Metaphors

Well surprise surprise - it was raining again today.

I have lost count of how many straight weeks it has been raining.  Five?  Six? 

I am not sure. 

There was three unusual straight weeks of warmth and complete sunshine, back in September.

But since that time there has been only rain.

There have been brief periods of drizzle.  Some briefer periods when nothing was actually falling from the sky.  Snow covers the mountains right now, and it is surely and progressively making its way down the mountains feet at a time each night.

On this Friday evening these are some of the pictures of animals, birds and fish that I have taken over the past few months here in Alaska............

The picture above was taken at Eagle Beach this past summer.

My Mountain Boy and I walked with Jamie one weekday after work, at a time when we had 18 hours of daylight.

On this particular evening the tide was out and we walked quietly on the beach, which was filled with many hundreds of different kinds of birds.

The walk was hugely interesting, entertaining and joyous............

On that same day, and while still walking at Eagle Beach, we came across an eagle standing in the sand.

We cautiously walked towards him while snapping pictures along the way, all the while anticipating the time when he would fly away from us.

We got so close for so long, that at first I thought he might be injured an unable to fly.

That is, until he finally tired of us, took flight and flew only about 50 feet, resting quickly on a log balancing upright in the sand.

While I held Jamie back, LC walked closer, and then closer still, to this eagle, all the while talking to him in quiet tones.

The eagle watched him intensely, but did not appear to be alarmed at how close my Mountain Boy was moving towards him.

LC turned at one point, and shrugged his shoulders at me, as surprised as I was that he had been allowed to get so close.

For about five minutes LC stood within 10 feet of this amazing bird, talking to him non-stop and telling him how beautiful he was.

It was a stunning spectacle, and one I will never forget.

Eventually our eagle did take flight, and while still holding Jamie back so that she would not scare him, I was lucky enough to capture this bird as he left the log and was in full extension...........

I took hundreds of pictures this past fall at waterways throughout the Juneau area, of salmon spawning.

This particular picture was taken close to DIPAC downtown.

There is access to the channel and a bridge where the water feeds into the channel, from the parking lot behind one of the radio stations close to downtown.............

More pictures taken at Eagle Beach early in the summer.

The weather was miserable - rainy, foggy and cool, and the three of us (me, LC and Jamie) were the only ones at the beach. 

Hundreds of seagulls were feeding in the sand along the beach, and we deliberately scared them into flight so we could take pictures like this one..........

A partial head of one of the many sea otters that live along the coves of Eagle Beach.

We saw them many many times over the summer.

There are maybe 9 or 10 that seem to live out there, and this picture looks like this lone otter is floating in a grey sky.

They are very curious creatures. 

Many times when we were out there they would follow us as we walked along the beach - sometimes even popping half of their body out of the water so they could get a better look at us..........

More seagulls scared into flight.  Jamie and LC had big fun running up to them while I tried to follow them with my camera and take decent pictures of them..........

At times like this I wish I knew more about birds.

Is this a heron?  Or something else?

Regardless of what he is, I love this picture.

A beautiful and majestic lone bird photographed in the rain and fog at the beach.........

Jamie visiting with a little wiener dog at the Dike Trail by the airport.

Whenever I think about the name of that trail I think about my dufus colleagues down in Tennessee, and if they read this I am certain that they would snicker like stupid 8 year-old boys at the name.

The same numbskulls who called me a little boy because I wore sports bras and was not........hugely endowed.  The same schmos who made fun of the fact that I was an adventure racer.

The same schmucks who wanted to have a sticker made when I bought my kayak.  They planned on having DYKE printed on it, and sticking it on my boat - Do Your Kayaking Everyday.

The same idiots who wanted to put another sticker on the bottom of the kayak that read "If You Can Read This Flip Me Over"

I miss them and hope they are doing well...........

Jamie in her second favorite place.

Her most favorite is at the end of the bed, where she has taken to sleeping at night since she moved to Alaska............

As I was driving to work one morning I came around a bend on Glacier Highway just in time to see two adolescent bears run across the road, up the embankment and into the woods.

Excited that I had seen them but disappointed that I had not had time to take a picture of them I pulled into the Overlook hoping against hope that I might catch one more glimpse of them.

As I was watching the woods to my left movement to my right caught my attention.

I looked to my right and saw a third bear (all siblings) clamoring over the guard rail.

I scrambled to dig my camera out of my side pocket as I watched him walked across the parking area.

Just as he reached the road a car blew by and scared him back into the parking lot again.

For a couple of minutes he walked in circles looking disoriented.  He climbed up onto the guard rail, balanced with all four paws on the rail for just a second before easily jumping down, running across the parking lot, across the road, up the embankment and quickly into the woods.

It was an incredibly exciting and unexpected encounter with three young bears first thing in the morning..........

Just a few weeks after my Mountain Boy arrived in Juneau we found ourselves looking at a really great fishing boat for sale, that was located in a parking lot across the road from Statter Harbor.

While he continued to look it over I walked over to the harbour to use the restroom, looked over and saw a young speckled eagle resting on a rail.

Smiling at my unexpected find I walked towards him intending to try and take a picture of him.

I am usually very tentative as I approach these birds because, although when they are comfortable they can stay in one place for a good while, if you approach too quickly they will be gone before you know it.

