November Bald Eagle Festival



Looking down my camera lens

 

The Haines annual Bald Eagle Festival should be called, the Bald Eagle Fiesta. Up to 4000 eagles show up in November to feast on the late salmon run of Coho and Chum.

This year we took a canoe across the river and hiked up into a drainage that runs into the Chilkat River. It looked like more of the eagles were staying back away from the river.

After hiking and taking many pictures, I got this picture after I crossed the river coming back.



Daylight was beginning to shorten and the days were cool, but with a beautiful blue sky and no wind it was the perfect day for Southeast Alaska.

This brown bear highway is the first thing I seen when I stepped out of the canoe. Jake followed us across the river and was losing ground by the time we had landed on the bank. I quickly jumped out of the canoe and ran down the bank to help coax him out of the thick brush he swam into and back to me.
Jake hesitated before jumping back into the water, he was exhausted, but it was the only way to reach me. When he jumped out onto the riverbank he ran to me with a new zest for life.

As Jake reached me I realized I was standing in the center of a brown bear freeway, with rush hour being only a few hours ago. Many bears travel around at night, napping during the daylight hours, just inside the dense brush where they fished all night. I quickly made my way back out into the center of the rock bar, where I had more time to react should a bear walk out of the trees.

For Jake, the rest of the day was business. He is my best buddy and needs to be on bear patrol. Although he didn't have to deal with any bears ( Thank God ), he did however think he needed to protect me from a low flying eagle over 500 yards away. Running full speed he made it 100 yards before I yelled and he put the breaks on, when he turned around his head was lying low, as he knew he was in for a scolding. Did I mention he dislikes eagles immensely? Even when we are driving in the truck and one fly's too close he tries attacking through the window.



 Other than Jake we are exercising our "2nd Amendment" rights.  Here in Alaska many people carry weapons, safety is a priority here in big bear country, although there are many other species that can be extremely dangerous too. Moose are very unpredictable and need to be respected, but I don't think we had to worry to much about them, I know if I were a moose the last place I would be is on this river. You never know when a bear might not get enough salmon.

 

 See what I mean? The drainage is long and wide and in most places I couldn't take a step without tramping on bear tracks. Of course by now most of you who know me well, know that I love being in the center of all of this.

 

A small brown bear fishing along the Chilkat River.

 Scroll down to see more pictures of eagles. In a few of the pictures you will see eagles roosting with there wings hanging lower than the rest of their body, they are drying out there wings.

Many times they catch big salmon and must fight to get them to the river bank, even if it means floating down the river until a chance presents itself.

Just a few weeks ago I was in Sitka, AK and saw a duck fly by me with his wings doing over-time. Just two seconds behind the duck was an eagle.

As quickly as the duck touched down on the water the eagle grabbed it and kept on going. The eagle barely was able to stay in the air, he glided only a foot over the water for a couple hundred yards before safely reaching the bank.

 Enjoy! Be sure to scroll to the end, there is a video of an eagle with his catch up in a tree.

Drying wings!

 

Hanging out!

Check the video below an eagle serenading the river valley while eating a salmon in the tree.

Turn it up!

Spooky October

Other than October is Halloween month, Mother Nature is about to take a turn toward the spooky darkness that will soon fall on this country and with it, SNOW!

October 8
Last night the land was quiet and stars illuminated the sky in all directions without so much as a puff of wind. Upon waking up early this morning a different story was literally on the horizon, the calm before the storm. As the sky began to show signs of light the wind began to gently blow, soon turning windy with 50 plus mph gusts and heavy rain. In just a few more weeks the rain will turn to snow, and by the way things are looking, there will be a white Halloween.

It seems November is the roughest month of the year and although we are merely a week into October the weather seems to have finally switched over and is moving in with a vengeance.

On a nicer note though, I spent the last two days fishing. Although I didn't catch anything I had the
best time trying. If I wasn't casting my rod I was taking pictures of eagles, bear tracks, the fall colors, the river, and my dog.


It is hard to decide what to do when you have a fishing pole in your hands, and there are eagle's fighting over fish. The eagle's won! After accidentally getting this picture, I was happy about my decision.

I was taking pictures of three of these eagle's fighting over a fish, when one of them took a leap and was airborne colliding with one that was preparing to crash the fish fighting party. Notice in the bottom right corner, a seagull trying to get out of the way before it becomes a meal.

Afterwards one of them flew over and landed on a log not too far from where I was standing. I quickly gave Jake (dog) strict instructions to "stay"! I began slowly toward it taking a few short steps at a time before sitting down. When I finally got within 30 feet I sat for the last time and took this picture just moments before it flew off.





Eagle's are everywhere right now enjoying the easy pickings of Coho and Chum Salmon. By November there will be approximately four thousand eagle's here to feast on the salmon. Haines has the largest concentration of Bald Eagle's in the world in late fall. The Haines Bald Eagle Festival is November 11 through the 17th. Bring your winter gear.







 I didn't see any bears while fishing, but as I walked along the riverbanks there were many signs that the big bruins had been there.

Although I don't want them close when I am fishing, it's always special when they appear. I saw several different tracks, this one is the front pad of what I believe is a sow brown bear because of the cub tracks that were nearby.



This is the sows back foot pad. My shoe size is an eight. Which is about the same size as the bear track. Often a bears foot size is it's body size in height. Also, if you measure the width of the front pad and add one it will bring you close to the actual size. I measured the pad of this bear, it came out to approximately 8 inches, which tells me that it was a nice size bear, for a sow.







 Here is a video of a close encounter I had with a bear. The video is not the best quality due to adrenaline type shaking. The only humor I could find afterwards.

