Category Archives: Birds

Adirondack Wildlife

Posted on by | 2 Comments

I’ve been telling you about the beautiful scenery and abundant food  in the Adirondacks but  what about the Adirondack Wildlife? There’s certainly plenty of that around even if we didn’t see them all. You can find black bear, bobcats, coyotes /coy-dogs, Red fox, beaver, muskrat, ground hogs, deer, maybe a moose in the north and tons of squirrels & chipmunks. And we can’t forget the traditional road kill of possums, raccoons, skunks and porcupines!Then there are the birds. Herons, blue jays, crows, ravens, woodpeckers, chick-a dees,  hummingbirds, finches, sparrows red winged black birds, loons…. Throw in a few raptors- various hawks and owls and even bald eagles.

Of course we can’t forget  the scaly creatures- snakes (including rattlesnakes), turtles from little sliders to whopping snappers, and fish. The only alligators are those some stupid people released thinking it would be fun. Those people are cruel idiots. Excuse me for being so blunt but they are signing the poor alligator’s death warrant. They are not good people.

The Eastern Cougar

The eastern cougar was declared extinct on January 22, 2018. Once this big cat roamed all of the eastern states dining on deer meat. But as the herd disappeared so did the cougar.However as white tailed deer made a comeback in places such as the Adirondacks there are sporadic sightings reported. Are they really extinct? Are the sightings of the eastern cougar or their western cousins? Who knows but like Bigfoot they don’t seem to be going away anytime soon. 

 

The Little Mammals

Mid way through my visit we descended on my sister. We met her for lunch at Cooper’s Cave then retired to her house to take in the mini wildlife in her back yard. We enjoyed the antics of her tiny menagerie for several hours while catching up on family gossip. As much as Sandy complains about the chipmunks and squirrels digging holes in her yard, she still keeps an ample supply of peanuts on hand. The squirrels and chipmunks come first and then the Blue Jays. We even saw her hummingbird! 

 

 

Puzzle Progress

I forgot to post an update on the last post . As you can see the progress isn’t fast but it is steady. 

Jigsaw Puzzle Update

Posted on by | 2 Comments

The Bird Jigsaw Puzzle Update

Brought to you by  popular demand is my Jigsaw Puzzle update. The Bird Jigsaw Puzzle is proving to be a challenge. As you recall a few weeks ago I was excited to share that I had used my pictures to have 4 – 1000 piece jigsaw puzzles made up.

 

 

For photos I chose a mountain in Grand Teton National Park, A Sunflower with a butterfly, and a seal with a fish. The last photo I chose was of a Bird. A purple Gallinule to be exact taken in the Everglades.

Purple Gallinule

I thought is would have a lot of detail to make the puzzle easier but my friends thought this would be the hardest of the 4.

Progress is slow But Steady

With my friend’s observations in mind I decided to tackle the bird first to see just how hard it was. Of course I’m a little rusty with jigsaw puzzles. I’ve had cats for over 20 years and during that time I gave up the puzzles. My cats were just too helpful. I hated little cat teeth-marks in the pieces. Needless to say things are moving a bit slower than I expected. I got the border done quickly but I’m running into trouble finding the inner bits on the corners.  Still I don’t spend hours working it. Its more like 15 minutes here, a half hour there. I try to spend a little time on it every day but I’m not obsessive. After all, I’m in no hurry.

 

I’m getting lots of little combos so once I figure out where they go the puzzle will start to move faster.

The Felt Mat

I was complaining to my friend JR that the pieces  were hard to identify against the wood grain of the table. He told me about the puzzle mats. I’d never heard of them. They aren’t expensive and they do make puzzle-ing easier. The pieces tend to stay in place once they are snapped together. According to the instructions on the box you can roll up the mat with the puzzle on it and it will keep the puzzles in place. The box included an inflatable cylinder around which you roll the felt with the puzzle. I haven’t tried rolling it up yet. I think I’ll wait until it’s finished before I try that. 

Glass Bottom Boat – Journey

Posted on by

Glass Bottom Boat - JourneyGlass Bottom Boat – Journey

The Glass Bottom Boat – Journey returned to her berth in the Pennekamp Marina right on time. The passengers disembarked. The Captain and his mate did a little clean up and then the All Aboard was called for our 3 PM trip.

I’ve been on a few Glass Bottom boats but never one like Journey. Most have a large glass viewing port in the bottom of the boat. A few had the windows in the hull where you looked out the sides. This one was different. There were 4 large boxes. They looked like freezers with  lids tightly secured when we got on board. Benches surrounded these Boxes and we were told to take a seat at any of the four. 

