the weather

The Anchorage summer heat wave has finally ended.  We're now experiencing more reasonable temperatures, albeit still above normal.  Today is cloudy, cool and WONDERFUL.  It's nice to have a hot cuppa and not sweat while sipping it on the couch.  Our crazy calico is no longer sprawled on the floor, belly up, with a look of longing in her eyes for autumn-like weather.  We're just not a hot weather family.  Never have been.  I may have asked Tim when we'll be moving to northern Scotland when it hit 90°F at the airport on July 4th. 

So today, believe it or not, is still beach weather...in Alaska.  It's currently 60°F.  Yippee!

Kincaid beach

green things, flowery things, beach things, avian things and a few landscapes

Chocolate Lily

Red-necked Grebe through the reeds.  She was nested within a few feet of an asphalt trail, and she was sitting on five eggs.

Aww...ducklings

Wild Iris

wind farm on Fire Island

look what's peeking out just beyond her neck!

Horsetail poking through a fallen leaf

beautiful and fragrant rose at Earthquake Park

Common Loon

grebe silhouette

a puffy little fungi

Eskimo Potato

Wild Geranium

Tree Swallow nesting in a bird box at Potter Marsh

Canadian Dogwood

Canada Goose goslings

Ornithophile, that's me

Lesser Yellowlegs

Northern Shoveler - love his bill and his pretty plumage

Mew Gull

Dark-eyed Junco

Greater White-fronted Goose

Downy Woodpecker

same Downy Woodpecker - gorgeous spotted feathers

Green-winged Teal hen and drake

can't get enough of these colorful fellows

one half of a lovely Trumpeter Swan duo

We watched this pair preen and eat while surrounded by Mallards, Green-winged Teals, Northern Pintails, a lone Sandhill Crane and an industrious muskrat.  I could have stayed for hours.

always on the lookout for Sandhill Cranes

nesting Red-necked Grebe

another nesting Red-necked Grebe on a small lake where I saw at least six nesting pairs

another day, another Lesser Yellowlegs which does not lessen my excitement

This sighting made my day, perhaps my week - a pair of Common Loons.  I could only get a somewhat decent photo of a single bird as it surfaced relatively close to me several times, but I sure enjoyed watching this pair for a long while.  

I'll be heading back to this spot soon, hoping to see them again.  If they're resident birds to this lake and have chicks, it would be great to see them riding on their parents' backs.

Looking Up

It was during a camping trip in the Adirondacks back in the late 90s when I started taking photos of trees.  Sometimes it is the type of tree or the shape of a trunk or the color of the bark that pulls me in.  Often it's the view of the sky through the leaves that I want to capture.  Within a forest or a grove I almost always find a sense of peace, of quietude.  In fact, if someone cared to ask me where I feel most calm and still, my reply would be "amongst the trees."

 

Do you believe in fairies? Say quick that you believe. If you believe, clap your hands! - James Barrie

Something I happened upon on a side trail to an overlook in a local park.  Last fall someone put a smattering of Smurf figurines in this very spot.  They appeared one day and were gone another.  I'm so curious about who does this.  Was it the same person each time?  Will they remove these new items and one day replace them with something else?  What is their motivation?  Are they hoping folks en route to watch birds or look for moose will notice?  Is their aim to add a bit of whimsy to the day for complete strangers?  Part of me wants to know.  More of me wants their arrival and departure to remain a mystery to enjoy imagining the who and why.