Fur and Feathers 2022, Chapter 4

 

Watching puffins run across the water to get airborne is a kick!

FINALLY!!!

INCOMING!!!

Common murre on takeoff.

A group of puffins is known by a range of names – a colony, a puffinry, a circus, a burrow, a gathering, or an improbability. 

Martha is worried about John talking to her rival, a horned puffin.   "I don't know what John sees in her.    I have better hair than she does, my outfit is classier, too.   She uses too much makeup on her bill."

"Martha, C'mon.   I was just being neighborly."

"They went that-a way!"

"No, I don't want a copy of the Watchtower.   I can't read."

"Looks to me like the neighborhood is going to heck, Jessie."

And a bald eagle flies above the fray.

Fur and Feathers 2022. Chapter 3

The light was poor one day when we went out to photograph the Coastal Brown bears digging for razor clams on the beach.   It was just enough to create glare on the skim of water still running off the sand.

• That glare, however, made for reflections and an almost pure white background, especially because I had my exposure compensation cranked way open in an effort to get enough light onto the camera's sensor.   From there, it took only a little tinkering in post-processing to create the images below.

 

In photography, this is called high key.   There is also the opposite, or low-key photography, in which dark tones are brought out to emphasize a subject or to create a silhouette or rim-lit effect.   In both of the below photos I darkened the background and brought out the puffins.

Fur and Feathers 2022

Part of my recent trip to photograph the Coastal Brown bears of Southcentral Alaska included a boat trip to a small island where horned puffins are nesting. These birds spend most of the year feeding at sea and return to shore only to nest.

They nest in rocky cliffs, preferably where they can dig a deep burrow to keep their eggs and hatchlings safe from gulls and other predators.

 

The utterly amazing bill on. horned puffin.

Of course I intended to land like this.   Why do you ask?

Catching puffins in flight is very difficult to do as they as so fast.

The Lookout

Bonzai!

Almost, almost, almost....

Like most waterfowl, puffins run on the surface of the water for take off.

Hmph!   I don't what he sees in that horned puffin.   I certainly have better hair than she does and my outfit is classier.   Besides, the little hussy uses too much lipstick on her bill.   (Two tufted puffins and one horned puffin.)

No, I don't watch a copy of The Watchtower.   I can't read!

Third Things First

 I need to finish the Africa 2021 Journals.

 

 

I need to finish the Denali Highway 2022 Journals.

But first, I just returned from a trip to pbotograph the large Coastal Brown bears of Southcentral Alaska and as those photos are now foremost in my mind, here we go:

Fur and Feathers 2022

Note:   If these photos look as if they were taken from behind a waterfall, that's close.   We were in a sideways deluge and a strong wind.

 

 

It's been four years since I traveled to Silver Salmon Creek to photograph the large Coastal Brown bears that frequent that area, far, far too long a time.    Coastal browns are the third largest bears, after Polar bears and Kodiak bears.   After that are the grizzlies and black bears.

Last Tuesday, I was called by a friend who was looking for someone to fill the third spot on a trip she had booked to a place that is really hard to find a vacancy in.   The original third person had to cancel.

That was Tuesday late afternoon.   The small plane would leave from Soldotna early Thursday morning.

I was there.   Weather was iffy, but we made it across Cook Inlet and farther south before it closed in entirely.   A brief check-in, gear prep and we were out on the tidal flats in in a deluge and strong wind.

 I've seen bears of all kinds during my 75 years in Alaska.   From a distance.   Then seven years ago, I went to a place  where I could get quite close to wild bears without fear of being mailed, as long as I minded my bear manners.

Two things surprised me when I had time to watch them closely.   The first was their hind feet.   I've seen lots and lots of bear tracks but never thought much about how an animal would make them.  Those hind feet are so human-like and watching a bear walk so flat-footed is like nothing I've seen any other animal do.

Our first outing was onto the tidal flats during an almost minus 5 tide.   We were hoping to see bears digging razor clams.  Two juvenile bears were there, keeping an eye on each other.

This beautiful 2-1/2 year old boar was one of them.

 This 3-1/2 year old sow was the other.

Inevitably, they met up and spoke bear to each other.   This was the second thing that surprised me about bears.   They love to play!

 

 

 

After that initial greeting, it was  game on!!!

 

 

Chase me, chase me!

We were about fifty feet from our cart and as soon as the bears crossed in front of us, I knew they were headed right to it.

After being shooed away from the cart, it was into the surf for more fun.

Can these expressions be anything but pure joy and zest for living?

 

Well played, bears.    Well played.