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Braided river, Denali National Park, Alaska, originally uploaded by blather.

Braided river, Denali National Park, Alaska

In the central plain, seen from Polychrome mountain.

A braided river is one of a number of channel types and has a channel that consists of a network of small channels separated by small and often temporary islands called braid bars or, in British usage, aits or eyots. Braided streams occur in rivers with high slope and/or large sediment load. Braided channels are also typical of environments that dramatically decrease channel depth, and consequently channel velocity, such as river deltas, alluvial fans and peneplains.

Tolkat River, Denali National Park, Alaska, originally uploaded by blather.

Tolkat River, Denali National Park, Alaska, a braided river of glacial deposits. Taken near the ranger station, having hopped off the shuttle bus.

Get high resolution version: Polychrome Mountain, Denali National Park, originally uploaded by blather.

Polychrome Mountain, Denali National Park, Alaska

Orcas and whale watching boat, Kenai Fjords National Park, Seward, Alaska, originally uploaded by blather.

Mother and calf - orcas, or Killer whales, in Kenai Fjords National Park, with whale watching vessel approaching

Willow Ptarmigan or Willow Grouse, state bird of Alaska, seen in, originally uploaded by blather.
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Summer plumage (white in winter). I got close and personal with a few willow ptarmigans in Denali - usually, however, they were hiding in bushes, making it very difficult to get a clean photograph.

"The male Willow Grouse is unique in its nesting behaviour. In all other species of grouse, only the female takes responsibility for the young. However, the male Willow Grouse often takes responsibility of the young by staunchly defending his territory and his young. Males have even been documented to have attacked a Grizzly Bear and will attack humans who distract their young."

"In Finnish Lapland, the Willow Grouse was considered "the bird of God" and represented purity, often being associated with females. In some parts of the country, parents would hang the legs and wings of a white grouse over a baby girl's cot to make sure she grew up virtuous. In Finnish folklore the willow grouse, like other birds of the grouse family, were considered spirit messengers and any unusual grouse behaviour was interpreted as a bad omen, most often death or illness". Source: Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willow_Ptarmigan

Common Murre or Guillemot, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska, originally uploaded by blather.

Common Murre or Guillemot, swimming in Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska

Denali National Park, Alaska, originally uploaded by blather.

The view from Polychrome Mountain. Not high? That plain on the left is about 3,500ft about sea level!

I posted this on flickr back in June, forgot to post it here...

Tufted Puffin, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska, originally uploaded by blather.
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Tufted Puffin (Fratercula cirrhata), seen near Seward, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska

Mew or Common Gull eating a bug, Potter's Marsh, Anchorage, Alas, originally uploaded by blather.

Mew Gull, larus canus, eating a bug, Potter's Marsh, Anchorage, Alaska. Her chicks were nearby, and I think she grabbed this dragonfly to feed to them.

Rednecked Grebe family - mother, father and child, originally uploaded by blather - here's the flickr link.

Rednecked grebe hen sitting on a nest in Potter's Marsh, outside Anchorage, Alaska, with a chick peeping out from her feathers, and her mate bringing her food.

They're actually right beside the road, barely out of the suburbs, and I was standing beside my car when i took this

Aialik Glacier, Kenai Fjords, Alaska, originally uploaded by blather.

Aialik Glacier creeping into the sea at Aialik Bay, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska

Harbour or Common Seals, beside Aialik Glacier, Alaska, originally uploaded by blather.

Mother and pup harbor, or Common Seals, hauled up on glacial ice from Aialik Glacier, Alaska. The glacier is part of the Kenai Fjords National Park.

Fog rolling over the hills, Kenai Fjords, Alaska

Gas... food... lodging?, originally uploaded by blather.
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Gas... food... lodging?

Deserted gas station, "Igloo City" between Anchorage and Fairbanks, George Parks Highway, Alaska. I had driven through miles and miles of forest wilderness on my way to Denali, so the "Igloo" was a surprise - I ground the car to a halt in a cloud of dust, and took some pictures of this surreal structure.

It's about 180 miles north of Anchorage...

More about it here »

"And sez I, 'you're havin' me on, right?'", originally uploaded by blather.

"And sez I, 'you're havin' me on, right?'"

Sea Otter, giving it loads to the camera...

There's a moose loose around the hoose, originally uploaded by blather. (high rez version here)

There's a moose loose around the hoose

Alaskan Moose, Alces alces gigas, near Soldotna

Tycho Brahe (15461601), a famous physicist and astronomer, had a pet elk that once got drunk and died when it fell down the stairs in his castle

Beluga Point, Turnagain Arm, Anchorage, Alaska, originally uploaded by blather.
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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, originally uploaded by blather. Download high-rez quality via davewalshphoto.com »

Arctic Lupin - lupinus arcticus, photographed on roadside, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska

Mr Furtive, the porcupine, originally uploaded by blather.

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 mother and calf, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alas, originally uploaded by blather.

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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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.)

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Grizzly Bear, Denali National Park, Alaska, originally uploaded by blather.
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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.

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Curious Caribou, originally uploaded by blather. Get the high quality version here »

I met three of these reindeer stags up a mountain today - they, like the ground squirrel, were very curious...



Denali National Park, Alaska

Arctic Ground Squirrel, Denali National Park, originally uploaded by blather.

This little guy was very cheeky. I was 5000ft up on a mountain ridge, and he pretty much marched out of his burrow to greet me. Well, I nearly stepped on him first ,he vanished into a hole, only to pop up in another one seconds later - it was like one of those "hit them with the mallet" games. Then he just came over so close the telephoto was getting too long!

Exit Glacier, Seward, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, originally uploaded by blather.

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Exit glacier has has receded 300 metres in the past 10 years - the viewing platform for surveying the glacier would have been under several feet of ice just a few years ago. Today it's on dry land. There's quite a river flowing from underneath it, as you can see. It's very difficult to show the extent of the glacier from the ground, and still bring across a sense of its melting. That's why I used the wide-angle lens!