WOW, what a 4th

Ruth and I went out for dinner at Lone Star probably for the last time. There's something about lousy service and food not cooked the way you ordered it. That place has changed over the years.

Afterwards we had nothing planned so I suggested we go take some pix's. We seldom agree on where to go, but I think she's happy that we went where I wanted to this time. Elmendorf AFB is a large base. On the backside of the base there are many lakes, a float plane base, camping areas and all kinds of wildlife.

We started off at Green Lake. There use to be an old cabin there, but the AF probably had t torn down for safety reasons. However they did leave the chimney. Right off the bat we see a Bald Eagle scanning the lake. He was able to elude us taking pictures until it perched because of where we were and the obstacles in the way.

We decided to mosey up the road a bit. When we pulled out on to the main road, we had a red visitor cross our path. So we headed back with him towards the lake. If we kept our distance, it didn't mind us taking all of the pix's we wanted, so we did.

While we were watching this guy Ruth spotted what she thought was a Goshawk at first. It gave us a better chance of identifying it by scanning the lake right in front of us. It was an Osprey. They are supposed to be rare in this area. He flew off and we turned our attention back to the Red Fox. While we were observing our sly little friend we both looked up just in time to see the Osprey take a swoop at the bald. The bald never left it's perch but the osprey swooped real close and all we could hear was it's powerful wings whooshing as it got near the bald and turned and flew away. After it left the bald told it what it thought of that with a "cawk, cawk, cawk".

While this was going on, a beaver swam across the lake towards its den. I don't think he was as impressed with the two big birds as we were. We turned to go back to the truck and this little red and black guy I say is an American Robin, Ruth says no but she's not sure what it is, was just sitting on a bench staying out of the way of things.

Things calmed down and we decided to leave and drive up the road a bit and see what else was around. We hadn't got far when Ruth spotted a moose mom with two calves. The grass was so tall all you could see of the babies was their ears.

Time was running out so we moved on. We made it to Six Mile Lake where everything was so calm. The float planes were bedded down for the night. It was so quiet you could here the grass growing.

My camera battery was on its last legs. I have misplaced my back up and I haven't replaced it yet. The sun set was the last shot I was able to take. We had a full evening and it was time to go home. I think our batteries were running low also.


Check out more pix's at the album link below.

2008-07-04