:



Here is a better view of Anchorage, mid-day, from the Arctic Valley ski area:


A lonely marmot at the ski valley:


Sign on our hotel door:


And yes, they were there:


And not alone! This was a mother with calves:


We didn't see them near the hotel though, but a bit south of the main city. We had passed through that area a few days earlier, and someone told us that there was a pregnant mother moose there. By the time we came back, she had given birth. These calves are just a few days old:




Hotel Alyeska in Girdwood - they have some sense of humor there:


Views from the top of Girdwood ski area:




On a hike near the hotel:










Yes, we did go across the gorge in this little hand tram... and then back.


Parting shots - in the same area where we saw the moose, we also saw this overstuffed Arctic Tern:


I like how the fish's fins don't fit in the tern's mouth:

Owl Quest 2020

In birding parlance, when you go somewhere far just to see a particularly rare or unusual bird, it's called a "twitch". You can judge the degree of a birder's obsessiveness by how far they'd be willing to twitch. 1-2 hours of driving is normal. For me, I consider the entire tri-state area fair game, although I did once chase Bohemian Waxwings all the way to Lake George (4 hrs).

This winter, I set a new record. We drove for 7 hrs up to Trois-Rivieres, Canada - it's an hour north of Montreal - and spent the weekend there. The bird that caused this commotion is a Boreal Owl - one of the harder owls to see in North America. They are categorized as "ucommon and sparsely distributed in areas with little human population" - i.e. good luck finding them. But one of them came down to a forest preserve near Trois-Rivieres and stayed there for multiple weeks. After a few false starts, we decided to go chase it.

This was the first thing I saw on the trail into the forest. The owl has become very popular!


It took me two trips into the forest to find it. Here is the first glimpse I had of the owl:


It is not especially large, but it has a striking face. The black lines start at its eyebrows and converge on its beak, which, combined with yellow-and-black eyes, give it the classic Disney villain look:




The boreal owl also has a multitude of expressions, from dismissive...


... to playful ...


... to "I just don't want to talk to you anymore"


Here is a little secret for how to find an owl fast. Don't look for the owl - look for people looking for the owl. Much easier to find! In the picture below, the owl is the little dark spot on the third tree from the left, about a third of the way down - where all the cameras are pointing.


That owl is actually not the boreal owl, but another hard-to-find species called Northern Saw-Whet Owl:


They are small but ferocious, and they do occur as far south as the middle of the US (especially in the winter), but unlike many other owls, they do not roost at the same place during the day, so finding one is hard.


Did I mention they are ferocious?


But also cute:




Ice fishing on St Lawrence river:


Some interesting ice patterns in that forest. It must have flooded and frozen several times during this winter:




Another owl, this time in Nassau County in Long Island - an Eastern Screen Owl enjoying the sun. We found this one quite by luck:

South Texas - final set

Another Texas icon:





Blue-Winged Teal:




Chestnut-Sided Warbler:






Scissor-Tailed Flycatcher:


White-Winged Dove: