More pictures from May 9

Many Birds (Week of May 3-9, 2010)

Sunrise for Sunday, May 9 in Kenai Alaska: 5:38 AM
Sunset for Sunday, May 9 in Kenai Alaska: 10:23 PM

We have been blessed with gorgeous weather throughout the week, allowing for plenty of outdoor opportunities. Spring is definitely here and summer is working its way in. We have been seeing flocks of Sandhill Cranes fly over Kenai the past couple weeks, migrating to northern Alaska.

The moose have also been very active, browsing on fresh greens and they have been lingering nearer to town. Apparently many mother moose choose to give birth to their calves in town due to the fact that they are less likely to be preyed upon by the bears. Less than 50% of moose calves make it through their first year, mostly due to bears. On Tuesday morning Jon dropped me off at school and literally pulled up to the door because a moose was nibbling at the grass up against the school. About 10 minutes after being at school, what I believe to be the same moose, came to the back of the school to continue its morning munchies of grass. It stood right in front of my window, so close that I could visibly distinguish the texture of each hair. Its hairs were nearly pressed up against the window. It was oblivious to me being there, preoccupied with the possibility of danger elsewhere. The top of its hump was up to my chest, which is probably a medium sized moose.

The fishing guide couple who we are renting from have their son up getting the place ready for guests that will be arriving in May. We officially move out next Saturday. On Friday morning he took one of the boats out to the Cook Inlet and caught halibut. We were fortunate enough to receive some from him. So on Friday for supper we were eating grilled halibut that was swimming in the ocean about 12 hours prior. Delicious! It’s amazing how much better it is fresh.

On Saturday morning we were heading down to Homer for their annual Shorebird Festival. On the way we stopped in at Deep Creek State Recreation Area. It is a stop over for migratory birds. Although we didn't see any migrants, we did see plenty of gulls, bald eagles, lesser yellow legs, northwestern crows, and one common loon. The eagles were swooping together in pairs; I’m assuming getting ready for the nesting season.

Once in Homer we headed to the Bear Creek Winery where we took in some free wine tasting and a tour of the facility. I can say that it was the best wine I’ve had. Most of their wine is made from Alaskan berries: gooseberries, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and more. They even had a delicious CHOCOLATE Raspberry Dessert Wine! After wine tasting, which was way too good, we went on a guided hike along the mud bay portion of the spit. The hike was more veered towards kids, so we weren’t the best students and didn’t really pay attention. But we were able to learn about one species of shorebird that was new to us, the semipalmated plover.

Our trip to Gull Island was by far the highlight of the Festival for us. A small wooden boat called the Danny J took us 3 miles off the spit to view Gull Island. Gull Island is a bird rookery filled with gulls, kittewakes, murres, and puffins. Unfortunately, we did not get to see any puffins, but the rocks were covered as the birds hugged the sides of the cliffs. At one point a group of common murres cascaded down from the top of one of the rocks towards the surface of the water.

After Gull Island, we made two stops before leaving Homer, Beluga Lake Wetlands and Beluga Slough. Here we spotted even more birds: trumpeter swans, pintails, shovelers, grebes, lesser yellow legs, Hudsonian Godwit, Bar tailed Godwit, dowitcher, and a flock of geese mainly made up of the Greater White Fronted with a few Canada Geese in the mix.

When we arrived home that evening around 8:30 the sun was still very much up. At 10 o’clock we went out for a bike ride and arrived back around 10:30 with plenty of light. The extended daylight is wonderful.

On Sunday afternoon we went for a hike out near Skilak Lake called Bear Mountain. It’s only a .8 mile hike but it has a quick elevation gain of 400 feet. The view from the top was gorgeous, a panoramic view of Skilak Lake and its surrounding mountains. And to top it all off, the sun was shining all day.

Spring is in the Air (Week of April 26-May 2, 2010)

The sun has been shining and the weather has been warming up this week. We had a fair share of forty degree days with plenty of rays to soak up some vitamin D. We have three weeks of school remaining this year, it's hard to believe, but we are ready to start the summer. The sunrise on May 2 was 5:56 and the sunset was 10:06, we currently have a little over 16 hours of sunlight.

We had an interesting sighting on Tuesday morning. As Jon was taking me to work we saw a canine running along nearby the road. It was definitely very wolf looking at 6:20 in the morning. Our conclusion is that is was a wolf, but we can't say for sure. That evening we spotted our first American Robin of the season. I had no idea that American Robins were even in Alaska during the warmer months. Since Tuesday we have seen many more of them around the neighborhood. In fact, there is one singing just outside our house as I'm typing this. It's wonderful to hear their beautiful songs again.

Jon and I took another class this weekend on the Project Learning Tree and Project Wild curriculums. Wonderful environment education curricula. During the class we were able to participate in birch tapping. Now, back in the lower 48 we had known about maple syruping since we were kids and even participated in tapping maple trees up at Wolf Ridge. But birch tapping? Alaskans tap birch trees for birch syrup. It is the same process as tapping maple trees but the results are not as great. For every 40 gallons of maple sap collected, 1 gallon of maple syrup can be produced. For every 100 gallons of birch sap collected, 1 gallons of birch syrup can be produced! The flavor is also very different. It has almost a subtle molasses taste to it. I thought it was good!

