Birds of Prey, Fish Hatchery & Totems - Day 6 in Ketchikan - Tues, June 21

Another rainy day in Ketchikan. That is not surprising however. It rains almost everyday here, at least a part of the day.  Most days I get up to heavy overcast skies, the clouds hanging low over the mountains, and everything is wet. Today it was really raining. I decided to stay in for awhile hoping it would let up sooner or later.  But by late morning I decided it was time to act like I lived here and just don my raincoat and go outside. 





These "ducks in a row" are crossing the street down near the library. They are likely off one of the cruise ships. Most local people wear raincoats not these capes. I almost bought one of those as they are much cheaper, but since I knew I might be wearing it a lot, I chose a waterproof jacket and I am glad of it.  I wear it everyday, or at least carry it in my backpack when I go out.

I was planning to explore the shops along Creek Street. So I crossed the Creek Street bridge and took this picture upriver of Ketchikan Creek. 

This picture is facing the other direction, down the creek. It shows the shops I had planned to visit.

However, I got walking along the creek upriver and ended up going along the trails instead.

  
Everything is so green and lush. Of course, it does get plenty of rain --- this IS a rainforest after all!

I can't wait to see this creek loaded with salmon.

Getting higher along the trail. It does just keep going UP. The picture before this one was taken from that platform where you can see the blue viewer. There are viewers and telescopes located in many places around Ketchikan. But I see things much better through the lens of my camera, especially with the great zoom.

 Should I take the trail?  Or the stairs pictured next?

I chose the trail.

 This is higher up the trail looking across Ketchikan Creek. The platform is where I took pictures of the fish ladder a couple days ago.

This is quite a bit further up Ketchikan Creek.  It is running along side the road.  Up ahead is where we watched the flickers.

 The baby birds are still there, though I don't expect them to be much longer. Mama bird came and fed him. I took a video of it. I will have this one and several others to show you when I get home.

 I saw a sign for the fish hatchery and turned up the road to check it out.

 

Ketchikan Creek is partially diverted to go through the hatchery. Salmon are caught, their eggs taken, hatched, and raised here.  Then they are released back into the creek. The creek water is constantly run through all the tanks (over 2 million gals. per day) so the salmon will recognize their home stream and return here when they are ready to spawn.

   

The water leaving the hatchery runs under the grating and back into the creek.

The hatchery also has an eagle center where they care for birds that have been injured and/or for some other reason are unable to be released.

The creek has been partially diverted and this will flow through the hatchery.

Here it is entering the hatchery.

These are the two resident eagles. Both have been there for several years due to injuries that would not heal well enough to allow them to be released.  On the left is C'ack (pronounced like chaw) and Aurora is on the right.  Both are female. C'ack is the dominate one. She will lay a couple eggs each year. They allow her to sit on them for a couple weeks and then take them away.

These are some of the tanks. They told us there are about 5,000 tiny salmon in each tank. Water from the creek is flowing through the tanks to acquaint the fish with the smell of the creek.

The tubes hold eggs and show the developmental stages into tiny salmon.

Birds of Prey demonstration:

I had asked about the Birds of Prey demonstration. The girl at the ticket window called and asked if they would do it for one.  Mike (pictured here) said he would be happy to.  So I had a private showing. The demonstration usually lasts about 20 minutes. Mike and I talked for about 45 minutes. Mike is the pastor of a Baptist church north of town and he invited us out. He has had a love of birds of prey, especially hawks, since he was 11.  He also loves to draw. So, Charles....here is someone who has the same loves as you...God, hawks, and art. 

He explained about the feathers.  This is an owl's flight feather. Notice the edges. This soft edge is what allows the owl to flight silently. He also reminded me that it is illegal to have a bird feather in your possession, even if you just find it. There are huge fines for this, especially for endangered birds or birds like owls and eagles.

We looked at the talons of the owl. They are very sharp and the grip is very strong.

 

 The owl is named Moony. I think this is a perfect name for an owl. Isn't he beautiful. 

    
The peregrine falcon is named Pefa ( Pe for peregrine and falcon). They pronounce it with a long e and the a like a short u.

Pefa's talons are much smaller but just as useful. A falcon flies at 270 mph when it is in a dive after prey (usually a bird). The falcon will ball up its talons and actually strike the bird, knocking it out or even killing it. Then it goes after the stunned bird and catches it in its talons.

Pefa was born in captivity and it was intended that she would be released when she was mature enough. However, she refused to eat and had to be hand fed. She continued to be finicky about eating (Douglas can you relate to this?) and since they had to continue to hand feed her she imprinted with her handlers. They don't know if she thinks people are falcons or if she thinks she is actually a people.

Next I went to the Totem Heritage Center. Here they have preserved some very old and deteriorating totem poles.

These are very tall. There were five of these old poles. They had description cards telling about each one.

They had other displays such as these ceremonial masks...

....and these baskets. These baskets are made from grasses found here in Alaska.

Below is a picture of the raven found at the top of this pictured totem pole.

Raven is very important in the stories and legends. Raven plays a big part in the creation. He is responsible, according to one legend, for light as he freed the sun from the king who was keeping it in a box.


Note: Totem poles are not worshiped. They tell history, keep records and are memorials.

So what do you think this totem pole section is?

Did you guess that it was a bear?  I thought it looked more like a crocodile or alligator.

I figured the boys would like this totem with the tongue sticking out.

 See the eagle soaring over the pines? There are so many eagles to see but you have to look up sometimes.  They soar all over the town and love to sit in the high trees or down by the water.

This bus is free to ride. It just does a 20 minute loop around the down town area. It was painted by a local artist.

There are so many beautiful flowers in bloom around the area. 

I stopped at the IGA. Cortney, I thought you might enjoy seeing a price here in AK. I picked up soda crackers, an onion, ketchup & mustard so I could make a meatloaf for dinner. 


