ALASKA

Well, its been a month since Valerie and I returned from a fantastic trip to Alaska! We went along with Birdfinders, a British based Birding Tour Company that was led by our good friend James Smith. In a nutshell, we couldn't have asked for a better leader, great people and super weather. We ended with 170 species of birds, 30 species of mammals and great memories....almost seems like a dream.

We arrived in Alaska a day ahead of the group and were able to get in a full day of birding. The flight from Massachusetts was a long one, but nothing in comparison for our friends coming from England. The first day in Eagle River (Outside of Anchorage) we hiked in an area known as Arctic Valley. This area provided great looks at Gray Jay, Common Redpolls, Golden-crowned Sparrows, and a beautiful Rock Ptarmigan! (Well done James!)

In the next couple of weeks I'll try and update my blog more often with new photos from the different regions we visited in Alaska.(Seward, Denali, Nome and the Pribs) I took over a little more than 3000 photos which I have edited down quite a bit, but my Internet at home is still down, so I'm shuffling photos to my work computer.

Enjoy,

Scott

Valerie- Arctic Valley. Common Redpoll-below

Arctic Ground Squirrel

Fox Sparrow (Red)

Rock Ptarmigan-Still hanging onto his winter attire

Rock Ptarmigan- Close up!