We just finished our last week of school with kids. It has been an eventful week. I woke up to a phone call at 4:15 AM Alaska time from my dad letting me know that I was an auntie! Myra Ann Moravec, Wade and Rita’s brand new baby girl, was born Wednesday morning. Jon and I have been able to see pictures and are very eager to hold her when we arrive in MN in June.
The end of the week was fairly crazy as I ventured out Wednesday morning to go camping with another teacher and 23 middle school girls. We had wonderful weather and the girls were great! There were many birds: a pair of common loons (now in their summer coats), harlequin ducks, mergansers, and a couple gray jays who frequently visited our campsite in search of food. Of course, the girls obliged. We also saw a number of snowshoe hares in their gray coats. Every time we scared one up we saw its white bottom hop away into the woods.
On Saturday, we went clamming for the first time. We went to Clam Gulch, a beach located between Soldotna and Homer. The clamming has been down this year, but we did manage to dig up 9 razor clams in about one hour. Clamming is done when it is low tide. We went down to the waters edge and looked for “dimples” in the sand. These “dimples” are the air holes for the clams. As we started digging one up, it squirted a clear fluid from its neck. It caught us by surprise. Fortunately neither of us were hit by the flying fluid.
On Sunday, we ventured to Kelly Lake to hike a portion of the Seven Lakes Trail. From Kelly Lake we hiked to Hikers Lake. On Kelly Lake we saw two common loons, a pair of mergansers, and a pair of scoters. One of the loons seemed very upset with the other water birds and began flapping its wings violently until they left. As we got down to Hikers Lake, we spotted a yellow warbler, a yellow-rumped warbler, many robins and chickadees, and another pair of common loons who were cleaning themselves in the water. On our way back to Kelly Lake, we sighted two Bonaparte's Gulls dive bombing a raven. We also spotted a Barrow's Goldeneye. The bird variety was amazing today, the mountains were beautiful, and the aspen tree leaves are really coming in.
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