Winter in Kodiak through photos

A few photos from the winter in Kodiak (much overdo!) Enjoy the photos and I promise I'll try to publish some photos from the summer before winter hits.

Orcas
swimming through the Kodiak Harbor, February '06
There is a pod of about 5-7 orcas that have been traveling through the Kodiak harbor for several years. I caught site of them one Saturday afternoon in February when we were on a scavenger hunt for my friend Keith's birthday. I didn't see them up close again, but more whales were to come throughout the summer!

more Stellar Sea Lion

Stellar Sea Lions
swimming in the harbor in Kodiak
The sea lions are an endangered species, however if you were in Kodiak, you would think differently! They are everywhere in the harbor - and quite a nuisance to the fisherman and other folks that work on the docks. Sometimes they will climb right onto the back of the boat or onto the docks so that you can't walk down to the dock.
Some folks may loathe them, but from a distance, I still think that they are stellar.

Mossy trees of Ft. Abercrombie State Park
The spruce pines are humongous! Sometimes they remind me of the redwood forest in California. Ft. Abercrombie is one of my peaceful places to go. I am not always guaranteed to not see anyone else, but I can always find a hidden rock on a beach and hide from everyone while I enjoy the sun. I visited the park almost once a week in the winter - and only saw 1 bear sighting sign - needless to say, that just means I started singing louder - and I didn't see a soul after that! (Couldn't have been the singing!)

Eagle Mania '06
Since I moved here, I have been having the hardest time believing that eagles are on the endangered species list, but evidently they are. I haven't gone 1 day without seeing less than 10 eagles and if I wanted to see them in flocks there are places I can go (in town) on a regular basis to see the eagles. However, when you see them feeding on a fishing boat (as they are above) they start to look a little mangy and like scavengers.

This photo was taken in February at our ferry dock in the middle of downtown. The dock was covered in eagles (well over 75 eagles were surrounding us and soaring above our heads).

Little man, Gage, walking along the Spruce Cape trail in February. It was a great hike until the end - when Gage decided that he didn't want to walk anymore and wanted to stay in the woods! His mother and I were very tempted to leave him, but we decided it was more fun to have him with us.