Skolai Images

hey Folks,

So, after a little rest and reading and drifting in and out of sleep in my tent, I heard some noises in the woods outside .. branches breaking, cracking, etc. Half asleep, I ignored it. I heard it again. Still half asleep, I ignored it again. It continued. Coming to, I sat up and said to myself (actually I said it out loud, but didn’t want to acknowledge that I talk to myself here - people will think I’m crazy), “I know exactly that noise is - I need to go take a look”.

So I got up, threw on my sandals and walked around the beach. Rounding the corner, I saw my paddle lying on the beach. The kayak, which I’d left lying beside it, was nowhere to be seen. Instinctively, I looked out across the bay. I saw instinctively, because I KNEW the boat hadn’t floated away. I’d been very careful to drag it up well above high tide line, and had the add security of leashing it to an alder branch, so if the tide did rise abnormally, it would be secure. So I knew the boat wasn’t in the ocean. And a quick look over the water verified that. No boat.

I arrived at the paddle and I saw (more…)

Hey Folks,

So here’s the beginning of where this trip gets fun.

This is one of the last photos I took this particular evening. The day had turned into a gorgeous afternoon, and I had a blast. A nice supper round the corner from this point, with this view of Mt. St. Elias over the Taan Fjord of Icy Bay is pretty hard to beat. As the light got nicer and nicer, I was puttering around trying to make some photos. It makes for a long day here in the Alaska summer - this one here was close to midnight. My last 3 shots of the day were this one, a vertical composition of the same scene, and then a landscape image of this area without the boat. Then I went to bed. (more…)

Hey Folks,

As impressive a mountain as there is, in my opinion, Mount Saint Elias, as seen from Icy Bay, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park.

The mountain is actually on the border of Alaska and the Yukon Territory, Canada, so it’s not only the 2nd highest mountain in the US, it’s also the 2nd highest mountain in Canada. Mt Logan, 25 miles to the north, is the highest mountain in Canada. The peak of Mount Saint Elias is a mere 10 miles from the shores of the Taan Fjord in Icy Bay, which means the vertical relief, which I spoke about yesterday, is huge. (more…)

Hey Folks,

After a couple of days I was fortunate to have the weather clear up a bit. The place is pretty amazing. There were tons of birds in the area, gulls, oystercatchers, sea ducks, murres, murrelets, and more. Flowers were in full swing, and impressive stands of lupine were everywhere.

Most impressive however, is Mt St. Elias. I’ve been lucky enough to see a few great mountains around North America, and I doubt any of them are as impressive a sight at Mt. St. Elias. It literally soars skyward from the coast, towering over 18 000′ high. (more…)

Hey Folks,

So why go to Icy Bay? Well, firstly because it’s such an amazing place. The scenery is superb - National Geographic list Icy Bay as one of the world’s top 10 treasures. Secondly, I’m working on a book on Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Icy Bay is in the park. Thirdly, I hadn’t been there before. 4th, the natural history of the place is so unique. Icy Bay is a relatively new place, with the recent retreat of 3 glaciers, the Guyot, the Tindall and the Yahtse, there are now 4 fjords, filled with the cool waters of the northern Pacific Ocean.

When the area was first explored by European ships 150-200 years ago, Icy Bay didn’t even exist. John Muir, the great naturalist and founder of the Sierra Club, visited the area a little over 100 years ago, and Icy Bay didn’t exist. (more…)

Hey Folks,

I think I’m going to title my first book, ‘From One Disaster to Another’.

I got back, safe and sound, from my most recent trip to Wrangell - St. Elias National Park, but somewhat earlier than planned. I’ll tell it to you over a few posts, starting here.

I flew from Anchorage to Yakutat, a small town down on the coast, in northern South East Alaska. I was aiming to go from there to Icy Bay, an inlet on the Gulf of Alaska, and one of the few areas where the park touches the coast. I’d heard bits and pieces about the bay over the years, but knew very little about it. Everyone who’d been simply said ‘Oh, you GOTTA go to Icy Bay’. I’ve always been one to do as I was told, so, in time, I headed for Icy Bay. (more…)

Hey Folks,

Guess who should be back tomorrow? Here’s a hint: you might get to see something besides birds on here real soon. Of course I’m writing this post 2 weeks in advance, so there’s a chance you might not, too. But by the time this goes online, I should be just about back from 2 weeks in ……?

I ain’t telling.

So here’s the male of the Barrow’s Goldeneye again. I liked this image because his bill is wide open and he’s looking at me. I had just moved slightly, where I was more visible to him, and it was as if the bird was saying ‘dude, I so TOTALLY see you’. This was one of the last images I made of this duck. What a cool bird.

Male Barrow’s Goldeneye, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Cheers

Carl

Hey Folks,

Here’s the female of the 2 Barrow’s Goldeneye ducks I photographed recently. I couldn’t have asked for a more co-operative pair. They were surprisingly tolerant. I didn’t have a blind setup or anything, just slowly and gingerly made my way around the pond, through the woods, hid behind a small bush, and waited for a few hours, and they gradually started coming over my way from time to time, where I could get some images.

It’s wild to see the different between the male and the female of the species. The male of the species, in breeding plumage, is way sharper looking than the drab female. This is pretty common in numerous species, but particularly birds.

Female Barrow’s Goldeneye, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Cheers

Carl

Hey Folks,

OK, here’s a landscape again. This one from a few days on the north side of the park, at Rock Lake. I had been cruising around looking for waterfowl, with little luck on this particular day, and headed over to Rock Lake because (a) I had seen ducks on it the day before, and (b) it’s a nice place to spend the night. There’s a little camping area just near the lake, and with a great view of Mt Sanford in the background (when it’s clear) it’s a sweet little spot.

I was actually in the midst of cooking some dinner when I turned around and saw this rainbow. At first I thought, ‘oh no, it’s just another rainbow’, and paid it no mind. But it became more and more intense. The colors were about as vibrant as any rainbow I’ve ever seen. So I grabbed my gear and ran around to the end of the lake to take some images. I didn’t have my ultra-wide angle lens with me, because it’s still getting repaired, but made do with what I had. I ended up liking some of the tighter frames, like this one, but wish I had a real wide lens, because at times the entire half circle of the rainbow was clear. Maybe 10 minutes later, it was gone.

Cheers

Carl

Hey Folks,

Yep, birds again. Here are 2 of the 3 Great Horned Owl chicks I got to photograph recently. I could never manage to find all 3 perched together. I also never managed to find them in any kind of decent light, so had to shoot at the higher end of the ISO range on my camera - which is a total disaster. The D2x is terrible at higher ISOs (anything over 250, IMO), which makes life miserable late in the day for shooting wildlife - the best time, of course, to find wildlife.

So, these little guys are probably flying around the park now, racing each other through the boreal forest as they swoop, silently, down on the snowshoe hares that are really abundant right now.

Great Horned Owl chicks, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park, Alaska.
Cheers

Carl