Wildlife – Page 14 – Wandering Dawgs

Wandering Around America one state at a time – Alaska

January 4, 2017November 28, 2017Posted in Alaska, Birds, Glaciers, Road Trip, RVing, Wandering around America, WildlifeTagged America the Beautiful, Arctic Circle, Bald Eagle, Denali, Haines, Ninilchik, Talkeetna17 Comments

State 2:

Welcome to the next post in my series highlighting states we have visited throughout the years. I hope you will enjoy coming along for the ride! I will be featuring the states alphabetically and next up is

Alaska

Alaska became the 49th state on January 3, 1959. The capital is Juneau and it is the only state capital that can only be reached by air, boat, or birth. The largest city is Anchorage.

We spent 50 glorious nights in Alaska in the summer of 2013.

I loved meeting so many wonderful Alaskans and hearing their stories. Wildlife, glaciers, boat trips, a flight seeing tour, eagles, halibut fishing, Denali National Park, taking the RV on the Alaska Ferry from Skagway to Haines, and a train ride on the Alaska Railroad are just a few of the amazing things we experienced while we were there. Our favorite place was Haines. The most exciting thing we did was take a flight-seeing tour from Talkeetna to see Mt. McKinley and land on Ruth Glacier. The farthest north we went was Coldfoot, north of the Arctic Circle.

Pullen Creek RV Park, Skagway, Alaska

Waterfalls along the Klondike Highway

Arriving at the Haines ferry dock

Watching for whales in Haines, Alaska

Bald Eagle at Chilcoot Lake State Park, Haines, AK

Haines boat harbor

Deadliest Catch!

Mendenhall Glacier

The free George Black Ferry crosses the Yukon River from Dawson City to Top of the World Highway.

Poker Creek Alaska

The signposts show other towns named after chickens. Who knew there were so many?

The Pedro Dredge in Chicken is a National Historic Site.

Santa Claus House, North Pole, Alaska

Downtown Talkeetna.

We went really close to Mt. McKinley

Loving every minute of our time on Ruth glacier

Home of author Mary Lovel in Sherman, Alaska

The Alaska Railroad runs right behind our campsite

Such an amazing sight to see their tail

Stellar Sea Lions on day trip to Juneau

Calving on Aialik Glacier one

A pair of Orcas on Columbia Glacier tour from Valdez

There were Puffins in the water

Sea Otters on Columbia Glacier tour from Valdez

Wandering Dawgs at the Arctic Circle

A good look at the Alaska pipeline as it goes underground

Four of these fish are ours!

Mount Redoubt sunset in Ninilchik, Alaska

Anchor Point is the most westerly highway point on a continuous road system in North America

Our first moose sighting was this cow by a pond

Lukor liked it on top of his house

Polychrome Overlook, Denali National Park, Alaska

Caribou grazing in Denali National Park

Do you see the profile of a face on the right side of the rock?

Chunk of ice from the Columbia Glacier

Fireweed behind our campsite made the beautiful view even better

Mama bear looking for more fish near Valdez

Every day was memorable, every day was special, every day we saw something spectacular. Was it worth driving over 14,000 there and back? Absolutely!

To read previous posts about the states featured in this series just click on the state name: Alabama

Backyard Wildlife

August 26, 2016Posted in Birds, Butterflies, Georgia, Nature, WildlifeTagged Black Swallowtail, Diamonndback Terrapin, Gulf Fritillary, Horned Owl, Monarch, monarch caterpillar36 Comments

I never know what I might see when I walk out my back door.

One day a juvenile horned owl stopped to search for a tasty morsel in the marsh.

Another day this diamond back terrapin took a wrong turn into our back yard.

The ruby throated hummingbirds come by for a drink every day.

It’s been a constant battle keeping the aphids off my milkweed but I have had an occasional Monarch stop by.

I spotted my first caterpillar of the summer on August 24!

All the butterflies love the Mexican Sunflowers I planted this year.

And the bees love it, too.

Celebrating Ten Years of Wandering

July 15, 2016Posted in Lighthouse, Road Trip, RVing, Sunset, WildlifeTagged black bear, Enchanted Rock, Fifth Wheel, Split Rock Lighthouse, Yosemite Valley33 Comments

What an amazing ten years! Each marker on this map represents a place where we camped in our RV.

Ten years ago, on July 1, 2006, we spent our first night in an RV park in Tampa, Florida. Two weeks later we left Georgia with no reservations anywhere and a bucket list of what we wanted to see. You can see highlights of that trip at Looking Back on our First RV Trip. Last year I posted a few of our most memorable experiences from our first nine years at Celebrating Nine Years of RVing.

Many of our trips revolved around either visiting family or attending a special event such as a wedding or Titanium Rally. Sometimes we traveled just for the fun of seeing new places. No matter where we were going, we always took the long way around to get there.

We discovered beauty in every state and province we visited. Sometimes the everyday things were the best.

I love watching the changing landscape and seeing the many farms and ranches.

I love seeing the farms as we drive along

We always enjoy seeing lighthouses.

Split Rock Lighthouse on Minnesota's North Shore — Split Rock Lighthouse on Minnesota’s North Shore

Seeing wildlife is always a treat.

Black Bear beside the road in British Columbia

And of course we loved visiting many of our National Parks.

Yosemite Valley from Tunnel View Overlook

Sometimes we enjoyed watching the sunset from our campsite.

We did a few amazing hikes.

At the Summit of Enchanted Rock in Texas

Chilling by a camp fire is always fun.

Now that we have ten years of RV’ing under our belt, our priorities have changed. Of course, we are ten years older and it is more difficult to make long trips. When we started our wandering, we only had two grandchildren. Now we have four and we want to spend as much time with them as we can. Going on long trips takes us away from them for too long.

Our wandering days are not over. There are still many places we haven’t seen in and near our home state of Georgia so from now on we will travel a little closer to home.

Back Yard Painted Buntings

May 6, 2016Posted in Birds, Georgia, Nature, WildlifeTagged backyard birds, Georgia birding, Painted Bunting16 Comments

We’ve been watching painted buntings come to our feeder in the back yard for the last couple of weeks. For several days every time I set up my camera to capture these beautiful birds I scared them away. They are very skittish and fly off when they sense the slightest movement.

I never gave up trying and my patience finally paid off when I was able to get a few shots of a pair at the feeder.

The male kept on eating after the female flew off.

After she left he came around to my side of the feeder so I could get a good look at him. The food must be better on this side!

Nesting Birds at Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge

April 25, 2016February 24, 2018Posted in Birds, Georgia, National Wildlife Refuge, Nature, WildlifeTagged day trip, geocaching, Georgia birding, Great Egret, Harris Neck, roadside attractions, Smallest Church in America, tri colored heron, wood stork, Wood Stork Nesting9 Comments

Wood storks, egrets, and herons build their nests every spring in the trees of Woody Pond at the Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge. Located in Georgia just a few miles from I 95 in between Savannah and Brunswick, it is a great day trip from our home.

Woody Pond at Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge

Wood storks were placed on the Endangered Species list in 1984. After almost 30 years of conservation efforts to increase the wood stork population, their status was upgraded to Threatened in June, 2014.

A path along the dike beside Woody Pond provides a great place to view the birds. The wood storks and egrets shared the trees.

Nesting Wood Storks and Great Egrets at Woody Pond

Many of the wood storks were working on their nests. None of their eggs had hatched yet.

As I took photos, Henry used the spotting scope and pointed out a mother egret with chicks that I would have never seen. The nests were a long way from where we were so the picture isn’t the best but it gives you an idea of the size of the baby egret.