Another Seward's Folly? OR "I oughter see a Sea Otter!"

We arrived in Seward, Alaska late on Monday Afternoon.  Tuesday (June 13th) we went on a boat tour of Resurrection Bay (the bay in which Seward is located.  This bay is a “fjord.”  “Fjord” is  a Norwegian word for a deep water narrow bay with cliffs or mountains on each side.  They are the result of glaciers that cut the rock away as they advanced during the last ice age.  As the earth warmed 10,000 years ago (it wasn’t caused by man THAT time either! 😜) the sharp walled, narrow gorge left behind came to be called a “fjord” by the Norwegians.  They made for excellent harbors because they were very defensible.  There was only the one entrance (up the gorge) and the side walls made attacking from on high very difficult.  The Resurrection Bay fjord is 950 feet deep in its central channel; about 3 miles wide and 11 miles long (that’s a LOT of melted ice cubes).

A “funny” thing happened when we went on our cruise Tuesday:  We took our Canon EOS 500D camera complete with charged battery – uhhhh, somehow I forgot to put the SD card back into the camera 😱😱 (Sometimes I put the MO in MO-ron)!  So our marvelous camera complete with a 200-500mm hyper-zoom lens became a “uniocular”.  That’s a bi-nocular but for only one eye.  Other than that it was functional only to hold our table down. OOPS!! 😢😭. So, we got what pictures and videos we could with our iPhone 6s.  Unfortunately, there isn’t anything that drains the battery on an iPhone faster than recording videos.

The tour was terrific.  We saw humpback whales, seals, puffins, cormorants and orcas (“killer whales” – though they aren’t whales at all, they are the largest member of the dolphin family) + thousands of “rats with wings” – AKA seagulls.  We also saw Bear Glacier, the largest glacier in the Harding Icefield.   We got what pictures we could given our photographically crippled state.

Ergo, we decided that we would go out AGAIN Thursday, June 15th.  This time we would be “camera-ready.”👍🏻👍🏻. Besides the Canon, I took my iPodPro for videos.  It has a terrific lens on it – 6,000 gazillion megapixels or something like that.   Today we’ve seen a humpback female and calf feeding; seals, orca, puffins and cormorants, kittiwakes and 4 different glaciers – Bear, Holgate, Peterson and Aialik. HUBBA-HUBBA

So, before we get to our picture presentation, I have a couple of “meteorologically incorrect” questions for everyone that is reading this post:  

• About 25,000 years ago much of the northern hemisphere was encased in ice: Alaska; virtually ALL of Canada (in the USA the southernmost remnants of the Canadian icefield are the Great Lakes that, as they melted, became the lakes we know today); All of Scandinavia and even Scotland were all ice covered.  Now then, the question: What caused those glaciers to melt?  It certainly wasn’t the “advancing technology of man” or “man’s use of ‘fossil fuels’” creating “greenhouse gases” to rise the temperature of the earth.   According to scientists (those unassailable paragons of deductive logic) 25,000 – 10,000 years ago mankind was at best loose bands of hunter/gatherers.  Wouldn’t the meteorological phenomena that caused the retreat of this glacial age be, by definition, “global WARMING?”  NO, this was not due to man. What caused it was the forces of the universe: The cycle of increasing and decreasing temperature of the sun itself; Solar Radiation; the earth’s magnetic field collapsing in upon itself and at times reversing; the wobble of the earth on its axis; the natural variance in the earth’s orbital rotation around the sun (Causing increasing perigees and apogees). EXACTLY NONE of these natural phenomena are within the control of man and all even an exceedingly higher effect on the temperature of the earth than man's level of pollutants.  For instance, in the 1783 the Laki fissure system eruption on Iceland spewed forth forth an absolutely MASSIVE amount of ash (14 cubic kilometers or 3.3 cubic miles) into the upper stratosphere.  This led to a winter which averaged 1 degree (Celsius) lower around the northern hemisphere.

• A second confounding posit:  Scientists (yes, once again those unassailable paragons of reason) tell us that at the end of the last ice age, the Sahara Desert was about like it is now:  Except for the area along the Nile river it was desert and largely uninhabitable.  But as it says at the "LiveScience.com" Website:

A timeline of Sahara occupation:

• 22,000 to 10,500 years ago: The Sahara was devoid of any human occupation outside the Nile Valley and extended 250 miles further south than it does today.

• 10,500 to 9,000 years ago: Monsoon rains begin sweeping into the Sahara, transforming the region into a habitable area swiftly settled by Nile Valley dwellers. 

• 9,000 to 7,300 years ago: Continued rains, vegetation growth, and animal migrations lead to well established human settlements, including the introduction of domesticated livestock such as sheep and goats.

• 7,300 to 5,500 years ago: Retreating monsoonal rains initiate desiccation in the Egyptian Sahara, prompting humans to move to remaining habitable niches in Sudanese Sahara. The end of the rains and return of desert conditions throughout the Sahara after 5,500 coincides with population return to the Nile Valley and the beginning of pharaonic society.

