I had the joy of spending two nights in Homer, Alaska this weekend. While DH was on a fishing boat Saturday, I spent the day stuck in the hotel room working on a term paper for my dinosaur class. Now, before you all start feeling sorry for me... It was the best day that I've had in a long time.
First of all this "hotel" is more like a resort. The room we had was a two story affair. The bedroom (with table and chairs as a sitting area) overlooked Kachamak Bay. We stayed at the "Land's End Resort". If you want to look it up, the website name is similar to the resort name. The downstairs had a living room with futon, the vanity room and bathroom.
The bay view was out of this world. As I sat pouring over dinosaur books and resource material for my term paper, my attention was constantly directed out the window as Bald Eagles flew by within feet of the glass. The waters next to the shore were in constant motion of different types of gulls, kittywakes, ducks, merreletts, cormorants, and other sea birds as well as harbor seals and sea otters.
With binoculars up to my eyes, and the action seeming only inches from my face, I watched this one immature eagle doing circles over the water. It reminded me of an airplane pilot doing touch and goes on an airstrip. The eagle would fly in low over the water, extend it's talons and then fly off again, never touching the water. After the first five times, I watched it come in low once again and then all of a sudden it's talons broke the surface of the water, snatched an Oldsquaw from just under the surface and fly to the beach with it. (Here is a link to a description and photo of an
Oldsquaw). This sea duck became the focus of attention to a group of immature bald eagles. The beach seemed almost crowded with the 7 young, noisy birds all trying to take the Oldsquaw away from the victorious hunter. The hunter prevailed and after about a half hour the other eagles gave up, flying off to try and find their own meal.
DH and I were fortunate enough to witness this event (with out binoculars this time) again the next morning while we had breakfast in the wonderful restuarant at the resort.
The sea otters spent most of their time just behind the breaking waves. They seemed to be feeding on something but I was never able to identify what it was. A guess would be sea urchins or small bait fish.
The harbor seals were only interested in playing. The would follow a group of sea birds floating on the water for a while as if they wanted to play. The birds didn't seem frightened of them, but also weren't interested in the company.
The Oldsquaw was a new bird to add to my life list. There were so many of them, that I finally was able to get more work done on my term paper as I got used to seeing them float on the water.
To make this day even better, I treated myself to an hour long massage in the spa at the resort. By the time DH came in from a full day's fishing, the term paper was nearly finished, I was completely relaxed fromt he massage, and had plenty of wildlife stories to share with him.
Rose
