Recent Alaskan delights........

The moose cow we’ve been watching in the boggy meadow just outside the Islands and Ocean Visitors Center where we work calved this week. The calf, with it’s big ears, looks surprisingly like a kangaroo Joey - what a delight they are.

We’ve enjoyed three more short trips across the bay and were finally able to photograph the Tufted Puffin, a bird which delights me every time I see it.

This week has also presented the greatest negative tides of the year and weve been “tide pooling” again. The quantity and diversity of life at the edge of the sea is remarkable and I’m attaching a photo composite of just one species - sea stars (plus a glimpse of sea urchins with one of the beautiful Lined Chiton’s we found). There’s so much more to see and share from the water’s edge, especially when the extreme tide reveals the lower tidal areas not usually seen.

It was so much fun learning how to make the tide pool composite in photo-shop that I decided to make another... a depiction of Spring’s finally reaching Homer. Perhaps because Spring is late this year, or perhaps because all flora here have an intrinsic awareness of their short growing season, the greening and blossoming seem to be occurring at an accelerated pace. The flora of this area, like everything else, is a diverse mixture of the known and unknown. Many berry bushes are blossoming - blueberry, elderberry, salmonberry, raspberry and Marion berry among others. There are also beautiful wild and cultivated flowers and lily pads full of procreating bugs. The bristly leaves and stem pictured belong to the Devil’s Club plant which also produces berries. The story goes that it was given it’s name from the practice of shamans using it to drive out evil spirits that caused people to act strangely. Judging from the plant’s proliferation, I’d say the aberrant spirits should be well under control.

And although I have no photos - you’ll have to await Erv’s - it has been a lot of fun observing a nesting pair of eagles. The female, who does the majority of brooding, seems to have found it quite tiresome. On several occasions we’ve seen her eyes droop and beak fall open as her head slowly relaxes to her chest (we almost expect to see drool), then, apparently remembering her regal status, she quickly snaps back to attention - followed by a distinct yawn. How remarkably delightful to see an eagle yawn!!

Trust your Springtime is full of natural delights as well!