Homer, AK wildlife

The first you notice in the waters around Homer is multitudes of sea otters - sometimes a few at a time, sometimes rafts of a dozen or more:







Also in the bay around homer is Common Murres, in flocks of hundreds or thousands:






A little further into the bay, there is an island called Gull Island. It is very appropriately named - you definitely notice them as you approach:


Strictly speaking, the birds nesting there are not gulls but kittawakes - Black-legged Kittawakes to be exact. (There are also endangered Red-legged Kittawakes - more about them in my later posts.)


The name "kittawake" derives from the call these birds make. And with thousands of them nesting on the island, they are definitely noisy!




Sometimes, when they sense danger, the whole colony takes off at once:








Kittawakes are not the only animals on the island - some seals come to relax as well:


Another island in Kachemak Bay does't have a lot of animals, but it's got really interesting rock formations:


As you come close, you can see that the cliffs are made of some very intensely layered rock:






You can imagine the force that was required to compress and bend these rocks:


Parting shot:

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: