Lawrenceville, IL

Boy things have been busy, between getting stuff ready for the wedding, moving and working down in Illinois for the past two weeks, I have not had a chance to take too many pictures let alone post them on here. Here are a couple of photos from down here in Illinois. The first one is of the old fabrication shop that is at the site that I work at. With the heat index around 107 and what felt like 99% humidity, storms were rolling through all day. In between storms some cool clouds formed over the fab shop and I grabbed a few shots. The other photo is of a hawk that hangs out at the site.
Canon 30d, canon 17-40mm and 300mm, SanDisk digital film.

Mt. McKinley

Well things have been busy, I have been getting ready to move and boy do I have a lot of stuff. I have found some time to finally get this panorama put together from my trip up to Denali. It was taken around 1:30 am. It was one of the most beautiful sunsets that I have ever seen.

Canon 30D, Canon 17-40mm, Sandisk digital film.

Mew Gulls

It was that special time of the year for these Mew Gulls. They would be all quite, then they would start making all kinds of noise and the male would try and hop on the females back. Sometimes she wouldn't mind it but other times, like the bottom photo, she wanted nothing to do with him. Potter marsh is a very cool place and if you ever get up to Anchorage in the spring time you have to stop and watch the birds.
Canon 30D, canon 300mm, TC1.4x, SanDisck digital film.

Other Birds

These are some of the other birds that I saw at Potter marsh. It is really a lot of fun watching these guys and seeing how they interact with each other. The Terns would be dive bombing the gulls and the Scaups would be chasing off the Terns, and the Terns would be chasing the other Terns. Its like watching the Discovery channel without all the commercials.

Canon 30D, Canon 300mm, TC 1.4x, SanDisk digital film.

Artic Terns

Whenever I am in Anchorage and it is spring time I have to make a stop at Potter marsh. It is just a couple of miles south of Anchorage and is a great place to do some bird watching. The Artic Tern is a fun one to try and photograph, as soon as you get one in the frame and get it focused it is gone. These little guys are quick but a lot of fun.

Canon 30D, canon 300mm, TC 1.4x, SanDisk digital film.

Unalaska

Well the past couple of days has been pretty wet, so I have not been able to get out as much as I would like. Here are a couple of photos from Saturday, when the weather was much nicer. Hopefully today will be nice and sunny.
Canon 30D, Canon 70-200mm, Canon 60mm, SanDisk digital film.

And then there were two

Over the past couple of days, I have been heading out to the Bald Eagle nest to see if the babies have hatched. Saturday the second baby finally hatched a few days after the first. The parents take turns keeping these little guys warm, and feeding them. When it comes time for feeding time you can tell which baby hatched first, because the older baby will start pecking at the little one to take him out of the picture.

Canon 30D, canon 300mm 1.4x TC, SanDisk digital film.

Puffins and a Baby

The puffins are back and they are starting to build their nest a few sticks at a time. Last night I went out to check and see if they had made it back from their winter out at sea. They are a lot of fun to watch, a couple of times they would try and bring sticks back that were just too big for them to fly with. As soon as they got air born they would go crashing back into the water, but they figures out how to break the sticks into smaller sections that they could fly with. After watching the puffins I drove out to summer bay where the bald eagle nest is. One of the eggs has hatched, it is the little fuzz ball under the eagles head. Momma has some fresh fish for her new born, which is right under her tail feathers.

Canon 30D, canon 300mm lens, 1.4x TC, SanDisk digital film.

Waiting for the hatch

Well I have been having some problems with the wireless the last couple of days, so here are some photos from Sunday and Monday. On my way out to Summers bay, I past little priest rock and with the cool clouds and light, I had to get a shot. Once out to Summers bay I checked out an eagles nest who is waiting for her babies to hatch. The immature eagle was taking a bath in a mud puddle by the hotel.

Soap Box Derby

Saturday was the Unalaska/Dutch Harbor, All American Soap Box Derby, held on the straightest road the island has. The track is the only derby track with a curve. The kids were racing for the chance to go to Akron Ohio for the big race. The company I work for, Stantec, sponsored one of the local kids, Ethan, for the race and wouldn't you know it he ended up winning it all. Way to go Ethan!!

Life at the top

Well after a week off island I am back up here, and boy has the weather been great! The wireless connection at the hotel on the other hand has not been so great! The other day I hiked up to the top of one of the mountains that overlook Dutch Harbor. The view from up there was great! The hike up was made a lot easier with all the snow that was still up there, I was able to get alot better footing. On the way down from the hike I ran into this angry gound squirrel that kept yelling at me.

Eagles

Yesterday, the work crew and I went on a hike over to the other side of the island. It was a really nice hike and we had a good time. To our surprise when we got over to the other side we found a couple of old shacks. One of them were set up for a sauna that used a wood stove and water from the stream to make steam. After the hike I went looking for eagles, which was not hard at all!

Waterfalls

Yesterday after work I went for a drive over to a waterfall that I have been to before. With all the snow melt, this waterfall was really moving. The high water made it interesting trying to hike up the side of it, which is really steep, and the rocks are really slippery. It was a great afternoon!

Otters

Last night I headed out to Morris Cove. It was cold wet and rainy, but that didn't seem to bother these sea otters. There must have been at least 20 of them floating around eating. I made the hike down the cliff to the shore, I was sure they were going to swim off once I got close, but they didn't seem to mind me at all. Some of them even seem curious about me and floated up closer. With the tide being out I was able to get really close and watch them, but boy those rocks sure are slippery!

Canon 30D, Canon 300mm+1.4TC

Dutch Harbor

Tuesday I arrived in Dutch, It was a really nice flight out and unusually clear. After work, I headed across the road from the hotel to take some pictures. This harbor seal let me get pretty close, it looked like he was too busy with dinner to worry about me. Last night was a wash out nothing but horizontal rain, no matter it was all you can eat king crab at the hotel.