Louise & Richard's Adventures

Following our enjoyment at this time of year birding in Churchill, MB we decided that as we are in Alaska, visiting Nome would be the equivalent.

Reality is that it blew us away. The scenery was more snow capped mountains than we could dream of and the wildlife……..

Well here is a list of our 6 days of viewing and shooting

• Aleutian Tern *
• American Robin
• American Tree Sparrow *
• American  Wigeon
• Arctic Tern
• Baird’s Sandpiper
• Bar-tailed Godwit *
• Barn Swallow
• Black Scoter
• Bluethroat *
• Brandt  
• Common Eider
• Common Redpoll *
• Common Ringed Plover *
• Fox Sparrow *
• Golden-crowned Sparrow *
• Green-winged Teal
• Gray-cheeked Thrush *
• Harlequin Duck
• Hoary Redpoll *
• Lapland Longspur – male & female gathering nest building material
• Long-tailed Duck
• Long-tailed Jaeger *
• Marbled Godwit
• Northern Shoveler
• Northern Waterthrush *
• Orange-crowned Warbler
• Pacific Golden Plover *
• Parasitic Jaeger
• Pomerine Jaeger *
• Pintail Duck
• Red-breasted Merganser
• Red-necked Phalarope
• Red-necked Stint *
• Red-throated Loon
• Rock Ptarmigan *
• Rough-legged Hawk
• Savannah Sparrow
• Say’s Phoebe
• Semi-palmated Plover
• Semipalmated Sandpiper
• Spotted Sandpiper
• Surfbird
• Swainson’s Thrush *
• Tree Swallow
• Trumpeter Swans
• Wandering Tattler *
• Western Sandpiper
• White-crowned Sparrow
• Willow Ptarmigan male & female
• Wilson’s Snipe
• Wilson’s Warbler
• Yellow-bellied Marmot *
• Yellow Warbler
• Arctic Ground Squirrel
• Moose, Cows with calves
• Muskox *

* means first sighting for us.

Pictures will follow

After we spent 5 months in Alaska in 2016, we knew we had to come back. It was so incredible. Finally on May 8, 2023 we headed north from Chilliwack, British Columbia to Haines, Alaska, arriving on May 12, 2023. It feels so good to be back. This first leg of our summer journey took us 5 days (1,873 miles) through some of the most incredible scenery and wildlife – with overnight stops at Quesnel BC, Dawson Creek BC, Toad River BC, and Little Atlin Lake, YT.

Day 1 to Quesnel gave us beautiful and varied scenery along the Fraser and Thompson Rivers on mostly 2 lane highways with well positioned passing lanes. Only minor delays around a few flooded areas and some smoke and haze from the wildfires burning in Alberta. (Sorry about the bugs on the windscreen – we do clean at the end of each day)

Day 2 to Dawson Creek was sunny but the smoke haze continued to build which you can see in some of the photos. We got to see the first of the wildlife – Elk, Mule Deer and nesting Trumpeter Swans but not close enough to photograph.

Day 3 from Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway to Mile 422 at Toad River, BC was beautiful, warm and sunny. Judging by the leaves on the Aspen trees we moved in and out of spring several times. So much more wildlife today including Mule Deer, Black Bear, Caribou, Big Horn Sheep, Beaver and a variety of birds. Encountered some very BIG mosquitoes – fortunately not all were biting yet.

Day 4 to Little Atlin Lake near Jake’s Corner, YT was our longest day of driving – 10 hours. Toad River to Liard is a gorgeous section. The wildlife put on quite a show for us with multiple sightings of most – Big Horn Sheep, Stone Sheep, Porcupine, Caribou, Moose, Black Bear, Wood Bison. The Watson Lake Signpost Forest (Mile 635), started in 1942, has certainly grown since we last saw it.

Day 5 of our drive to Haines, Alaska was from Little Atlin Lake, YT through Haines Junction, YT to the Oceanside RV Campground on the water in Haines. We stopped in Whitehorse at Mac’s Fireweed Books on Main St. for a copy of The Milepost (2023) as we forgot ours and this was the first place that had it in stock since we crossed into Canada in April. Lesson learned: never be without Milepost. What amazing snow capped mountains to Haines Junction and then Haines – one of the most beautiful drives on the continent. Kluane National Park and Reserve is majestic. Fewer bugs on the windscreen, probably because of the intermittent rain.

Oceanside RV Park is our new home, right on the shores of the Lynn Canal, North America’s longest fjord. We have amazing ocean and mountain views right out of our windscreen. Some mornings we wake up to humpback whales and thousands of scoters diving for mussels. Aa few Bald Eagles are always perched nearby. And local fisherman sell us their fresh catches.

The Shetland Islands are the most northerly part of Scotland, and the windiest. The Shetland pony originated in the Shetland Islands and has lived there for more than 4000 years. They are the smallest of the pony breeds found in the UK but the most immediately recognizable of all equine breeds. They are easily tamed, wonderfully hardy, sagacious and surefooted.

They are the most wonderful example of adaptation to the environment and of natural selection. Their small size, thick double layered winter coat, neat ears and protective tails, manes and forelocks all combine to produce a pony of incredible hardiness to withstand the worst of Shetland’s winter storms and able to find food and shelter in heath and rocky strewn hills in the windiest part of the UK. So the scarcity of food, the need to conserve heat in spite of the wind and the effects of being an isolated population have combined to ensure that the smaller, more compact ponies have survived the best.

As we learned when visiting a wild horse ranch in Wyoming a few years ago, wild horses rely on mutual grooming for a variety of beneficial reasons. And so do Shetland ponies, with the young ones imitating their elders.

Throughout their history they have been used for transport and carrying heavy loads. They can pull up to twice their weight; most horses can pull less than 30% their weight. In the past when their owners did not have enough food to feed them, they were marked for ownership and set loose to run wild. Nowadays all ponies are chipped for ownership.