Cold Bay

Greetings from Cold Bay! Dave and I are out here to help FWS with their Steller's eider banding drives and I'm supposed to help Dave collect blood samples and virus swabs for the SeaLife Center. The weather has been too bad for banding drives, I haven't laid a hand on a bird yet (live one anyways). The end of this banding period is tomorrow, so we'll fly back to Anchorage tomorrow. Despite the lack of field work, we've been getting out and exploring Cold Bay.Gives you an idea of where we are. Dave has spent 6 Falls out here working on various projects for various people. Pavlof Volcano is ~30 miles from Cold Bay. Did I mention that it is active? The day I arrived, we flew by it and it was pumping out clouds and clouds of steam. We could see it from the bunkhouse. Unfortunately, during the flight my camera was packed away in the cargo.

Dave's nemesis, the wiley ground squirrel. eating a strawberry.

it's been so windy here, even the lakes have white caps!

gorgeous fall fireweed

Brant at Grant Point

Kristine, the refuge biologist, took me out berry picking one afternoon.

The strawberries are still around!

we went for a bike ride my first day there. this is Dave's biking outfit.

this is mine. a resemblance to Aunt Jemima?

not sure what Dave is doing here on his bike - falling off?

checking out the salmon

we went bird hunting, too. this is what I do while Dave is waiting for birds to fly by.

I read. And if it's raining, I read through ziplocs.

I love my new orange rain jacket and when I picked out the color, I was thinking - what colors would be nice and bright in case I need to be rescued during any of the number of outdoor activities that we like to do? ORANGE!!! I wasn't thinking - what are good camoflauge colors for hunting. Needless to say, the next time we went bird hunting, I wasn't allowed to wear my orange jacket.

We found glass balls, too!

shorebirds - rock sandpipers?

Dave. waiting for birds.

Brown bear tracks in the mud on the beach. They were everywhere! We even saw 2 brown bears out by Russell Creek.

we also used the ATV to get around

We happened to be around for the Cold Bay Salmon Derby.

There was a raft race.

and the Polar Bear jump, of course.

Audrey is in the middle, Benita is to her right.

Dave & Ryan cleaning their birds.

Brant! the dock

good Pacific cod fishing off the dock

we caught a flatish (threw it back)- some sort of sole? Alisa? any comments from the flat fish expert?

and a P. cod

and an Irish Lord. definitely threw this one back. what a mouth!

some day we'll find it... love this photo

Dave's pair of Canada geese

I took a bike ride out to Grant Point, ~ 11 miles one way from the bunkhouse. I had a bit of a cross-wind & head wind on the way out. I figured that the wind would be at my back on the return ride, but nooooooo.... it switched directions. I was pretty pooped by the time I got back to the bunkhouse. But it was good to get out and get some air. This is a panorama of Frosty Mt. from Grant point.

I've never seen so many waterfowl gathered in one place. Emperor geese, Canada's, Brant, tundra swans... oh, I did see one Steller's eider fly by. Pretty magical!!