First I’d like to start off with some pictures from the beach walk last week that I took on my camera but couldn’t upload in time. We got some great looks at an up close Bald Eagle, waterfalls, the last Harbor Seal at high tide hauled out, and an American Crow that had a leuscistic(light brown instead of the normal black) plumage.

We started off this week by looking for Sea Stars and other creatures in the Harbor at a -2 tide. My roommate Isabella and I went out from 10-11pm with headlamps to go see what we could find, and we saw so many sea stars struggling to hang on to the docks with the water so low!

Some other evenings while it was still light out walking at the end of the spit and on the beach to try to get pictures of Long-tailed Ducks coming in for the winter, and although we haven’t found them yet we did have fun and find some other cool sights

This week we took a fieldtrip to the Kenai River to look for Cook Inlet Beluga Whales, a Critically Endangered subspecies. We saw 5 whales, and one very young calf among them. We stood up high on a bluff overlooking the river mouth, as during low-high tide they come into the river to feed in the currents. It was so amazing to see Belugas, although it was mostly just glimpses of their backs as they surfaced since belugas don’t do many aerial behaviors. Since young whales don’t know where their blowhole is yet, they tend to stick their heads a lot higher out of the water, so in some of the pictures you can see the dark gray calf below with a round head next to a fully in the water white adult.

On Friday I spent most of the day checking the Inspiration Ridge Preserve’s trail cameras and phenology work to look at plant timing. My roommates and I hiked all over the preserve, saw some snowshoe hares, spruce grouse, boreal chickadee, and saw a rainbow! Still waiting to try and see some Porcupines, so hopefully that will be happening soon, they have been all over the trail cameras.

And speaking of trail cameras, here are some of the best finds from this fall that I found while logging data for them.

I also started working on a new project this week with Olga at Winged Whale Research, looking at historic Humpback Whale records and individual photo ID and then comparing/updating data with current sightings. Humpback whales can be identified by the different markings, patterns, and shapes of their tails that they will often lift before they dive. Some of these whales were seen in 1980s for the first time as adults, and are still being found in the same waters today!

To end it off, here are some cute pictures of my house and sunset this week as there have been some amazing cloud formations recently!