Joe Dickinson has returned with some lovely photos from the North. His captions are indented:
Here are a few photos from a recent cruise to Alaska.
Salmon were running at Ketchikan. Here is a typical pool in a stream that runs right through the town. I’m not sure of the species, maybe coho (Oncorhynchus kisutch)
Whales (humpback in this case, Megaptera novaeangliae) most often are located by seeing a spout or blow. The common belief seems to be that this is a spray of water. Check out cartoon drawings of whales; the spout almost inevitably looks like a fountain. In fact, most of what one sees is condensation from the exhaled warm, moist air, like seeing your breath on a cold morning. I think these shots capture that misty reality.
Here is a four shot sequence of a typical sounding dive by a humpback.
Here is a pile of Steller’s Sea Lions (Eumetopias jubatus) on a small, rocky island.
Here are harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) on that same island and on an ice flow near the Sawyer Glacier at the head of Tracy Arm.
The steep walls of Tracy Arm, a typical glacier-carved fjord, provide good habitat for mountain goats (Oreamnos americanus).
Thank you, I really like those photos, but feel like putting on a pullover now.
Had to be a wonderful trip and looks like the weather was on your side
We were up in Ketchikan this summer. Had a great time. Rainy, but we saw whales and caught (release) salmon. Nice town. Though our bus driver made me laugh (and sad) when she said, ‘Now scientists will tell you these here mountains are millions of years old, but do they really know? Were they there?’. She was implying, though would not explicitly say she was a young earth creationist. What a sad life, especially when surrounded by such extraordinary proof of earth’s age and sheer beauty when in Ketchikan.
How far north do those goats live? (Both these specific examples and the species as a whole.)
Ketchikan is a neat town, I’ve been there a number of times, using it as a base for fishing adventures.
I think those salmon might be pinks. They look a little small to be Coho.
Thanks for submitting photos of Alaska’s beautiful wildlife.
Delightful images, enough to make me envious of such a great trip. Someday, maybe, I’ll make it. My favorite shots are the 3 flukes…something magnificent about them.
Nice photos Joe, thanks!
A good friend of mine saw an interesting display in a museum in Telegraph Cove on Vancouver Island. The display was a bull Stellar’s Sea Lion skull next to a Grizzly Bear skull.
He said they were very hard to tell apart.
Stellar’s Sea Lions can be quite scary when they rush at you in a kayak: A fast-swimming sea-borne grizzly bear!