On Thursday I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon with Rotarian Timothy Massawe from the Moshi Rotary Club in Tanzania. Our club is working with his to support a group of girls attending school. We do regular zooms with … Continue reading Sitka Shows Off.
You are a new naturalist on an Alaskan excursion boat. You just came up from Outside, you’ve narrated a few wildlife tours and are beginning to feel a little confident and then… You are on a wildlife tour filled with … Continue reading Critters.
An Arctic air mass sits over Southeast Alaska. It is cold, colder than usual in November. It is acting like late December or January. If I lived on the inside, closer to the mainland, I could have horrific winds as … Continue reading Whalefest Cruise, 2022.
It wasn’t raining. In mid August that’s a good thing if you are going out on a wildlife cruise. The last week has had the feeling of autumn, as the fireweed tops out and the leaves on the ground bush … Continue reading Late Summer Break
This is the hardest post to write. I mentioned COVID fogged brain in my last post. I missed the final dinner, although they brought a delicious Beef Wellington to my stateroom. I also missed the final slide show and farewell … Continue reading The COVID Coda
The plan was to visit the fishing village of Pelican, but weather had a different idea. To reach Pelican you need to cross Cross Sound. (On some of the older English maps it is called Croff Sound, but Captain Cook … Continue reading No Pelican, Whales!
December 14 was the first real day of winter in Sitka. There was a light fall of snow and some hear frost on the branches. We had had stormy November type weather the day before but the 14th dawned with … Continue reading Winter Brings Frost and Whales
Sometimes I wonder at the privilege I have living in Sitka. Two times of year are particularly wonderful. Spring brings great weather and the Music Festival as well as all the social activities that go along with that. As autumn … Continue reading Whalefest Preview
Our family has a Christmas Tradition of going out on the water over the Christmas Weekend to look for whales. It is a good tome to look because their breath crystallizes in the cold air and they are easy to … Continue reading Christmas Whale Watch
I often wonder if people in the Southern Hemisphere view Easter differently than we north of the line. Easter is so tied into rebirth, renewal and resurrection. It comes naturally in the springtime. If the days were getting shorter, leaves … Continue reading Resurrection in the Food Web
Today in Silver Bay dozens of whales were feeding, sometimes looking like synchronized swimmers, diving in tandem. The air was cold so their breaths hung in the air, crystallized mist shining in a bright sun. No matter where I moved … Continue reading The Whales are Marching Too
Sitka Whalefest has two wildlife cruises each year. This year we took both of them. According to Jan Straley there are 100 whales in Sitka Sound right now, bulking up for their 30 day swim to Hawaii and their mating … Continue reading Whales and Broken Clouds
March brings life to Sitka Sound. When the herring come in everyone follows, by air, in the sea and under the sea. The eagles, gulls, whales, sea lions and fishermen all congregate to celebrate the great spring biomass festival and … Continue reading The Great Spring Sitka Sound Bio-mass Festival.
February 2, 2008 Wilhelmina Bay, Antarctica I am used to photographing whales, but not this way. I am either in a small boat at sea level or on the second deck of a two deck Allen Marine catamaran. But on … Continue reading …To Teach Them Whales to Dance