Tagged With: Juneau Alaska

Bald Eagles

Photograph taken on Wednesday, June 28, 2023 by Henry
Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

Ten Eagles in Two Trees

Ten Eagles in Two Trees

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

Cathy and I took a walk this morning with one of the dogs. We went up a trail along the west bank of Lemon Creek until the trail petered out. If the water wasn’t quite so high we’d have been able to continue but as it was, we had to turn around. We decided to go look for some eagles and we sort of hit the jackpot today.

I’ll be honest, as majestic as bald eagles ((Haliaeetus leucocephalus), they are basically scavengers. Sure, they will catch live fish and that’s beautiful to watch. But they will also eat dead and dying salmon that are running up the streams to spawn. When the salmon are running, eagles are easy to find around the mouths of those streams. However, we are a bit early for salmon, so the best place to find eagles right now is at and around the city dump.

There’s a gas station on Glacier Highway in Lemon Creek, next to the Western Auto and Marine store. At the back of the parking lot behind that gas station is a tall mound of dirt with weeds growing on it. Just beyond that is a line of trees, separating the parking lot from the landfill. The top of that mound of dirt is an excellent vantage for seeing eagles this time of year (or probably any time, be especially when the salmon are not so plentiful).

Taking pictures of birds on the wing is difficult with my huge, 150-600mm zoom lens. That’s especially true when it’s zoomed all the way out. Just finding a moving bird in the viewfinder is hard enough, but then getting it focused and the shutter fired before the bird has moved too far away or is seen only from behind is even more difficult. That being said, I’m quite pleased with a few of the shots I got of eagles flying. The first and last of the photos here are examples.

The second shot is of two trees across Glacier Highway with a total of ten birds in them. The third photo is of an eagle perched on the corner of a building. This bird let me get quite close, which surprised me a bit. I guess he knew he could get away before I could get to the top of the building. Anyway, while bald eagles are not at all rare in Juneau and the locals get fairly blasé about them, and even though we have a nesting pair within a mile of our house in Maryland, we’re still excited to see them.

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Rainforest Walk

Photograph taken on Thursday, June 29, 2023 by Henry
Brian, Cathy, and Dogs

Brian, Cathy, and Dogs

Cathy, Brian and I took a walk with the dogs through Switzer Meadow and then on a loop beyond Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School. Most of that later trail is in the woods, some of which is relatively young. The whole area was probably clear cut less than 100 years ago, so there are few if any trees older than that. Some areas seem to be pretty scrubby and one area looked like it was a homeless camp or party spot not too many years ago. It’s hard to tell because wood decomposes very quickly in this wet environment. It’s still a pretty walk for the most part and we enjoyed being out with the dogs.

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False Outer Point

Photograph taken on Friday, June 30, 2023 by Henry
Shaman Island, Juneau, Alaska

Shaman Island, Juneau, Alaska

False Outer Point, Douglas Island, Juneau, Alaska

False Outer Point, Douglas Island, Juneau, Alaska

Today I have a pair of HDR photos, both taken from the beach near False Outer Point on Douglas Island. The first of them is Shaman Island, which we walked to at low tide on Monday. The tide was much further in this evening and you wouldn’t know that you could ever walk to it. In fact, the tide was coming in quickly. This image is two images stitched together using the Hugin Panorama Photo Stitcher and each of the source images for that are HDR images made from three exposures each.

The second photo is looking north northeast at the western side of False Outer Point with Spuhn Island visible to the left of it. The seaweed covered rocks in the foreground were quickly covered by the incoming tide. This is a nice beach to visit and it often very quiet and peaceful. It’s a short hike through the woods on the Rainforest Trail, which is a loop that takes you through some lovely temperate rainforest. In fact, if you happen to go to the Tongass National Forest page on Wikipedia and scroll down to the second photo on the page (which you can also see here), that’s a photo I took on this trail in September 20, 2004.

