Orcas in Kodiak

These Orcas were spotted near the boat docks at the first of the week. They spent quite a bit of time in one location. It seems that there were quite a few sea lions nearby and the orcas tend to enjoy dining on, not with, them. These were all females as can be evidenced by the shape of their dorsal fin.

This was actually a little early for the orcas to arrive. April seems to be the primary time for migration but they have been spotted through out the year.

These photos were taken by a friend of our that, luckily, could run out of her house and photograph the orcas when they were spotted. So, a special thanks goes to Annjannette Vanio.

Thank goodness for global warming...

The snow and ice have gone. The streams are flowing freely. It has been above freezing for over a week. It is now 49 degrees in Kodiak, Alaska (yes, Alaska). After a short stroll, the hats and coats come off. The grass is actually turning green. Why do some not like global warming?

Viewing Kodiak's Ice Crystals

If it's warm at your place during the Christmas Holidays......just go on a walk with us.

It's a cold Sunday morning. A nice layer of frost has developed on the ground. So call your friends and lets go for a walk. Have someone bring his 22 in case a rabbit presents himself for dinner and have another bring his bear rifle, in case one wants you for dinner (Just kidding; but they say 1/3 of Kodiak's bears do not hibernate because there is enough food all year long). Bring your dog, your camera, and let's head out along the Bear Golf Course for a nice stroll. Then in the afternoon we'll head out behind the house, along the creek. We'll end up at Mill Bay and check out the frost on the beach. Have your friends keep an eye out for wildlife. We'll just walk along to the tune of the music and enjoy what lies at our feet.

P.S If you run into our ex-governor in the lower 48, just tell her the winds were favorable and we could hear Dr Zhivago's music directly across the sea from Russia. That's a joke. We can't hear their music here. And it is the Hungarian Dances, not Dr. Z's music.

Short winter days

The days are about as short as they will get. They say we now have 6 hours and 32 minutes of daylight. Sunrise is officially at 9:52 am and sunset is at 4:24 pm. But this has been a good year for light. With twilight, there is enough light to think it's daylight at 9 am and as late as 5 pm. This picture was taken at 4:24 pm last week; sunset should have been past 4:30. As you can see, it is not as bad as you might think.

This is different from last year. I remember one day in which the sun did not seem to rise till 10:20 am because it was cloudy and misty. Although this year is colder, it has been a good year for visible daylight in my opinion!

Extreme Ice Biking...

The days are short. So unless you want to leave for work after 9 in the morning and return before 4:30 in the afternoon, you better be decked out in your reflective outfit!

No, this is not the type of clothing you find at those yuppie biking stores. It's pure industrial grade stuff. A highway department vest works great along with high beam LED lights. And note those yellow leather gloves with built in reflectors. If it's raining, put on those Kodiak "always-in-style" Xtra-Tuff boots (not shown here). And finish out your outfit with metal studded extra-wide tires to get a grip on the ice and really pimp-out your ride!

Now, just hope there are no crazy walkers dressed in black along the unlit bike path. Better yet, leave work after 6 pm to be sure they are safely at home before you take off (I've read that up to 20% of the population of Kodiak walks to work). But most importantly, remember where each of those pot holes on the ground are located, because they sure give your wrist's scaphoid bone a contusion when your front tire falls in one of those holes in the dark!

Don't you agree that the Discover channel needs a show called: Xtreme Ice Bikers?

Sea Lions At Play

Some of you have seen this video already, but we just learned how to easily insert it in our blog. Hopefully, this will make viewing Carlos' videos much easier.

I hope you enjoy this one. It highlights some sea lions we watched while on a glacier viewing cruise this past summer. They're so cute but when you get close and realize that they might weight up to 2000 pounds, you certainly give them some respect.

Let us know if you enjoy it.

Eagle Field of View

Salmon are no longer in the Kodiak streams so the eagles are coming to town, hoping to find food at the fish processing plants. Here is one looking around. They can turn their necks more than 180 degrees to see what is behind them, without turning their bodies! Note that their feet keep facing forward. This is not trick photography.

A Democratic friend recommended that I send this to the Secret Service, to remind them to keep an eye for intruders at the Presidential Ball. But I think that might get me in trouble.

When the weather is bad....

What do you do when its been around 20 degrees for a week, snow has accumulated, and suddenly the temperature rises to 34 degrees? If the rain is coming down, you stay out of that slush. You look at your summer pictures and reorganize them into a slide show with music! So here is a new presentation of our bear viewing trip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVdLpOVrp4Y

Join ous on a trip from Kodiak Island, across the Shelikof Strait, to Geographic point at Katmai Nat. Park. We sat by a "fish hole" in the river and let the bears come close to eat salmon. There were up to 29 bears we could count closeby at one time. We had at least 17 in view at any one time. We felt safe since they were interested in eating their salmon. Some were so close that they could almost have reached out and touched us. Only at one time did we think of using our "mass" for protection. The plan was to have us all stand up at the same time on the count of 3. Fortunaltely at the count of 1, the approaching bear turned away. Three hours of "communing with nature", shortened to 9 minutes. What do you think of the music?

Winter arrives in Kodiak

It has been under 20 degrees since last Friday. Just a few inches of snow, but all of it is still on the ground. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, just one week before Thanksgiving. It seems strange because the last 2 years it didn't get this way till January. Is there Global Warming where you live? Hope you enjoy yourselves, whether it's hot or cold.

Is it a seal or a sea lion?

You could get all scientific and try to see if it has external ear lobes. Then you know its a seal.

But I go by size: if it's big, its a sea lion. If it's 11 feet long and 1,200 pounds (2 - 3x's a Sumo wrestler's size): it's a male sea lion. Eight feet, 500 pounds: it's a female sea lion. A seal is 200 pounds as an adult. Needless to say it is really easy to determine which it is when you are kayaking and one of the two comes up to you. When your heart suddenly starts racing, you know your adrenaline has kicked in because your subconcious noticed a sea lion before you could even meaure it's size. Anything that is almost as long as your boat and 3 times as wide is something that makes you pray!

Sea lions swim under your boat and seem to say, "You are lucky that I am in a good mood today because I could easily bump your toy boat and have my way with you". Seals come up to you with their puppy dog eyes and seem to say, "Want to play?" I hear they have come on shore to play with some people's dogs. I keep taking my dogs there but I guess they don't look friendly to the seals.

Do you get which I like better? There are a few people in Kodiak who are known to have pieces missing from their buttocks. Sea lions like to jump on board the fishing boats when they are unloading their catch. If you try to push them away from your catch, they are likely to push you over the side. Or in a few cases, they'll take a bite out of you. In fact, seals are thought to be related to nice small otters and sea lions are considered related to bears. They say if you find a sea lion skull near on a beach you might have a tough time determining it is not a bear's.

Anyway, here is a video I shot of a sea lion rookery this summer. They seem nice and playful when they are that far from you. Enjoy them at a distance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dd6u7e2Do7o

Notice in the video how the sea lions are able to push themselves and almost "walk" on their hind legs. I hear they have remnants of hip sockets that let them do that. This is why they can climb such steep cliff walls. Seal are more like fish; they lack those hips. When on land they use their front paws like paddle wheels on a Mississippi riverboat to pull themselves forward. No steep beaches for them.

Enough for today. Another day we'll talk more about their first few day of life and perhaps about what I've learned form people who used to hunt them.