March Mid-Winter Break

Well hello, thank you for stopping. Feeling the winter blues. In like a lion for March. Winter seems to want continue to stay with us up here in Alaska. Temperatures never seemed to get past the teens. With cold, blowing winds and minus degree temperatures early in the morning, it's kept Buford in and around the cabin over the past several months. Wonder if spring is ever going to show itself? Bit of the cabin fever I feel setting in. So I just had to create an adventure and go off to somewhere different. Take a mid-winter break. Homer, Alaska, I hear is nice this time of year in March. Watching the weather, it's just a little warmer down off the coast. It's also a winter residence for the bald eagles to hold out until spring gets here and the creeks open up for fish to travel up. So off I went. A wonderful drive down through Turnagain Arm, up through the mountains and the passes you travel. Baby blue skies, I couldn't of asked for better weather. A short stay to say the least, 4 days was enough to feel rejuvinated. Down on what they call the spit at the end resides an 82 year old lady known as the "Eagle Lady". A book has even been done about her life and she is the lady who has fed the bald eagles for many years over the winter months until spring arrives. I am always attracted to these wonderful birds. The National Bird and the symbol of freedom. As I arrived down on the spit, I found the eagles everwhere perched high and low. Into the evenings just before sunset, the eagle lady proceeds to feed them. To any photographer this is paradise for getting good flying shots as well as a mulitude of other eagle pictures. Work is never done. Early to bed early to rise, I found myself back down on the spit just before sunrise. Just after the sun rises over the mountains, the eagle lady again feeds the eagles. Only this time in the company of many other photgraphers.

I never expected to see and count upwards of 150 bald eagles, all perched out in every direction at their chance to get a piece of fish tossed to them. Wow, this was all just too absolutely overwhelming. I witnessed some of the most spectacular acrobatic flying out of these bald eagles chasing each other. There were many photographic opportunities of course, in that early moring light until about 10:30 am. Mid-afternoon break and it's back to work in the evening until sunset. A bird watcher's paradise for these wonderful birds. Four days of eagle watching and and taking some pretty neat pictures, I was ready to head back home after a rested stay. Oh, you can bet I will be back next year for more bald eagle watching. Just an awsome time to witness so many of these big birds gathered together out at the end of the spit in Homer. I hope your mid-winter break's are an adventure to somewhere neat as well.

Hey see you down the trail somewhere.

Buford T. Porcupine