Horned Puffin

Ron NiebruggeAlaska, Lake Clark, Photos, Travel, Wildlife 10 Comments

Horned Puffin

Horned Puffin, Lake Clark National Park, Alaska.

We just got home and are still beaming from an awesome trip! 

Although I loved spending time with the bears, puffin were actually at the top of my wish list.  You see I often get requests for this beautiful bird, and live next to a very large population, but have never been able to photograph them up close until this trip.  Now I can put an end to that frustration.

I have joked in the past that puffin really don’t exist – that they are just a cartoon character like Bugs Bunny.  Having seen them up close and personal, I can attest that they are real, and they are spectacular!

Here are more Puffin photos.

Brown Bear Sow and Cub

Ron NiebruggeAlaska, Lake Clark, Photos, Travel, Wildlife 10 Comments

Brown Bear Sow and Cub

Brown bear sow and cub, Lake Clark National Park, Alaska.

This sow was able to repeatedly dig up clams with incredible effectiveness.  On the other hand, the poor cub dug and dug, but was never able to find a single clam – at least while I watched.  I don’t think it had learned exactly where to dig just yet.  After awhile, the cub went over and began watching his mom very, very closely – it was really fascinating to watch.  I don’t know if he was a very attentive student, or just really hungry!

Since we have some brief internet access, I thought I would post a quick update.  As you can probably tell, we are having an awesome trip!

Here are more brown bear photos.

Travel Plans

Ron NiebruggeAlaska, Chugach, Photos, Travel 10 Comments

Common Merganser

I didn’t see any bears yesterday, but I enjoyed watching this Common Merganser family.  The chicks are almost as big as the adults!  This is another photo captured using a my Pocket Wizards and a 24mm wide angle lens – the ducks were about two feet from my lens!

 Tomorrow we are heading to Lake Clark National Park for 4 days.  It is kind of funny, when I booked this earlier in the summer, I was thinking it would be fun to concentrate on bears because I really haven’t focused on them before.  Of course, that was long before finding such great bears near Seward!  I’m also really hoping to photograph puffins.  There is an outside chance I will have internet access, otherwise there won’t be in activity here for a few days.

On a much sadder note, I think the bear in the last blog post was killed yesterday morning, and possibly the sow and cub as well.  I hate to say too much because there seems to be more rumors then facts, but at least one bear was killed for sure – and it was about the same size, age and in the same area where I photographed it the night before.  Supposedly it chased a dog.  It may explain why I never did saw any bears yesterday. 🙁

Almost!

Ron NiebruggeAlaska, Chugach, Photos, Travel 5 Comments

bear

When I saw this dead salmon in the creek, I was so sure I would be able to get my wide angle close-up that I decided I would wait as long as it took for a bear to show up.  Well, along with a break for dinner, I had to wait 7 hours before this young adults showed up! 

I placed my camera a couple feet from the fish with a 24mm lens, and focused on the salmon.  I had a vision of the bear pulling the fish out of the water and practically filling the frame with his face!  Unfortunately, the bear never saw the dead fish and managed to stay out of my focus range!  These near misses keep me coming back day after day. 

I checked back this a.m., and sure enough, the fish was gone.

A Place Few Have Stood

Ron NiebruggeAlaska, Kenai Fjords, Photos, Travel 11 Comments

Exit Creek

This photo near Exit Glacier brings back fond memories, as it was about our only sunny day so far this summer.  I usually avoid photographing in this bright, somewhat harsh light, but it was looking great to me!

 As a buddy and I stood here it dawned on me that few people have ever stood on this spot.  It isn’t because it is some remote, hard to reach location – it is probably less then a two mile hike with maybe a couple of angle deep glacier stream crossings. 

So what makes me think few have ever stood here?  Well up until just a few years ago, this spot was completely covered by Exit Glacier.  It has probably been under thick ice for hundreds of years if not more. 

The foreground looks like a completely lifeless environment, but there were a couple of places where tiny bits of plant life was already beginning to grow.  It has been interesting to see the transition of this area over the years, although I would hate to lose the glacier!

Mergansers

Ron NiebruggeAlaska, Chugach, Photos, Travel 5 Comments

Mergansers

 The bears didn’t show up Saturday morning, but a family of Mergansers swam within inches of my camera as I waited.  I wish the camera was pointed down more, but I was expecting a much larger subject!  I usually don’t crop my images, but decided I would crop this one for the blog.

Getting Better!

Ron NiebruggeAlaska, Chugach, Photos, Travel, Wildlife 13 Comments

Brown Bear Close-up

I moved my remote setup from the stream to this trail leading to the stream.  It isn’t as scenic of a location, but it is safer for my camera gear 🙂 , and had more predictable bear activity.  This one turned out pretty good, but I want to keep improving on the idea.

Brown bears sure have big heads!