Certainly man's "industry" didn't cause this meteorologic shift is the weather patterns.

That's enough "head scratchers" for our "Global Climate Change" readers for now.

Here are some pictures and videos from the "Seward Swing" of our Alaska trip:

Above: Orcas - typically known as "killer whales" are not actually whales at all.  They are the largest species in the Dolphin family.  They are the most "intelligent" of all the cetaceans (whales, dolphins, porpoises).  Learned behaviors are passed down from parent to young.  The "Pods" are ruled by the oldest female.  She directs everything.  Even telling the males when they can breed and which females they may breed.

Above: A Humpback female and her young.  She is "Lunge Feeding"and teaching her young how to do it also.  Notice the birds, they start to dive toward the water as the massive amounts of krill or small fish are pushed to the surface by the force of the whale swimming toward the surface with its mouth agape.  Interestingly, the weight of the water in the x4 expanding"neck pouch"weighs more than the whale itself.  It then forces the water through the baleen attached to its upper jaw.  The baleen acts as a sieve - holding in the solid (edible stuff) and allowing the water to be ejected by pressure of the contracting "neck pouch."  For all of their size, baleen whales throats are only about the size of a large grapefruit, so the cannot eat large objects.

Above: Two Stellar Sea Lions having a "game" of "king of the hill."  They would appear to be young sea lions.  Not as big as the ones in the movie below.

Above:  This picture above kind of looks like a Stellar Sea Lion version of "the wave" you'd see at a baseball or football game.  Stellar Sea Lions are the largest of the "Eared Seals."  That means that they have small ear flaps next to their earhole opening which they can turn to hone in on the direction from which a sound is coming. 

Above: A picture of a harbor seal relaxing on an ice floe that Irene took near the Aialik glacier.  Seals use them for resting; interacting with one another and spotting prey in the water.  "True Seals" like this harbor seal only have an ear opening on the outside of their heads on each side.  All seals are carnivores eating mainly fish.  They only have pegged teeth, so they have to swallow their food whole OR come to the surface and bite into it and throw their heads back and forth and allow the weight of the prey and gravity to provide the torque to tear the chunk off in its mouth.

Above: For 5 days Irene was on a mission, she wanted pictures of a sea otter and she wanted them last month!!  The otter union must have had a strike vote.  For 3 days at Homer we saw ZERO, zilch, nada, negative bupkis Sea Otters  so we get to Seward and Irene is still "on the prowl."  She's gonna land her some sea otter pictures or we are going to take up residence in the State of Alaska until we do.  Her chant for 5 days was "I oughter see a sea otter."  Finally on our 3rd day in Seward one "scab" otter crossed the picket line and gave Irene her heart's desire:  Not just a "picture" of a sea otter, but what essentially amounted to a one-on-one "sit down interview."  He was 2 feet away and displayed the full ensemble of otter behaviors - floating on his back, spinning, holding a clam in his forepaws as he cracked through the shell with his teeth and ate the insides.

Above: Cormorants - these are piscivores (fish-eaters) that dive into the water and use their wings as "fins" to swim under water and catch their prey.  Interestingly enough, unlike most other piscivore fish they do NOT secrete an oil that keeps their wings from getting wet.  Consequently, between "fishing sessions" they have to get out of the water and let their wings dry out.  That is what the cormorant on the left of this picture is doing.  Lifting their wings off their body and crooking them allows for a maximum of airflow over them which dries them out.

Above:  One of the more hilarious sights to behold is a Puffin trying to take to flight.  Their bodies are made for diving,  to catch fish to eat.  They have to beat those little wings (which make for GREAT fins under water) 300 x per MINUTE to lift themselves out of the water and take flight.  Sometimes they are so tired they just give up and rest more before trying again.

Above: 3 pictures of puffins.  You can see pretty clearly that the top picture is a "tufted" puffin.  That means it has feathers forming a kind of "duck's tail" at the back of its head.  It has a kind of "Fonzi" thing going on, so to say.  In the bottom picture you can see that fat belly which makes flight harder than possible sometimes when its filled with food.

Well, this post is WAYYYYY long enough already.  So, I'll have to save the glacier stuff and geology stuff for the next post.

o/` o/` "Big Jim Left Seattle in the year of '17, with Irene beside him because she is his queen" o/` o/`

Only a few of you old fuddy-duddies might almost recognize that title as a really twisted, highly stylized homage to Johnny Horton's "North to Alaska" released in 1960 shortly after Alaska became a state.  It was the theme song for a movie by the same name which starred John Wayne, Stuart Granger, Ernie Kovacs and Fabian (a bubble-gum singer from the late '50s).