So as I got closer I slowed my walking pace, reached for my camera, happened to look down onto the beach and saw a large group of adult eagles feeding on the rocks.

By the time LC met back up with me I still had not made it to the restroom.  But I had taken a lot of pictures of these gorgeous creatures.

We watched them all for a very long time before finally moving on.........

One of very many "Big Happy Alaskan Dogs" I have come across in my travels over these past months.

This lovely and very friendly animal loved all the attention he was given by passers-by downtown.

A bear was accidentally locked into the small city park in the background a few weeks ago.

The police were called when someone passed by the locked gate of this city open space. 

The police responders unlocked the gate and sent the unexpected visitor safely on his way..........

Ducks at a small lake at a small residential park in the Valley...........

For all the concerns about running into bears up in the mountains this year, happily all of the bears I ran into in Juneau this summer were seen under relatively controlled conditions - from the car, from the truck, across on the opposite side of the river.

I saw six in Juneau this year - this was the first one, seen just a couple of days after LC arrived in Juneau.

We drove by him as the little guy sat eating grass happily along the side of the road right next to The Shrine of St Therese Out the Road............ 

We saw these bears a number of times while on our visit to Haines.

A mother and two cubs, who are obviously very used to people.

Extraordinary and wonderful encounters with this young family..........

One baby bear playing with an empty coke bottle that was floating in the water........

Beautiful, playful, adorable.........

Still in Haines - Jamie and "The Boy".........

It was about April when I took this picture.

It was cold and I was alone, walking along Lena Beach cove feeling introspective and vaguely depressed.

From a distance I saw a white head bobbing in the water and assumed that it was a seagull.

As I continued to watched I realized that it was an eagle swimming, and as I continued to move closer I realized that he was dragging a small fish to shore for an early morning snack.

I slowed my pace, walked cautiously and started snapping pictures as often as I could, expecting this bird to fly away at any moment.

I watched him feed on the fish, and then watched him watching me as he nervously continued to eat.

Finally I got too close for comfort, and he picked up the remainder of his meal and flew into the trees.

Within moments of him landing in the trees all hell broke loose and a couple of other eagles came out of nowhere.

There was a huge commotion on both sides of the gravel road as these eagles continued to screech and dive and fight and posture - all of them wanting their share of the meal.

It was - again - an unexpected and wonderful and gone-before-you-know-it adventure..........

My wonderful awesome DIPAC eagle - taken late in the spring.

He knew I was right underneath him, but the weather was warm and sunny and crazy-beautiful and he was very comfortable on his high perch..........

I went on a very wonderful four hour whale-watching cruise not long before my Mountain Boy arrived in Juneau.

I had a LOT of fun, and loved every minute of my time out there exploring the channel with other hardy day cruisers on a cold spring day.

This picture of sea lions was taken from too far way and I truly wish that I had pictures of better quality than this one, but I don't.

They were huge and wonderful and so interesting to see.

Outstanding trip...........

Whales are HARD to photograph.

On my whale-watching cruise I took a lot of pictures of whale sprays, but this was the best picture I could take of an actual whale.

I can't put into words how exciting it was to see these whales - they were everywhere.  And yet their appearance was always unexpected and delightful...........

The day after my whale watching trip I walked down to the cove that is located only a few minutes from the house.

While I was focused on taking pictures of the cove I heard a loud noise behind me.  When I turned around all I could see was the quiet channel and a couple of small boats bobbing quietly on the bright blue water.

I turned back to the cove, only to hear a loud noise behind me again.

This time when I turned around I saw him - his tail was just popping up into the air as his body was submerging.

He was only 50 feet from me.

I stood there for maybe 10 minutes watching his body pop up and then quickly submerge again all over the channel in front of me as well as into the cove I had been photographing when I first realized that I was not alone.

There must be a trick to shooting good pictures of whales but I don't know that trick yet.

All I managed to get a picture of was his spray and a hint of a fin.

Right down the road from me.................

Man and dog fishing in Fritz Cove close to Auke Bay.........

A wonderful and very large salmon painting in one of the buildings at UAS...........

A slim country raven (not the big fat and sassy ravens you find downtown) on the shell encrusted rocks at the beach down the hill from the house...........

I love this picture.

Taken downtown during the salmon spawning.  Sitting quietly in the mud on a windy and damp day, and immune to the frantic seagulls flying all around him..........

A heron resting in a tree during a hike to Cowee Creek Cabin a few months ago.........

Patsy.

A beloved and historic Juneau icon..........

One more heron seen during salmon spawning at Lena Beach.

With all the salmon spawning and swimming and dying, the large number of ravens and seagulls at the beach were frantic and almost hysterical.

This majestic bird stood alone and close (but at the same time away) from the frenetic action, and I watched him for a long time, greatly enjoying his seeming serenity in the face of craziness.

Metaphors............

James and the Eagle Beach dog.........

By September the huge numbers of downtown ravens had mysteriously disappeared, only to be replaced by hundreds and hundreds of seagulls who (equally mysteriously) appeared on the scene.........

This guy literally makes me laugh out loud every time I see him in the Fred Meyers parking lot.

He is so outrageously huge - so friendly - so totally gorgeous and open to people that he meets, that I love this giant beast.............