Autumn at Tern Lake

 I hope the photo-uploading issue is resolved so I can show you some pictures I took recently.

These photos were taken last evening, the 18th, at Tern Lake, about 7:30 PM.

This one flabbergasted me, the way the clouds settled in the mountain ravines and added depth.

A lot of waterfowl have gathered at the lake, as they do every fall, before their annual migration.   I'll be sad to see them go.

Here is the lone surviving cygnet from the resident Trumpeter swans.   Left to right, among the opportunistic feeders, are two American wigeon, a mallard, a ringneck duck drake, and a mallard beside the cygnet.

This is a male ring-necked duck.  Note the white markings on its bill.    Late evening photo as the water reflects golden trees.

The swan family with the cygnet shaking out its feathers.

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I keep a close eye on this spot all summer, hoping to catch something resting on top of the grass-covered  tree stump.  I have a collection of photos of various birds, including a bald-eagle, on this stump.

 A mallard on a stick was as close as I came this year.

The following two photos are one of the three red-necked grebes hatched on the lake this summer.   As is their custom, once the chicks are old enough, one parent takes a chick or two and heads to another part of the lake, while the other(s) stay with the other parent.

Grebes are the best parents.   They take turns incubating the eggs and then feeding the hatchlings.

One of the trumpeter swans.

The evening "golden hour" is the best light for photography.   Well, so is the morning "golden hour" but I'm seldom up that early, unless I'm in Africa.

One of my favorite photos of the year.   The open (female) and cygnet in late evening light.

Winding Down the Summer

 Well, I seem to. be having problems with uploading photos.

I'll try again later.

Strolling through the Wildflowers

 

The hardest part about picking up litter along the Seward Highway is trying not to step on the wildflowers.

Bog orchid

Chocolate lily

Dogwood

Fleabane

Wooly geranium

 

Close up of yarrow.

Not a dandelion in the bunch.

Violet

Cow parsnip aka pushki

Close-up of just one stem on the cow parsnip bloom.

Pyrola aka wintergreen

Willowherb.   Less and a half-inch across.

Paintbrush and gernaium.

Oxeye daisy

Dwarf fireweed

Arctic Terns

 An Arctic tern rises from the water of Tern Lake after diving and catching a fish.

They'll be gone soon, making their annual migration to Antarctica.

Rare Edition of Half-Baked Alaska

 Mother Nature is watering the land so I'm stuck inside trying to avoid housework.   I decided to publish an edition of Half-Baked Alaska.   It's been many years, but some news of the day is just too good not to share.

Female mallard

1). A couple camping near Resurrection Bay in Seward were getting ready to eat some freshly caught and cooked halibut when a raven came too close.   As the husband turned his back to shoo the raven away, a bald eagle swooped down and took off with some nice cooked halibut.

Trumpeter swans with one cygnet.

2)  The Homer Police Department Dispatch received a report of theft.   A man exited a grocery store and began unloading his groceries from the cart.   He set a pack of ribs on the handlebar of the cart, and a bald eagle grabbed the package and took off.

       The reporting party said he had no hard feelings toward the eagle, and the eagle obviously enjoyed the dinner.

3)  A salmon hatchery in Southeastern Alaska has been experimenting with methods to keep brown bears from accessing public boardwalks near the hatchery.   In one effort, they shot a bear with a potato gun.

    The bear looked around to see what had hit it, saw the potato, and ate it.    Naughty, naughty,   Not supposed to feed the wild animals. 

Arctic tern.   These birds migrate all the way from Antarctica.

And, finally, a bit of KARMA from Alabama:

4). A man died of a heart attack while disposing of the body of his girlfriend,  whom he had strangled.   They were found side by side, and the man's pickup was still running.

That's it for this edition.

A hatchling red-necked grebe waits for food while safe on its parent's back.

Just a Note.

 This is just a note to explain my absence here.   It's spring/summer and that means I am out picking up litter along the Seward Highway every day I can.

To date, my friend Mary Mcdonald (sic) and I have cleaned up almost 24 miles of highway, including a number of really trashed pullouts.   Plus, we continue to pick up new litter in the areas we already cleaned.

Tern lake.

In other news, the Tern Lake trumpeter swans are nesting and we should be seeing cygnets soon.  They changed their nesting place to a site farther from the highway, so it will harder to see if their eggs have hatched.

Likewise with the regular pair of red-necked grebes, who chose to build their nest close to the highway so I can keep an eye on them.   I wish them the best.   Last year, they "lost" two clutches of eggs so there were no cute babies.

Yes, this is the nest.   

My favorite Alaskan birds, the American dippers, have hatched their eggs.

Grub hub delivery.  to the hatchlings.

Open wide!

Some pics from my litter journeys:

Yellow-rumped warbler.

Orange-crowned warbler.

Northern shovelers.   Those wide bills explain their name.

Ruby-crowned kinglet.  They are tiny, tiny little birds that don't hold still for a nanosecond.

Ruby-crowned kinglet.







Well, Blogspot is giving me uploading problems, so I'll sign off for now.

Ripping Off Roberts on a Rainy Day

 What to do when a gloomy, rainy day sends your outdoor plans gang aft a-glay?*

Rip off Robert Service to tell a Tern Lake Mini-Story.    The story is in black, while my comments are in red.

A bunch of the ducks were soaking up rain at the Tern Lake Mud Bar saloon;

L-R:   Mallard, two scaups, two ring-necked ducks.

The wigeon that  handles the music-box was hitting a  soulful tune;

American wigeon.

Back of the bar, on a solo run, swam the muskrat known as McChew,

Note the muskrat swimming into the party from lower left.   McChew?   Hey, something had to rhyme with Dangerous Dan McGrew.

And watching his luck was a gussied-up duck, the ring-neck known as Lou.

Lou is topmost, center.   Note the fancy white lines on her bill and the drake's.

 

When out of the east, came some frightened teals, and into the din and the glare,

Green-winged teals fled before the eagle and landed close, but not close enough for my lens.

Right on their tails came a frightful eagle, hungry and loaded for bear.

He flew like a raptor, long beak and talons, hunting to fill his plate.

But the mew gulls arose and chased it away, to the other side of the lake,

((No photos of the gulls chasing away the eagle, because they were too far away for my lens and too fast for me.)

 

Where it landed in grass, much to its dismay, and the ducks slowly came back,

To the mud bar they loved, though chilly and wet, and only the sun did it lack.

From across the lake came a mournful wail, like haunting notes of a bassoon.

A cry that was calling for its mate to come back, to a solitary, lonesome loon.

This common loon returned without its mate.

* Speaking of ripping off Roberts, that "gang aft a-glay" in the first sentence?   Comes from a Scottish Robbie (Robbie) Burns poem called To a Mouse, 1785, and means "often go wrong.).