As you can see the Common Mergansers are very happy about the open water.
And of course we have moose in the Sanctuary. These guys like our trees, our trees bark, our lettuce and our strawberries. I don’t like them eating my strawberries.
We have another moose buddy that comes through quite often also. He is a 3 footed moose. Yes that is right a 3 footed moose, he only has 3 feet. I have some photos somewhere, I will find them and post. (No I did not cut off his foot because he ate my strawberries, that would be Ol’ Lipless, but that is another story for another time.)
I found these guys when I was putting out some millet for the pheasants. The winters are a wee bit hard up here so when I found out that I had pheasants I put some food out to help them make it through the winter. I walked out of my garage door with my head down looking at the bag of seed and when I looked up I had almost stepped on this bird. They proceeded to allow me to come right up to within 3 feet or so of them. The information on them says they are very fast runners and can easily out run a hunter. I don’t know if they can out run a 10 gauge from 3 feet away though.
Introducing the Chukar. I did not know pheasants were here in Alaska and now I have them and the Chukar. According to Cornell the Chukar was first introduced to the US in 1893 from what is now the country of Pakistan (formerly Karachi, India). So here we have another bird that thrives in the Central/Midwest up here proliferating under my deck. Yes there is a pair of these too.
New Print of the Month. Watchful King Eider. From the North Slope. Alaska. FallRiverPho
I am sure most of you are aware of the northern boundary water canoe trails up on the Minnesota-Cana