Road Trip, Leg 2: Hawk Eyes

 
 

  Mounts Sanford, Drum, and Wrangell from the Glennallen Highway

 

(Palmer to Gulkana)   We left Palmer early morning and headed up the Glenn Highway in a northeasterly direction.    We had gone all of forty miles after two hours, which is good time when one considers that we pulled into every wide spot, pull out, back road, etc., always on the lookout for birds.

 We found them.   Ruby-crowned kinglets and dark-eyed juncos especially, and also some swans and other waterfowl.  I’ll tell you something:   were it not for Leilani’s exceptional hearing and knowledge of bird song, I would not see anywhere near as many birds as I do.

Given that, it’s hard to get decent photos of kinglets.   They are the first of the songbirds to return to Alaska and are much sought-after by bird photographers.   They also don’t hold still!   Ever.  

 

This bird is a ruby-crowned kinglet and probably the best shot of the trip.   I wish it had its red feathers up on its head.

Bye.

Dark-eyed junco.   Sweet and accommodating birds.

Another junco.

 

 This rock formation is called Lion's Head.   In all my years in  Alaska, I have yet to understand why.

 

 

We stopped to photograph some mountains on the climb up Sheep Mountain.  The gypsum in the mountains have been stained orange by iron and are quite pretty.

 

 Looking back at one of the least scary parts of the road.

 

 

And a few Dall sheep but too far away for a decent photo.

 

 

Eventually, we were in the high country near Gunsight Mountain and Leilani turned into a pullout where two men were scanning the skies with binoculars.

 The first thing I noticed, of course, was all the appalling litter around the site.  We spoke with the two volunteers from Hawk Watch who were counting migrating raptors that flew through this migration pass, apparently using a mile-wide thermal in the area.   How they can sight in on a black dot and recognize it for what kind of bird it is, is quite beyond me.

 

 

And yet:

 

I was so embarrassed by the litter that I grabbed a yellow litter bag and my grab stick and cleaned up around the men.   

 

 

Photo by Leilani.

Another look at those mountains with an explanation sign:

 

Moving on, we spotted American Wigeons and Green-winged Teal in some open water and photographed them.

 Green-winged  teals.

American wigeons

 

 By the time we reached Glennallen, it was early afternoon.   Too soon to check into our B&B, we drove a bit farther to the Gulkana airport and off road to a small lake.  The resident pair of trumpeter swans were there, as well as the usual suspects—mallards, northern pintails, and such.

 Then, Leilani and I decided to have a late lunch at our must-stop diner—Ernesto’s.   The best Mexican food in Alaska, for sure.  Afterwards, B&B time.