So, I got this thing....

 Went to the post office a couple weeks ago and found a large envelope in my box.

Well, well.   How nice.

There was a ceremony last August in which this was presented but I couldn't attend because I was across the Inlet looking for bears to photograph.  The information came from an interview which follows and is dated.   This, 2024, was my 18th year in picking up litter.

Goes rather nicely with these from a couple years ago:

 Anchorage TV anchor Mike Ross of KTUU News found me in Turnagain Pass, dressed in my finest armored denim to protect me from scratchy bushes, picking up litter and interviewed me.  Mike says it remains one of his favorite interviews.   He did a great job.😁

And this was especially nice, and a surprise.   This commendation also used Mike's interview for information.   

United States Senator Dan Sullivan's office contacted me a few years ago and this resulted:

Sen. Sullivan also sent me a copy of his speech printed on parchment and in a leather-bound folder.   It's very nice.   It all means I'm forever included in the Congressional record.

Enough tooting my own horn.   How about a trumpeter swan cygnet.  I call this photo "Embracing the Light."

"Embracing the light".   Trumpeter swan cygnet.

Revealing the Truth

 Will the real boss of Tern Lake please stand up?

And there you have it, Ladies and Gentlemen.   The real boss of tern lake is not the river otter, nor the red-necked grebes, though they try.  

It is none other than the Trumpeter swan cob (male).   The female is called a pen.

The Good News

Well, well, well.    Look who's growing up!

No longer a ball of white fuzz with a long neck, the Tern Lake cygnet is growing its gray juvenile feathers.   It eats constantly, always with a parent standing watch.

So far, so good.

Last Light at Tern Lake

We are losing daylight hours quickly here in the north.   It seems like yesterday I mentioned that I didn't like darkness at 9:30 P.M.   Now, it's dark by 8 P.M.

During the afternoon, that "five o'clock shadow throws the valley into shade until the sun rounds the south mountain and gives us an hour or so of  that wonderful evening light.

I was at Tern Lake this evening when the sun, low on the horizon, began to disappear for the night behind another mountain and snapped this photo of a Trumpeter swan moments before it was cast into shade.

The Beauty and the Unnoticed

Not until after I took this photo and put it on the computer did I notice the pink blossoms in the right foreground.   They look like Arctic roses.

Photo taken April 30!!!   Unbelievably early.