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| Alaska brown bear - with attitude! |
Welcome to the Vinalhaven Sightings Report – October 18th 2019
Brought to you with pleasure by MCHT and VLT
Alaska Blip - #1 – Haines, some animals
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| Eldred Rock |
PSA – You
should be wearing orange when out in the woods these days – it
is deer hunting time in Maine. Currently we are in archery season and while
there are certainly less of these hunting types, youth
day is approaching quickly (October 26), with fire arm season (Nov 2-30) and muzzleloader/expanded archery extending the season until mid-December (Dec 14). Exciting times in the
woods, for sure. Good idea to get in the habit of orange hats, jacket, vest,
gloves, etc. just to announce your presence a little more. Especially when close to deer habitat which is
pretty much the entire island.
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| spotted sandpiper from above |
There is no hunting statewide on Sundays and never hunting on the Lane’s
Island Preserve.
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| common mergansers, ducks in a row |
And so…..it’s
been a while, the entire staff at the VSR was gone, outta state, outta mind for
a stretch. To make a long story short, the VSR was placed on the royal
“backburner” maybe a dozen times over the last two months. Things collected –
piled up really, some good stuff too. We have now come to the conclusion that
we won’t have enough time in one “fell swoop”, so instead we will be making “little swoops” – kind of blips and bleeps, “shorties” for
those Aqua Teen Hunger Force fans – and so here they come.
Thanks of course to all those who
have shared and continue to share sightings – natural and beyond – because
sharing is what the VSR is all about. Send your photos, stories and emails to vinalhavensightings@gmail.com – it’s what the cool kids are doing!
New stuff – so
in August Amy, Leif and I headed back to some old stomping grounds- Santa Cruz,
Pescadero, and the Bay Area in California, as well as Haines and the Kenai
Peninsula – Homer and Seward mostly. Fun times. Here’s some bear and bird stuff
from Haines. Will be followed by Haines family shots. More fun.
Haines – Amy
and I used to lead Wildlife tours in Haines Alaska with “Alaska Nature Tours” –
a nature mom and pop with Dan and Joanna Egoff being the mom and pop. We worked
in Haines the summers of 2001-2, the first two of our 18 or so “summers of
marital bliss” at this point!
And so Amy and I returned to Haines
for the first time since 2002 (and Leif for his first time ever!) and what
changes we noticed were welcome ones – Fireweed pizza didn’t take forever! -
and overall things had largely stayed the same in a good way – we could still
get pizza at the Fireweed!.
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| from a safe distance |
Thanks to Dan and Joanna we had a
vehicle for our second and 3rd nights in Haines, both evenings we
hightailed it (with Pizza!) to have dinner where we used to go look at Brown
Bears.
The bears did their thing – 4 great
sightings over the 2 nights, 3 or 4 bears in all.
Perfect way to start our trip. Bears? Check!
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| white winged crossbill torpedo |
White-winged Crossbills were
everywhere. Almost literally,
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| no shortage of bald eagles in Haines! |
Went on a bunch of great hikes – Battery Point trail had a negative
elevation gain from about 25 ft. above sea level to sea level. Beautiful time
along the Lynn Canal, nice people, and loads of young Boreal Toads – Bufo boreas boreas – subspecies of the western toad.
Lead a ton of hikes on this trail 2001-2, never had we seen toads on the trail
before. Leif got peed on by 3 I believe.
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| Lynn Canal from Battery Point |
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| sooty grouse female |
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| sooty grouse youngster |
We also had our first family 100,000
step day (that’s what our fitbits say!). It was an all-day event going up Mt.
Ripinkski, from zero to above tree line (3599’) right from town. Love Alaska.
Sooty Grouse were a hit; Say’s Phoebe, American Pipit, and Cedar Waxwing were all numerous on the ledges
below the summit.
It was the common Ravens though that
were the show tweety-bird wise. Incredible aerial displays with striking
backdrop mountain ranges.
We love Haines.