The Journey on the JourneyGlass Bottom Boat - Journey

After the obligatory safety instruction Journey cast off and we motored out through the mangroves. We spotted beautiful white herons perched in the trees but finally we entered more open water, the sea grass plains. The boat picked up speed here. The Captain’s Mate told us to watch for sea turtles. Sure enough, they were everywhere. They were hard to spot until you saw a splash as they ducked back under the water. They kept their distance from the boat. At one point there were so many the Captain slowed to almost a standstill so we could get a chance to look around without spooking the turtles. 

Open the Freezers!

As we left the sea grass plains behind we prepared for arrival at the reef. The Mate went around to each of the boxes and helped us remove the lids. The viewing port was at the bottom of the “well”. We could lean on the sides of the boxes and look down through the window to the sea floor below.  The water wasn’t very clear. Not like I would expect for the Florida Keys. It was obvious that the winds had been stirring things up.  

Glass Bottom Boat - JourneyView from Above

We drifted over Molasses Reef watching for any signs of sea life. Finally someone called out that they saw a turtle. Then we began seeing little reef fish like parrot fish. But our window had the best sighting. We got a shark! We also saw a jelly fish and several little sea turtles. After drifting there for about an hour, maybe an hour and a half  it was time to head back to the marina. No one got seasick but it was easy to see how you could glued to the windows as we all were. 

Conclusion

This was a good choice. The visibility wasn’t good enough to warrant the effort it would take to go snorkeling in 2 ft seas. It would have been nice to see the Christ of the Abyss which would require a snorkel trip but even the snorkelers didn’t get out there due to the rough seas. Maybe next trip. 

Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve

Posted on by

Not Just a National Park

Glacier Bay is not just a National Park. It’s also a World Heritage Site. I don’t think you can really refer to Glacier Bay as a “port of call” as there is no port. You are cruising through this huge bay surrounded by icy mountains, glaciers and ice bergs. The ice bergs were a good sign. It meant that it was warm enough to cause the glacier’s to calve, that amazing falling ice that you see on the nature shows. 

Magarie Glacier

Warm is relativeTidewater Glacier

I just said it was warm enough for the glaciers to calve. That’s not to say it was warm. It was still gray and overcast. The misty rainy weather that had been following us since Vancouver continued to be the norm. The rawness of the wind just cut through any coat you were wearing. I counted on the excitement of seeing the glaciers to keep me warm; that and running from one side of the ship to the other so I wouldn’t miss anything.

Bald Eagle on an ice floeIce Bergs and Glaciers

We maneuvered into Glacier Bay from Icy Strait, named for the abundance of ice floes. The ice floes and mini bergs bumped and rattled along the sides of the ship. We took our time so that there were no big collisions. At one point we watched an eagle sail by on one of the ice flows. The glaciers were the high point. The ice was made up of  ribbons of colors. Blues and greens abounded. 

Our Own Private Balcony

Eventually it was just too cold so we went back down to our room and settled on our balcony. That’s where I finally saw one of the glaciers calve. It was just a small piece of ice. It seemed to hover before it dropped into the ocean below. It turns out that we had a much better view from our balcony than from the top deck and we were out of the wind so it felt much warmer. 

calving Glacier

Stock Photo

Cruise to Alaska Begins in Canada

Posted on by | 2 Comments

The Alaska Adventure starts in Vancouver

Our Alaska Cruise departs from Vancouver, Canada. We flew into  Vancouver the day before we had to board. This time we were cruising on Princess Cruise Lines. So far I’ve been on Royal Caribbean, Carnival and now Princess.   I had been to Vancouver years ago for a convention. Its a beautiful city.

Cruise terminal

MountyWe didn’t have much time to explore but we did get a chance to walk along the waterfront after breakfast and before we headed to the ship. The staff at our hotel, The Best Western Sands,  were awesome; helpful with our luggage and transportation to the ship.

Strolling along the Seawall

Our morning stroll started in a sculpture garden. The main sculpture is  A-Maze-ing Laughter by the Chinese artist Yue Minjun.

laughter

Even though it was raining the gardeners were working on the landscaping so flowers were abundant.

gardening

So were the birds. There were Herons, gulls, ducks, geese and loads more that I couldn’t identify. I shouldn’t have been surprised about the rain. Vancouver and much of southwestern Alaska are part of a temperate rain forest! Who knew? I think of rain forest as the Amazon or Brazil but the Pacific Northwest is also rain forest! Little did we know that the rainy Vancouver morning foreshadowed what we would experience on our cruise.

Great Blew heron in Flight

Time to head to the ship

The morning flew by and before we knew it, it was time for lunch and then we needed to find the ship. The hotel concierge told us we were close to the port but with our luggage we felt a cab was a good choice. The front desk made a call bringing a cab right to the front of the hotel. It really wasn’t far to the port but there was a lot of traffic. We probably could have gotten there faster walking but I’m pretty sure we would have gotten lost! Taking the cab was the right choice.