Goodbye April / Pannus

The coldest April on record in Alaska. Goodbye. Good riddance. Don't come back.

No doubt there is more record cold in store for May.

Today Tux visits the vet to check out a strange cloudiness in her eyes. I hope it's nothing. This poor dog deserves a break after suffering abandonment, starvation, hip dysplasia and multiple rattlesnake bites.

Update:

Well it isn't good news. Tux has Pannus, a hereditary immune disorder that attacks the cornea. Shepherds (and border collies!) are prone to the condition. She'll require treatment the rest of her life. I'm starting steroidal eye drops twice a day hoping to stabilize and possibly reverse it a little. Worst case scenario leads to blindness. We follow-up with vet in three weeks to see how effective the medication is.

Poor dog. It's always something.

Birding

Huge numbers of birds arriving now. We think they are piling up, staging, waiting for the interior and north slope to thaw so they can move to the breeding grounds. It's still unholy cold up there, and not so warm here either. We went to the lighthouse wetlands yesterday to see what was up: shovelers, mallards, pintails, greater white fronted geese, Canada geese, swans. A few snow geese were at Bishop's Beach wetlands and a ton of geese and Sandhill cranes are in the fields around our place.

Cranes in the yard

Sandhill crane displaying

 

Eagle talons

Head

 

Cranes Return

Yesterday we sighted our first Sandhill cranes, a shorebird on the Spit (I guess a plover after only a fleeting glimpse), ducks of some sort and a pheasant patrolling the neighborhood. There is a steady rain today and the cow moose is persistent in feeding in (on) our yard. After nipping off some spruce tips she dined on what's left of the raspberries then moved to the roses. Figuring that was enough damage, Bob rolled a small ball near her hoping to scare her off but she stomped that thing good and was not the least deterred. A week of cold (in the 40's) but sunny days is forecast starting tomorrow.

Snow

What can be said about this snow? Cold enough to form, not cold enough to stick. The emotional effects of cold gloomy weather are cumulative. I am feeling housebound already and longing for the warm caress of sun on bare arms. 

One must walk regardless the weather with these dogs. Here is video of two immature bald eagles working on that carcass...

Bald Eagle / First Swans

Nictitating membrane covering eye

This is one of the immature bald eagles hanging around the stinky shark carcass. It was surprisingly tolerant of my approach.
 

Still some gray plummage on heads 

Young swans arrive in time for Shorebird Festival

From the journey

Just a few shots.

Time to head north when these critters show

First flower to bloom in northern Nevada

Forest campsite outside Sequim, WA

Trillium, a favorite flower of the PNW

Big Horn near Clinton, BC

Caribou on Alaska Highway

Caribou

In the Frozen Land

We beat the swans this year. The Yukon and interior Alaska are still in deep freeze, more like February than April. There was no stopping to explore in this weather. The Chalet trailer was cozy down to 13 degrees when the water froze the last night we camped (at the northern end of the Cassiar Hwy) and with lows forecast below zero from that point on we mad a made dash for home and spent the last night at a motel in Tok, driving from the Cassiar Hwy to Homer in two days. Photos in Alaska taken with my iPhone through the windshield for the most part, below.

Heading south from Tok

Gunsight Mountain west of Glenallen

Chugach range

Matanuska Glacier

Pioneer Peak, Palmer

Turnagain Arm south of Anchorage

Turnagain Pass

Homer Spit, Kachemak Bay

Mud Bay

A walk on the Homer Spit today turned up two immature and four adult bald eagles eating something on the beach. More correctly, one of the eagles ate while the others waited their turn. This is never a pretty sight but I was curious enough to go in for a closer look. The dogs stayed down a short distance away and moved in slowly when I called so that one of the eagles never even bothered to fly away. I don't like the dogs chasing eagles -- partly because they are big enough to injure a dog with those talons!

Looks like a 6+ ft shark missing a big hunk of its side.