Birding in Mid-March???

 

Sunrise over Kachemak Bay in Homer.

(Almost all the photos in this post are from past years.   We were chasing birds, not taking tourist shots.)

When my birding buddy Leilani called to invite me to accompany her to Homer to photograph the first evening grosbeak sighted on the Kenai Peninsula, I looked at the huge 10-foot high piles of snow in my yard and thought she was nuts.

Birding in mid-March?   That's the very definition of March Madness and has nothing to do with basketball.

But, I realized it would do me good to get out of the house for a while, even if we could never find that yellow bird that is way north of its normal range.  So, I packed up a change of clothes, my travel laptop, made sure the batteries were charged on the two cameras I would take, and all the paraphernalia required for the devices.

Leilani lives about 150 road miles north of me.   The trip was aborted before she got within a hundred miles of my place.   A blizzard with white-out conditions was raging along Turnagain Arm, notorious for its windy weather.   She called to cancel, turned around and went back to Palmer.

Parked on the Spit.

We both went back to bed for a couple hours, each in our own homes.

As it usually does, the weather did an about-face and, while not great, was decent enough for her to try again.   She arrived late-afternoon and we decided to stay here for the night and start out early the next day.

One must be flexible when one lives in Alaska.

In a previous chapter of our road trip, I mentioned stopping off in Ninilchik to see if we could find the beautiful Harlequin ducks in the creek that runs through the village.  HAH!  It was frozen solid.

We found some cool old buildings and a couple song sparrows to photograph, and went on our way to Homer.

It was too early to check into the hotel, so we went right to the 4.5-mile long gravel arm that reaches out from Homer and is called The Spit, and is thought to be part of a moraine left from an ancient glacier.  

From an overlook above Homer, with The Spit reaching out into the water.

For practical purposes, it's a dividing line between Cook Inlet that runs up to Anchorage, and Kachemak Bay, the body of water to the East.

It's a lot different today than the Spit I recall from the 1960s.  That Spit used to wash out in places with every big storm.   Since then, it's been fortified, built up,  and reinforced with large boulders.

Instead of an emphasis on commercial fishing, freight, and maritime support, it is now a tourist mecca with dozens of small shops built on  pilings and boardwalks on one side of the road.  On the other side, are buildings with their feet on the ground.

Scattered here and there are campgrounds and RV parks.

Years ago, when the canneries were operating here, employees would camp in tents as there was no housing.   They were called Spit Rats.

Many fishing charters are based here, with salmon and halibut being the most sought-after fish.  There's a lot of recreational fishing here, too.

Leilani and I were in Homer last summer when the lupine was in full bloom and making quite a splash.

Today, we headed right for Freight Road.  It curves around to the far side of the small boat harbor.  Kachemak Bay is on one side and the more industrial operations on the other.  

We kept our eyes on the bay as we drove along the bluff.  Nothing.  We parked at the far end where the entrance to the small boat harbor is and chatted with a very vocal American crow, then walked toward the small boat harbor.

Right away I spotted a couple red-breasted mergansers, waterfowl we don't see much of during the summer.   That did it.   We were stoked.

The light was against us and getting decent shots was almost impossible.  As the mergansers and some goldeneye moved farther into the harbor, we decided to go to the boardwalk and gangways on the other side.

The iconic Salty Dawg Saloon on The Spit:   these are photos from other years.

Note the eagle on the roof.

Eagle on roof.

Mules on beach.

This adult bald eagle had just stolen an otter carcass from a juvenile eagle and is celebrating.   I names it Rocky Bald-eagle.  (Think Rocky Balboa)

Condos and campers at the end of the Spit.

Downtown on the Spit during tourist season.

A rainbow and some nice light I caught one day.

Ferry from the Alaska Marine Highway system tied up to the dock in Homer.

Camping on the beach.

There's even a volcano you can see from the Spit.   This is Mt. Augustine, the first of four volcanoes on the west side of Cook Inlet.   Sometimes they erupt and spread volcanic ash all over tarnation.