After our class on Saturday, we headed to the beach off of Cannery Road, what a difference from last time we were there. The people seem to be crawling out from the winter months or tourist are already arriving. The mountains and the clouds were of such similar color that they appeared to blend together.

We have started packing up our belongings, we are out of our place in less than 2 weeks and will be living with one of Jon's co-workers for the three weeks prior to our summer in Minnesota!

Spring in Homer (April 23-24, 2010)

The two of us took a professional day from school on Friday to take a two-day citizen science class down in Homer. Friday morning was fairly dull, but we were able to enjoy lunch on the Homer Spit. On our way there we got to observe a bald eagle bathing in a pool of water along side the road. Its wings were stirring the water up, allowing the splashes to cover its upper body and head. The afternoon classes were better. While we were outside building Sea Perch ROVs, a device that oceanographers using to look at the ocean floor, we heard pheasants. Pheasants in Alaska?

After class, we walked the Beluga Slough Trail where we spotted our first Alaskan butterfly. It was a small brown butterfly with orange and white streaking along the perimeter of its wings and a couple orange blotches towards the top. We identified it later as a Milbert’s Tortoiseshell. We learned in class that not much is known about butterflies in Alaska. We then walked down to Bishop’s Beach where we came across four Sandhill Cranes, making a migratory pit stop. The beach was at low tide with many tidal pools. We were hoping to find some cool creatures in the tidal pools, but alas, we were left disappointed. We checked out the Spit for a good camping spot and got a bite to eat at Captain Patties; a fish joint that serves halibut, salmon, scallops, prawns, crab, and more. Yummy!

After supper we walked the docks of the harbor where we saw many common mergansers, common loons (still wearing their winter coat), and an ocean mammal of sorts that scared us a couple times. Twice it popped its large black head out of the water scaring us with a loud exhale, only to pop back down before our eyes had a chance to focus in on the large animal. We set up camp around 9 o’clock, finding a spot on the Spit next to the water. We crawled into bed around 9:30 and read without the presence of any man-made lighting. After ten, when we went to bed it was still fairly light outside. The wind was breezy all day but died down once the sun had set given us a pleasant night of sleep. Although in long johns, fleece jackets, and wool socks, we slept very comfortably.

On Saturday morning I awoke to gulls already up and active at about 5 AM. About an hour later the sun began shining into our tent. We opened our door to snowy mountains and lapping waters of the Bay. We headed back to class for the morning. While driving down the road searching for a lunch spot, we looked to the right side of the road and saw a pheasant. A beautiful roost strutting his stuff. Apparently pheasant were introduced to Alaska not long ago and have been able to survive the environment with various grasses to feed off of. It was a little reminder of home.

On our way back to Kenai we stopped in at Clam Gulch, a beach between Soldotna and Homer, well known for clamming. A gorgeous beach that we hope to visit later this spring to do some clamming ourselves.

Missing a Nice Spring in Minnesota (April 18th, 2010)

Wednesday morning we woke up to two inches of fresh snow. The high maybe rose into the low 40's. But, we have had increasing sunlight. We went for a walk Saturday night and got back just before 10pm and it was still dusk outside. The sun will be coming up close to 6AM by the end of this week and setting close to 10PM.

Ain’t no Sunshine on the Weekend (April 9-11, 2010)

After a beautiful Wednesday, Thursday and Friday when we were in school, we saw no sunshine this weekend. Friday after school we went for a walk around our neighborhood and came across a fleet-footed snowshoe hair who was barely beginning to turn color. Something had spooked it in the woods and it ran straight toward us only to veer off about 7 or 8 feet in front of us. On Saturday we woke up around 8 after the sun had been up for an hour already. We went to the Kenai Beach and walked about 2 miles one way down the beach. It was fairly low tide so we saw a lot of mud flats and came across what appears to be the remains of an old railway on the beach. Rochelle also got 4 pages of her capstone finished on Saturday while I watched the Master’s Golf Tournament. On Sunday it almost rained all day. We took in a new hike/walk on the beach across from the Kenai Beach. There we encountered 3 harbor seals and a jaw that used to belong to a rather large mammal. Today, Rochelle finished 5 more pages and is officially past the half way point. Hope all is well to those reading this!
Rochelle and Jonathan

Sunrise on April 11: 6:58 AM
Sunset on April 11: 9:16 PM

Happy Belated Easter! (April 3-4, 2010)

We had a short but nice Easter weekend. We got out for a couple of hikes and were given beautiful weather. Saturday we hiked through the National Wildlife Refuge and encountered a bull moose about 15-20 feet away from us. No antlers right now but we could see the stubs on its head. The snow was pretty much gone this weekend. Various greens were sticking out of snow patches.

We enjoyed some King Crab legs on Easter Day followed by a hike along the beach at Captain Cook State Park. While there we stumbled across a large rock that we have never seen before. The rock had an almost flower like pattern on it, it reminded me of wallpaper. The tide was low creating a muddy but fun environment.

Sunrise for April 7- 7:10 AM
Sunset for April 7- 9:05 PM