{"id":924,"date":"2015-05-27T15:28:47","date_gmt":"2015-05-27T23:28:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.prwriterpro.com\/blog\/?p=924"},"modified":"2015-06-19T15:04:18","modified_gmt":"2015-06-19T23:04:18","slug":"wildlife-wednesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.prwriterpro.com\/blog\/alaska-news\/wildlife-wednesday\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildlife Wednesday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Much of the magnificence of<\/span> Alaska<\/a> is its\u00a0abundant<\/span> wildlife<\/a>; from flittering dragonflies to\u00a0 lumbering bears<\/a>. I love\u00a0 mother nature’s bounty. I spend way too many hours spying on squirrels<\/a> scurrying to collect their winter caches of\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0Sitka spruce cones<\/a>. I constantly scan the upper reaches of<\/span> cottonwood<\/a> trees for bears <\/a>and porcupines <\/a>nibbling on\u00a0 spring buds and young\u00a0leaves.\u00a0I never tire of the\u00a04-ton majesty\u00a0of <\/span>breaching humpback whales<\/a> or the stealthy behavior of<\/span> killer whales<\/a> (orcas). I feel fortunate\u00a0when wildlife revels itself to me, even when I don’t capture the moment with my camera. Naturalists and guides are not highly paid, therefore\u00a0I smirk when I hear\u00a0it said that naturalists are\u00a0“paid in moments.” That said,\u00a0there are many times I have to agree. <\/span><\/p>\n

Enjoy this sampling of wildlife I captured on camera the last\u00a0two weeks. Some of these photos were taken on excursions with my<\/span> Gastineau Guiding<\/a> guests, others during my own ramblings\u00a0through the spectacular<\/span> Tongass National Forest<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Red<\/a><\/p>\n

Red Squirrels <\/a>are small, but they are big on entertaining my hiking guests. This little fur ball is a show off.\u00a0\u00a0We often\u00a0see him\u00a0sitting on this boulder nibbling on a green pine spruce cone on\u00a0the<\/span> East Glacier Trail Hike<\/a>\u00a0through the<\/span> Tongass National Forest.<\/a>\u00a0 If we approach its medden (cache of cones)\u00a0slowly and quietly,\u00a0it will continue munching away on a cone. Sometimes\u00a0he is not happy that we disturb him and will skip around in the branches above us while chattering angrily and loudly. I have heard tell that red squirrels cache, or stash, 10,000 cones a summer. Yeah, like someone followed around a squirrel and counted. Probably extrapolated the figure using some sort of\u00a0formula. Alaska Fish and Game’s <\/span>red squirrel profile page<\/a> states: “There may be several bushels of cones stored in a cache.”\u00a0 One squirrel may have several caches.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/a>\"Nicky<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

I came across this<\/span> black bear<\/a> cub, his mom and two siblings grazing in the meadow at Steep Creek in the<\/span> Mendenhall Recreation Area<\/a> in Juneau<\/a>. When he saw me\u00a0on the bear viewing platform, he scurried up this<\/span> black cottonwood tree<\/a>. When his Mom and siblings continued grazing, he must have thought\u00a0I was harmless and he climbed back down and continued to graze.\u00a0 I actually had a “Beary Scary”<\/a> adventure with this bear family earlier in the day. Check out my hair-raising bear encounter <\/a>from an earlier post.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"GastineauSomeone asked me recently\u00a0if I was considering\u00a0retiring.\u00a0 Why would I? With days like this on the water whale watching<\/a>, I feel like I am on vacation.\u00a0 This is a<\/span> Gastineau Guiding<\/a> boat, custom made for whale watching.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Taku<\/a><\/p>\n

Indeed, sometimes a waterfall. Certainly this spring.\u00a0<\/span> Southeast Alaska<\/a>, most of<\/span> Alaska<\/a> for that matter,\u00a0set a new record for the driest and hottest May in history.\u00a0 This quaint birdhouse and its flock of swallows are located on the grounds of the remote, rustic and historic Taku Lodge which offers a<\/span> Feast & 5-Glacier Seaplane Discovery Tour<\/a> for<\/span> Juneau visitors.\u00a0 I have done this 3-hour\u00a0\u00a0tour and highly recommend it to my guests. The flight to the lodge is spectacular and the salmon feast savory.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Stater<\/a><\/p>\n

Found this<\/span> spotted\u00a0 seal <\/a>cautiously fishing in<\/span> Statter Harbor<\/a>, Auke Bay<\/a>, Juneau<\/a>, Alaska.\u00a0<\/a> Probably looking for leftover fishing bait dumped by fishermen.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Syncronized<\/a>Humpback<\/a> whales taking a deep dive just off of Shelter Island,<\/span> Juneau<\/a>, Alaska. We see this often on our <\/span>Gastineau Guiding <\/a>whale watching excursions.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Text\u00a0 & Photos by Aleta Walther \u00a9 2015<\/strong><\/span>
\nNaturalist, Outdoor Excursion Guide, CIG, CTA, ATG<\/b><\/span><\/b><\/strong>
\n<\/b><\/span><\/b>CONTACT: <\/span><\/strong>\u00a0aleta@prwriterpro.com<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Much of the magnificence of Alaska is its\u00a0abundant wildlife; from flittering dragonflies to\u00a0 lumbering bears. I love\u00a0 mother nature’s bounty. I spend way too many hours spying on squirrels scurrying to collect their winter caches of\u00a0\u00a0Sitka spruce cones. I constantly<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.prwriterpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.prwriterpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.prwriterpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.prwriterpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.prwriterpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=924"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"http:\/\/www.prwriterpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1054,"href":"http:\/\/www.prwriterpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924\/revisions\/1054"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.prwriterpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.prwriterpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.prwriterpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.prwriterpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}