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Skater’s Cabin

Photograph taken on Saturday, July 01, 2023 by Henry
Cathy at Skater's Cabin

Cathy at Skater’s Cabin

It was a fairly wet day today, one of the few rainy days we’ve had in our two weeks in Juneau. We went to church this evening (yes, on Saturday evening) and then Cathy and I drove to Skater’s Cabin on the southwest corner of Mendenhall Lake. Built in 1936 by the Civilian Conservation Corps, it can be reserved for group use for $10 per hour. It is about 200 yards from the West Glacier trailhead. The West Glacier Trail was one of my favorite hikes when we lived here, although it’s fairly steep in places, including what Brian and I call the Aztec Stairs, climbing about 750 feet in a little over a fifth of a mile of trail (a 63% grade). There are literal steps cut into the rock. I suppose technically that part of the trail is the Mount McGinnis Trail, but it’s all one trail to us.

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Sundews on Dan Moller Trail

Photograph taken on Sunday, July 02, 2023 by Henry
<em>Drosera rotundifolia</em> (Round-leaved Sundew)

Drosera rotundifolia
(Round-leaved Sundew)

<em>Drosera rotundifolia</em> (Round-leaved Sundew)

Drosera rotundifolia
(Round-leaved Sundew)

Dan Moller Trail Muskeg

Dan Moller Trail Muskeg

Another of my favorite trails in the Juneau area is the Dan Moller Trail on Douglas Island. We went up this with my parents and Albert in 1987 and one of my favorite pictures of my folks was taken from the top of the mountain, looking down on the cabin from above. This was also, I think, the first place we saw sundews in Juneau. There are two main species here and this is Drosera rotundifolia, the round-leaved sundew.

They are surprisingly common and at the same time, almost entirely overlooked. They grow in places that are constantly wet and at the same time sunny (or at least not shady). The slightly dryer parts of muskeg, where it’s almost constantly wet is generally the place. Once you see them, they seem to be everywhere, but until you’ve had them pointed out, they really aren’t very noticeable. The False Outer Point Trail is the other place we saw them. I understand that they are quite common on the Spalding Meadows trail, but we only did that on cross-country skis when the ground was covered with snow, so it wasn’t a good time to see them.

The sundews are not the only thing about the trail that I like. The combination of trees and open, meadow-like muskeg with its abundance and variety of wildflowers and plants is relaxing and beautiful to me. The Labrador tea (Ledum palustris), with its tiny, white flowers, the bog candle orchid (Platanthera dilatata, and many other little flowers are all over. None are terribly flashy but all are lovely in their own way. The usually dark water, the bright greens of the meadows, the darker green of the trees, the blue of the sky (when you are lucky enough to have a blue sky in Juneau), all combine to make a really pretty scene.

We also hiked a few miles on the Treadwell Ditch Trail, which is a relatively easy trail because it follows the contour of the land. It’s pretty, too, although quite different to the Dan Moller Trail, in spite of their very close proximity to one another. We also got a good view of downtown from the early part of that trail.

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Mendenhall Puzzle

Photograph taken on Tuesday, February 06, 2024 by Henry
Mendenhall Puzzle

Mendenhall Puzzle

On June 6, 2023, I posted a photo of a common merganser (Mergus merganser) with ducklings on her back. They were swimming on Mendenhall Lake and it was taken at from the glacier overlook. Cathy and I really enjoyed that visit and in addition to the mergansers we saw arctic terns (Sterna paradisaea). Later that same day we returned to the Glacier with our friends Brian and Lisa. The overcast sky had partially cleared and there was a beautiful mix of blue and white, both overhead and in the reflections on the water.

I had this 1000-piece puzzle made from a photograph I took that evening and I’m really pleased with how it turned out. The sky was the hardest part although the water in the foreground was only marginally easier. With our love of puzzles, I think I might make more. But we have a few more waiting to be done, including one Brian and Lisa sent us recently with state flowers and birds.

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