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New York musician Thomas Truax and His hornicator, at the Boom Boom Room, Dublin, 28/07/2007
Blather.net: Thomas Truax - the Wowtown Interview
Thomas Truax website
Thomax Truax on myspace
Beluga Point, Turnagain Arm on Cook Inlet, near Anchorage, Alaska. This is a common beluga spotting location - but the Cook Inlet belugas are under threat from hunting and pollution, and it's hard to see them these days. I spent hours here and at the Kenai river - saw no belugas. Which isn't proof of anything in itself, of course...
Public Hearing on Cook Inlet belugas »
The Cook Inlet Beluga Whale »
Arctic Lupin - lupinus arcticus, photographed on roadside, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
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North American Porcupine on the road to Denali, Alaska.
I was speeding along one of the endless stretches of the George Parks highway when something caught the corner of my eye, across the road. I slowed down, pulled a U-Turn, and slowly drove back. So did the old SUV that was behind me.
I stopped, turned off the engine, pulled up my camera and 400mm lens from beside me.
A man appeared to the right of my car, in full U.S. military fatigues and crewcut, brandishing a tiny silver compact camera.
I got out, with my Canon bazooka lens.
That's when Mr. Furtive, above, stepped out onto the road. He froze in this position, as if he'd been caught doing something embarrassing - that's when I took the photo above. Then he backed into the grass.
That's when Mr. Military sprung into action - he started charging through the long grass, trying to get a "close up" with his little camera. Mr furtive put his quills up, and started trying to get away. Mr Military circled the porcupine, making herding motions with his hands.
"I'll try and get it towards you for a photograph"
"No, it's ok, it's better if you just leave it alone"
His chase went on for a few minutes in the waist-high grass, before the terrified animal took off into the woods.
I can't remember his name (it was on his fatigues) but he wasted no time in telling me that he'd been down at Fort Richardson in Anchorage for National Guard training, and was being sent off to Iraq.
Well, that explains that then.
*sigh*
Humpback other and calf, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska, seen from a whalewatching boat. These two whales were feeding, probably after migrating from Hawaii.
Those are puffins in the foreground...
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Festival, Miltown Malbay
A quick break from the Alaska pictures. Here's one from Saturday last....Young buskers at the Willy Clancy Festival, Miltown Malbay, County Clare, in the west of Ireland. It's one of a load of traditional irish music festivals that happen ever summer here.
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Young buskers at the Willy Clancy Festival, Miltown Malbay, Co. Clare. The festival runs for over a week every July, and is usually a fine example of mayhem. This young lad has broken a string.
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Barren Ground Caribou - wild Reindeer, Denali National Park, Alaska, originally uploaded by blather.
Caribou stag on Polychrome mountain, Denali National Park, Alaska.
(Reindeer, when living wild in North America, are known as caribou.)
Grizzly Bear, Denali National Park, Alaska. This is as close as I got to any bears, alas. And this was with a 400mm lens, hanging out the side of a bus, pointing about 30 degrees down a slope - which is the only reason that the bear looks like he's on the flat! Apparently he's fairly young - maybe three years old, and about 150kg/300lb.
Heather's been telling everyone that I photographed a "bear's ass". As you can see, I managed to photograph its head too. Some feat, eh?
BTW, I have no great desire to get *any* closer to a bear. I think of them as being like an eccentric neighbour. You see them walking past, glasses held together with cellotape, shopping bags full of junk, and a dirty mac. They keep to themselves until the neighbourhood kids start breaking their winds and stealing their apples. Then they turn into an axe murderer.
Bears like to keep to themselves - and they usually only attack when they feel threatened.