Anyway,  we are in Alaska again this year.  We wanted to come up again to see my sister Franny who became a Christian last year after Irene studied with her while we were at Homer, Alaska.  Fran lives in Sterling Soldotna since she was baptized.  She's lived in Alaska for almost 30 years now.  9 or so in Skagway when she first moved up here, then 10-12 or so in Kodiak and now she lives on the Kenai peninsula.  Well, in all that time she had never been to Denali National Park.  So we took her there when we came up this year.

Here are some pictures:

The 2 pictures above are of my sister Fran and I.  We took the opportunity of being in a unique location and surrounded by God's beauty to "spread" some of our mom's ashes.  This is the bridge over the Seattle Creek on the Old Denali Hwy.

The 3 pictures above are of Ptarmigan.  This is the state bird.  

The top one is a female and the bottom 2 are males.  

They are "Alaskan 'chicken'" essentially.

Above - Ridge beyond ridge of beautiful mountains are commonplace in and around Denali.

Above - an small alpine lake surrounded by Cypress trees. 

Above - the Frozen Tundra.  Above the tree line wide expanses of flat 

terrain which in the spring explodes with beauty.

The above picture shows a "forest" in permafrost.  With the ground frozen beneath them, the trees just can't get enough nutrition to grow large.

Above - part of Polychrome Mountain about 25 miles into Denali from the main entrance.  

It is given much of its color by Rhyolite a volcanic rock.

Above - These 2 pictures are Caribou.  Caribou are the ONLY species in the deer family where both the male and females have antlers, but they drop them a different times of the year.  The females carry there's through the winter and drop them in June or July after they are done breast feeding their young.  The males drop them in November or December.

These are Dall Sheep.

Above - a Young Bull Moose (called "elk" in Europe).  Moose are the largest of the deer family.  Bulls can weigh up to 1500 pounds (about 700 Kg).

Above - A female moose (Europe - "elk").  Females are "cows."  This one had given birth less than 24 hours previously to twins.  She is UPSET that cars keep slowing and stopping to take pictures.  Her back hair (hackles) are straight up and she is ready to charge anything that gives her an excuse at this point.

Above - The less than 24 hour old moose calves.

Above - A picture of one of the moose calves.

Above - a Marmot.  Marmots are essentially large mountain squirrels.  

They live on grass, berries, flowers, moss and lichens.

Above - 2 pictures of a porcupine.  Porcupines are rodents.  Interestingly, porcupines climb trees a lot (I didn't know that).  They can have up to 30,000 quills. Porcupines CANNOT "throw" their quills.   People and dogs (especially) just get too close. They eat wood, bark, flowers and berries.

Above - 3 different grizzly bears we saw.  

Bear safety:

• Never approach a bear.  Leave 300 yards between you and any bear you see.  Make LOTS of noise to warn them you are coming if you are walking in the woods.
• Never leave out food of ANY kind in your campground.  It WILL attract any bear in the area.
• If the bear has NOT seen you yet: Back away FACING the bear. 
• If the bear HAS seen you and is looking at you: NEVER run from a bear (it is faster than you), and their instinct is to chase prey.  They much more likely to chase something showing running away.  Back away FACING the bear.  Make yourself as BIG as possible (wave your hands above your head) while you shout.  
• IF the bear charges you:  Make yourself as BIG as possible (wave your hands above your head) while you shout.  Wait to see if it stops, NEVER run from a bear.  Back away FACING the bear.  Many bears do mock charges.
• If a bear attacks you:
• If it is a black bear (dog like ears, smaller claws, NO hump on its back) - fight like the dickens:  Punch, grab a stick and to poke at the bear to keep it away, etc.
• If it is a grizzly bear (small round ears, distinct hump on its back at the shoulder, large claws) - drop to the ground on your stomach.  Protect your neck with your hands or, if you have a back pack pull it up to protect your neck.  If it starts biting - fight like your life depends on it because it does.

Following being at Denali, we had a sojourn at the Soldotna church of Christ.  It's the church that Fran is part of.  It's right about in the middle of the Kenai peninsula.  That's a peninsula just that's on the south side of the Cook Inlet.  [I'll wait while you get a map or look on your phone or computer]. OK, so now you know where the Kenai Peninsula, Cook Inlet, etc. are.

Irene and I were the only couple in the sojourn, so what we could accomplish was somewhat limited.  Still, over 10 days I installed 445 feet of baseboard trim in 7 classrooms, two large open areas, the kitchen and transitional hallway in the basement of the building.  Irene gave a deep cleaning to 2 ovens in the kitchen and 2 refrigerators in the kitchen.  She also deep cleaned bathrooms and applied a weather sealant to a large wooden swing set in the church's play area.

Following the sojourn we went down to Homer, Alaska to visit with the church at which we led a sojourn last year.  It was great to see our brothers and sisters there again.

Then, that evening after Sunday night services we drove to Seward were we are spending this week seeing the sights and MY, OH MY how many sights there are to see here.  More about that in our next post.