Eklutna Lake—June 26-28

In preparing this blog entry I decided to lump three days together.  The 26^th was Sunday and it started raining late Saturday night and continued raining until mid-afternoon.  Thus I spent most of the day hold up in the trailer.  The time was not wasted as it gave me an opportunity to catch up on all my photos.  Later that afternoon I headed into Eagle River and visited the local Starbucks for coffee and time to post some of the pictures I had recently completed working on and the blogs.  Then I noticed a new Mexican food restaurant here in Eagle River, one I had eaten at in Wasilla in years past—Chepo’s.  The name is not cheapo’s as you can see and so I decided to eat out tonight.  The food was ok, can’t really get good Mexican food here in Alaska, and afterwards I returned to camp. 

On the 27^th, Monday, I headed to Anchorage.  I had received notice from Mike and Terri Church, the couple I had met at Laird Hot Springs back in Canada, that they had arrived in Anchorage and were at the Centennial campground.  I went to meet them and have coffee.  At coffee we decided to meet at WeeB’s for lunch and then head down to Westchester Lagoon and the waterfront to do some birding at high tide.  Today high tide was a 12:59 and was going to be a 28 footer, really not a big one.  So after lunch we headed to Westchester.  We took a walk down to the Audubon Bench but the tide was not great for birding.  We did observe about 5 Sandhill Cranes feeding in the flats, several Bonaparte’s Gulls mixed in with the myriad of Mew Gulls and located one Glaucous-winged Gull.  We also caught a glimpse of a small bird chipping in the understory and I suspect it could have been a Tennessee Warbler although I was not able to get a definitive look.  Back at the lagoon we had several Mallards with their chicks in the small pond under the bridge.  Then in the wetlands between the train tracks and the Coastal Trail there were about 100 Short-billed Dowitchers feeding.  I wonder if they have completed their nesting and are gathering for the return migration south?  I suspect that to be the case.  In the lagoon there were several Red-necked Grebes on floating nest and feeding as well.  Then on the small island near the parking lot we found more Short-billed Dowitchers and a single Hudsonian Godwit (this turned out to be a life bird for the Church’s).  In addition, there were many Mew Gulls swimming about with their chicks and a Red-necked Grebe nesting on the shore.  Out in the water we could see a large group of Canada Geese and some Greater Scaup as well.  We noticed the small café was open so we headed there to get a cup of coffee.  This was a really beautiful day, sunny, warm and a nice breeze, so we just sat there and visited until 5:30 when I headed back to camp.  Mike and Terri are both retired CPA’s who are full time RV’ers.  They also produce books about camping.  They have guides for the Pacific Northwest, Southwestern US, Mexico, Alaska and Europe.  Their guides can be purchase in bookstores or direct from them at Rollinghomes.com.  A very nice couple who have lived in Alaska as well.  They will be joining me on Wednesday when we will attend White Keys—Whale Fat Follies.

So today, June 28, has been a lazy day form me.  I must say I have accomplished little.  I journeyed into Eagle River for a badly needed haircut this morning.  As I headed back to the campground around noon I could hardly stay awake.  I don’t know why I was so sleepy.  I slept well last night, but upon reaching the trailer I took Dulce to bed with me and we took an hour and one-half nap.  All afternoon I have continued to be very lazy and plan to just make an entire day of it.