Everythang's Big in Laska

July 14, 2011

We've seen so many bald eagles we've stopped counting...we're bored with the birds, now bring on da bears (but not too close please)!  Just kidding, we're not indifferent to these soarers one bit, we are still in awe, but truly
the day was full of them.

It started this morning as I lay three-quarters asleep wondering what time in the world it was when I heard an overhead cry; it sounded like a chicken ate a kitty cat or vice-versa.  Then, I thought I dreamt that I heard a mumble coming from my sleeping-bag-tumbled spouse "That was an eagle," the muffled voice said.

Then later, while we were looking for up-stream swimming salmon, Mr. BE himself, swooped down grandly to show the already present gulls how to fish. Talons at-the-ready he confidently took aim landing upright, gripping the water...but alas, it was he who had to eat crow--he missed, ha-ha!  The gulls went wild with glee and
proceeded to molest him as he regrouped nonchalantly on a nearby dead tree.  With his yellow beak piercing the air, he offhandedly commented, " I meant to do that" and swooshed upward, looped and glided arising to a far away tree where he joined others of his ilk to oversee the valley. Nearby, in the crook of a tall birch, was a very large, branchy nest.    

Can you see them?  There's three or four bald eagles in that tree.  

Other birds in residence on the Southern Kenai Peninsula are ravens and crows, magpies and robins, as well as, the ubiquitous über-gull; regular gull-like looking fellows but as big as three Aransas Pass seabirds put together.  Another large predator bird soared by that looked a lot like the eagle but was all mottled and brown, bedraggled and well, plain goofy looking.  It turns out it was BE's offspring; emphasizing the need for such a ginormous nest. 


There are flowers galore, including giant bluebonnets that, like the gulls, must be on steroids.  They call them Lupine. We've not sighted a moose yet but we've seen the signs,; broken limbs and a lot of scat.  Did you know that moose turds look like the chocolate-covered pecans?  Beware next time you shop in one of those all-things-Texan tourist shops.  And the mosquitoes, well they're so big that they call them the state birds of Alaska.  Har-d-har-har!  


I can just hear it now if Palin and Perry go head-to-head in the Republican Primary Debates, Palin:  "Well, it's ovious that I'm the bettha cayndidate cuz my stayte is bigger dan your stayte. My bluebonnets are bigger dan your bluebonnets. And even though we can see Russia from here, we've been able to keep 'em from crossing da bordha, ja, ja,ja, ja!"