Kenai Peninsula

On  the highway into the Kenai Peninsula. Young alders close to the camera and mostly spruce in the background, lots of mountain snow and no-kidding ice cold streams  - your hands or feet feel numb very quickly in any running water. Incidentally it is pronounced closer to 'keen eye' rather than 'ken aye'.

Cemeteries are good places to check for birds. I was walking around the new one in Seward, when I returned to my car coming around a hedge, visitors! A cow and this young moose which was browsing near my car in the long grass.

An adult Mew Gull, the legs are also bright yellow.

A small flock of Harlequin Ducks on the eastern shore of Resurrection Bay. They are feeding in the shallow water and among the rocky edge. I've seen them before in California in alternate plumage, this is the much more satisfying breeding plumage.

Bald Eagles are usually a good find, but on Resurrection Bay, and indeed around Anchorage also, they are very common. Eagles prefer fish for dinner, especially if they can steal it or get it easily. This one is near a nest across the road from where I am staying.

And the best choice in town for a great meal and some 'atmosphere'. Sort of trapper cabin, honky-tonk, log barn and left over fishing gear.