The Kings are In

The title of this post is a much anticipated announcement commonly heard every summer around these parts. It refers to the arrival of Chinook Salmon to the local rivers and streams.

Chinooks, (King Salmon are the largest North American salmon. They often greatly exceed one meter, (yard) in length. They first started showing up in Ship Creek about a month ago but they were evident in great numbers last Friday.

Some years they fail to appear in their traditional spawning grounds. Ship Creek experienced a bounty of fish this year. There were many hundreds of them on Friday.

There were also smaller species like this Coho Salmon trying to make it over the artificial falls near the fish hatchery where I photographed dippers earlier this summer.

They show up, they spawn, they die, all in a few short weeks. There were no bears in evidence while we were there but I suspect that they show up in the wee hours.

After Ship Creek we crossed town to visit Potter Marsh south of Anchorage. Lots of yellowlegs.

A size comparison between Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs.

A resting greater.

A Bald Eagle landed nearby. Too bad the light was so harsh.

Take-off.

The eagle was chasing Canada Geese but had no luck.

I am lucky to see one spider a year. Any idea what species this might be?

Goodbye to the Bears, and a New Bird

These photos are the last batch from my Redoubt Bay trip. I shot about 500 photos on that short visit. 

I am happy that I was able to get so much resource material for future paintings. I do want to emphasize what a thrill it was to sit safely in a boat and observe bears from distances that would have been near suicidal from the shore. The bears were more accepting of people in boats than they would have been to people on foot. Kind of like the animals that you see on safari in Africa.

I wanted to get shots of bears in a variety of different settings.

It would be nice to go back there in a kayak or other small boat and spend enough time to photograph bears at my leisure, especially in the early morning and late afternoon when there will hopefully be fewer fishermen..

There was some rough play between younger bears.

They made a lot of noise and thrashed the bushes but were not trying to hurt each other.

Their behavior was so much like dogs at play.

Watching all this helps you to realize the incredible strength that these creatures possess.

They also displayed some tender affection toward one another.

This is one of my favorite photos of the trip. I am planning a painting with this photo in mind.

In the meantime I got a new bird late Sunday evening. It is one that may be very familiar to many of you but it is a very recent arrival to Alaska. 

It was eating Elderberries in the only Elderberry bush in Elderberry Park in downtown Anchorage. In fact this is the first sighting of a Eurasian Collared Dove in Anchorage.

About 50 years ago they got established somewhere way down south and have been spreading north at a steady pace. Now they are ubiquitous in much of the country. Kind of like the spread of Starlings. Eurasian Collared Doves look a lot more delicate than Starlings but they have to be tough to establish a toehold in Alaska, which they have done in many parts of the state.

Fishermen vs Bears

Continuing our trip to Redoubt Bay; the weather was near ideal as it has been most of the summer.

At one end of Otter Lake there was a group of about 75 fishermen in small boats bunched up at one end of the lake and enjoying a lot of beer. 

The photo above is just a small sampling of the total number of fishermen. They each had to pay a lot of money to get  there but the lake's salmon were all in one small area and the fishing boats had to take turns to get close enough to fish. Most of the time was spent waiting and casting in vain. That explains the generous beer swilling. I suspect that many of these guys were not bothering to fish at all. It was party time. An annual event for many.

The abundance of spawning salmon caught the attention of some shore-bound fishermen. The boat guides got ready to peel out in an instant if the need should arise.

The salmon were all bunched up at the far end of the lake because they were staging to make a sudden dash up a small creek. The bears were awaiting their chance at the fish. The salmon had to survive the fishermen first, and then the bears. Not one salmon is going to survive in the end anyway. It is a one way journey for them.

The first bear was soon joined by its sibling. They made sure that the fishermen kept their distance.

The dominant bears in the area rule over the prime spots.

I desperately wanted to get photos of bears snatching fish but when a bear got a salmon it would either gobble it down in an instant or rush into the bushes with its prize. I could not mange to photograph the action.

I am pleased that I could get close enough to bears to get good photos.

Some of the less dominant bears dared not enter the water.

"Are you lookin at me?" "Not me boss".

Tools of the trade.

This photo reminds me of my old dog. Only this dog weighs about ten times more than my old Golden Retriever weighed.

The bear shook itself dry and dove right back underwater.

There is still more to come from Redoubt Bay.

Across the Inlet Again

Just like this time last year I showed up at Lake Hood early in the morning and climbed into the front passenger seat of a floatplane. The pilot, myself, my friend Cheyenne, and two other couples from the lower 48 headed across Cook Inlet. This time we headed to a different location.

We flew over several pods of Beluga Whales. It has been many years since I have seen Belugas.

On the far side of Cook Inlet we saw lots of majestic scenery. I do not know the name of this river.

Another anonymous river, this one is milky from glacial melt.

In about 45 minutes we flew through a gap in the mountains and descended to the lake, (Otter Lake) dead ahead.

Our destination, Redoubt Bay Lodge, where we transferred to a pontoon party boat. 

I forget the name of the boat guide, but he was the prototypical Alaskan Outdoorsman.

He took us across the lake to look at a beautiful waterfall. We heard loud crashing noises with ominous growling coming from behind the trees. The tops of the trees were shaking violently and several of them crashed to the ground.

Soon we saw what we came to see, a large coastal Brown Bear.

It walked in and out of the vegetation along the lake shore. We followed along in the boat.

It came out in the open for a short while. The guide recognized this bear. He said that he sees it every day. By the way I spotted a large Black Bear in Anchorage on the way to work this morning.

It moved along at a good clip.

There is more to come from this trip to Redoubt Bay Lodge.

Hot off the Easel

The painting that I completed last week, (Parakeet Auklets) inspired me to do another painting from the Pribilofs. One that I might actually sell someday. A Tufted Puffin painting. This was one of my main reference photos.

This was another.

I wanted to do a bold composition so I tried an unconventional approach, (for me at least). Does this look like a complete painting? It took very little time to paint.

A look at the bird's feet.

The puffin's head. I just could not leave the painting as it was. I felt that I needed to add something. My first idea was to add some kind of rock formation in the background, on one side or the other.

In the end I chose to add puffins in flight. Is this any better than the first version? What do you think? It is another 11x14" painting. The varnish is still wet on this one. I have no title for it yet.

If all goes according to plan, my next post will be a good one. I am about to leave on my big summer adventure. I am still trying to decide which camera to bring.