 

This bear video was taken by me in the September 2011. This was an extremely dangerous situation I found myself in, but it is also a fact of life if you spend any time in the outdoors of Alaska. I could see the bear when he was across the river on the flats, at a very safe distance. For some reason he walked to the edge of the river and sat down and watched me. After approximately ten minutes he stood up on all fours and started walking down river. When he was far away, we watched him walk into the river and begin swimming across, he then disappeared. The next time we saw him is when the video starts.

I believe what really happened is, the bear just wanted to go back the same way it went out. When I reached the road, the bear crossed it and disappeared. Whew!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Termination Dust

The leaves are changing colors rapidly as the rain continues to fall and the temperature continues to drop.

Yesterday (Sept. 20th) the temperature was 48 degrees and I remember thinking, "if it's this


Fresh Snow on the Chilkat Mountain Range

cool down low it's got to be near freezing on the mountain tops." I said to someone today, "I wouldn't be surprised to see snow on the mountains when the weather clears." Well, this morning wasn't clear but the thick clouds thinned out enough I could see fresh snow.

Termination Dust, that's what it's called here in Alaska. The term means the onset of winter. Here in Haines it seems most folks go by the snowfall on Mt. Ripinsky, the mountain sitting to the north of town. When Ripinsky gets it's first snowfall it's six weeks until winter, or at least that's what they say. I'll let you know when it happens.

Sept. 23 More fresh snow up high. High clouds with patches of blue sky.

In the last week I have been picking rhubarb and freezing most of it. Since it was so fresh and something new to make I made muffins and rhubarb/apple crisp, both came out great. The muffins were my favorite!

 The recipe I used included: yogurt, butter, egg,

flour, sugar, salt and of course rhubarb. The recipe called for fresh rhubarb to be cut into pieces and put into the batter, instead I cooked it down with a bit of brown sugar and mixed it into the batter. I then poured only part of the batter into the muffin tin and then spoon more of the rhubarb into the center and covered it with the remaining batter. For the topping I used brown sugar, nutmeg, and butter. This was my first time making anything out of rhubarb and they turned out to be very tasty.



October 2 and fresh snow coming down on the peaks regularly with the wet weather. Yesterday as I drove into town I could see fresh snow on the mountain behind Mt. Ripinsky. It's coming!

The Coho's and Chum's are in the rivers now, which brings in fishermen from all over. Other than Alaska license plates, I have seen Yukon, British Columbia and one from Idaho. On Saturday my Alaska truck will be along the river somewhere too. Lot's of pictures coming.

Catching, Smoking, Freezing and Canning Salmon

Subsistence fishing in Alaskan communities is a lifestyle and a way of life. Many people begin fishing in early spring for Eulachon, pronounced (hooligan). The fish (smelt-like) return from the ocean each year to their birthing grounds in freshwater to spawn and die. The fish are caught with dip


Nick tossing the net

nets and a circle type of net weighted down on the ends, so when it is tossed properly it will open up into a circle and drop over-top the fish, quickly sinking to the bottom and trapping the fish inside the net.

This is a sport I have become addicted too. Not only was I catching fish, I'm along the river learning a new way to fish and enjoying the first warm days of the year.








A small catch (learning to throw the net)

Eulachon are known for their nutrient rich oil. Indigenous people here in  Haines still catch them and place them in a pit in the ground and leave them there until they rot. The fish are then taken out of the ground and boiled to remove the rich oil.




In June the Sockeye begin their run up the Chilkoot river and the Chilkat River and it's tributaries to spawn. The rivers are full of the fish for weeks and everyone it seems is fishing, smoking, canning and drying fish.

By late August the Pinks (Humpies) are in the rivers. I was fishing on the Chilkoot River yesterday, and as I walked down the bank toward the river's edge I stepped alongside a set of brown bear tracks that were leading away from the river. Of course tracks from brown bears are common, but on any given day bears can be seen fishing from the banks.

The banks are scattered with dead fish that have been pulled out of the water by the bears and usually only partially eaten, leaving a stench that at times can be overwhelming.






These strips are cut from Sockeye, soaked in a brown sugar and salt brine, hung and smoked with Cottonwood. The strips are then cut into small pieces and canned.

This brown bear sow and cub walked up onto the road fifty feet from where I was standing. I slowly turned and crawled into my truck.











Holland America at the PC Dock with Fort Seward in the background. This picture is for those of you that were on my last tour. My view.
If any of you would like a copy of this picture please send me an email.

 

 

It looks like summer has come and gone. The daylight hours have gone from 22 in late June to approximately 15 as of September 5th.  By Winter Solstice on December 21 the sun will be rising at approximately 9 am and sunset will be around 3:15 pm, leaving us in the dark by 3:45.

The first snow typically leaves a fresh powder on the tips of the mountains and from there we watch it slowly make its way down the mountains. When Mt. Ripinsky (the mountain north of town) gets it's first dusting of snow, we know it's only a few weeks until it reaches the ground.

As always I get excited for winter to begin, but first is our run of Coho (Silver) Salmon.  This is one of my most favorite times of the year, autumn is in full swing covering the valley in bright colors.

Catching Chum (Dogs) Salmon (2011)

 And, there I am standing somewhere on the banks of the Chilkat River with fishing pole in hand, the sun shining it's last rays of warmth on my face, eagle's gliding over the water in search of a catch and the never ending thought to keep an eye out for bears walking the banks.

By the end of October most of the fish will be up the river in the Eagle Preserve and beyond. There is a four mile stretch of river that doesn't freeze because of warmer water entering into it. The eagle's gather here in November by the thousands to feast on the fish as they pass through. Although it's cold and snow is on the ground by then, there are still a few bears out and about in search of their last meal before finding a place to hibernate for the long winter ahead.

This is my first post for the new blog, please leave comments for me and enter your email just under the eagle picture so you are sure to receive all my blog entries.