Monday, June 29, 2009

Denali National Park, Day 3 - Small animals


67977 - Snowshoe Hare



67930 - Snowshoe Hare
 Day three was uneventful as I took a bus back to the Toklat river station (mp 53) but did not see much wildlife. It began to rain a couple hours into the ride, but I did manage to snap a couple photos at a reflecting pond just west of Toklat, and of the braided river as we crossed the bridge. It began to rain a couple hours out and this would have made photos difficult anyway.


67935 - Snowshoe Hare

67646 - Mew Gull calling

7358 - Arctic Ground Squirrel
 Upon my return from the day's trip, I rode out to Savage River and photographed some snowshoe hares on the wayback. I was able to take time and approach them very slowly, and one of them allowed me to get within about tenfeet and photograph him as he was chomping on some roadside vegitation. I was watching a mew gull sitting on afence post and he began calling, which made an interesting photograph.
Below is an arctic ground squirrel that I actually photographed on Thursday near the Eielson Visitor Center (mp66).


7327 - Grey Jay
 The last photo is a grey jay photographed at Wonder Lake on Thursday.

 The next post will deal with animals encountered while out hiking some of the trails inside Denali National Park. It will include photos of a fairly rare bird that I photographed yesterday while hiking the Rock Creek Trail, as well as several others during three different hikes. I hope to post it tomorrow if I can find internet access. Tomorrow is a travel day as we will be driving down to Valdez (approximately 10 hours away) and camping out, then taking a cruise on Prince William Sound Tuesday, hopefully to photograph whales. Please check back for updates.

7 comments:

  1. Your collection of photos for this post are remarkably crisp. I like them. I wonder why the ground squirrels have such short ears?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beautiful pictures, Tim.
    Thanks for sharing them with us.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Beautiful images of nature. I love the bunny captures. Anna :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Glad you make it to Alaska. Great images as always; I am sure you are giving Ken some pointers in how to track and photograph wildlife. (:>)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Tim,
    this is a very nice series of shot and I love the squirrel a lot, but the rabbit are cool too. Seems like you are seeing a lot fo things there!

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a spectacular 3 days you have spent out here Tim.

    From the first day, the Coyote and the Moose shots are the best.

    The 2nd day landscape compositions are too good

    And finally the Snowshoe Hare and the Mew Gull in this post are awesome.

    And when you add the tough conditions you have taken these shots, it goes a long way in showcase the person behind the camera. Thanks for sharing these...Thomas

    ReplyDelete
  7. Very nice images of the snowshow hare and the gull.You are indeed enjoying the trip.

    ReplyDelete