Prices of everything are a bit higher, some more than others. Things bought downtown are sometimes much higher.  I noticed that a Snicker bar was $1.50 (the size I would get normally in Wisconsin for 50 cents). At the Alaska Wild Stunt Show the other day they wanted $2.00 for one.  Gas is $4.05 right now.  Most of the meals we buy when we eat out are not much different than we would see at home. 

Ketchikan - Day 3 - Saturday, June 18, 2011

Our exploring today began about 11:00 after a nice breakfast of omelet and sausage, which I cooked and Juel did the clean-up. 

The mist/cloud is very low first thing this morning over my mountain view. I love that I have this interesting view to sit and watch as I wake up and type.

These float planes are frequently flying over or landing/taking off on the Narrows. We see planes "parked" at houses over on the island. There are more pilots in Alaska than any other state.

I noticed this bird through one livingroom window and quickly grabbed my camera. It is, I believe an eagle. And, as I sit here typing, I just saw another one fly by. This one was much closer and definitely an eagle.

 Ruth was coming to get us at 11:30 but we got impatient and left early, figuring she had to come up the Tongas Highway and would see us, which she did. 

But before Ruth picked us up we had passed the hospital where Juel will work. She starts on Monday, June 20, 2011.

We found a parking place downtown. Town is so quiet today as there are no cruise ship in and none are scheduled to arrive.  When that happens most of the town shuts down. For us, this was a nice quiet time to explore downtown and that is what we did. First we went down to the water.  The water is always an exciting place to be and we got a super surprise.

We saw jellyfish! There were several of these beautifully colored ones. They were right near that ramp in the picture above this one.  We walked down to that ramp and took these interesting pictures of the sea critters.

We also saw these clear jellyfish. It was such a special "bonus" to our day to be able to watch these beautiful creatures.

There were also LOTS of tiny clear jellyfish here at the edge of the ramp. Juel is attempting to catch one. We are going to buy a little net for times like this. Something small that I can keep in my backpack.

Juel was successful after several attempts to catch one. It feels almost like nothing but a mucus blob. After a close look, she placed it back into the water.

These are so beautiful and I took LOTS of pictures of them.  It was hard to choose my favorites to share here.

These two pictures (above and below) were cropped and enlarged. (Richard, this information is especially for you.) These jellyfish did such contortions when they turned to go.  It looked almost like they turned themselves inside out.  I took a long series of pictures as one did this. I am definitely going to go back and see if they are always in this area.

 

You can see the smaller ones in these pictures and get an idea of the size of the larger ones.

These clear ones are especially beautiful. God sure created some interesting creatures for us to discover and enjoy.

There is always so much interesting activity on the Tongas Narrows.

Here is a barge loaded with those large containers being towed.

This is a tour boat being towed out by a tugboat.

I had read about The Alaska Wild Stunt Show on the internet before we left. It sounded fun, but not enough for the $29 per 20 minute show.  However, they had a special thing going on today since there were no cruise ships in. They did free shows today, taking donations (cash or canned goods) for the Women and Children's Center. So we decided to go and support this cause and get the fun of the show.  Below are some pictures of the set and a couple of the scenes from the skit.

The skit was funny, but I would have been very disappointed to have spent $29 to watch it, but was fine to make a donation to such a good cause.
 

Not sure what Big Foot was up to as he didn't stop to talk to us.  Never know WHAT you are going to see here, I guess.

We had lunch at a nearby pavilion as they were raising money for the same cause. I had a grilled turkey burger. They had nice help-yourself bar of ketchup, mustard, relish, sliced onions and tomatoes, and lettuce. So I was able to make a wonderful sandwich.

Boardwalk along part of the harbor.

From the boardwalk we could see this crab in the water. Another fun surprise of one of God's creatures. I did crop and enlarge this picture.

This shows a typical road off the main street. All roads go UP! 

We got sunshine! We had blue sky!  It didn't last too long, but it sure brings out the colors. This is part of Ketchikan Harbor.

Me with Creek Street and Deer Mountain in the background.

This is a view of Creek Street from the other end than I shared yesterday.

Fox Lodge is part way up the mountain, so they offer a free tram. They welcome everyone to come and see the lodge, the view, and their totem poles. It is like riding in an elevator. You just get in and push the up button and off you go, seeing a marvelous view of Ketchikan as you go.

A look down from nearer the top.

Fox Lodge's totem poles.  These are Simshim poles - recognized because of the use of only red and black. They also often use buttons in the decoration.

Thought my grandchildren would especially like this one. Many of them have the tongue hanging out. We are sure to learn more about totem poles as the Ketchikan area is famous for having the largest collection of them.

We decided to walk down from Fox Lodge. These wooden steps are just the first part of the journey down.

Part way down we were walking along the road and ran into Jim and Heidi. Jim is an avid birdwatcher and was photographing these baby flickers. We would never have seen them if we had not run into Jim and Heidi.  Thank you, God, for leading us to this special encounter and the chance to witness the momma bird coming to feed her brood.

We continued our walk back down along a pretty creek. Parts of it were over rapids.

We have been told that this creek will soon be filled with salmon. The salmon run starts towards mid-July. I am so thankful for this extended stay here and how much it is going to allow us to see and do.

This, I believe, is the fish ladder I read about. It aids the salmon in the journey up this steam, by helping them over some of the rougher spots. I don't know exactly how it all works, but I guess I will see for myself later as it gets put to use.

Still on our journey down from Fox Lodge we saw this old building a "local" happened to hear us remarking about it.  He told us it was the old hospital.  Juel is sure glad they have a new one.

Back down by the Narrows now, we see that it is raining in the mountains across on the other island.

This picture was taken at the same time as the previous one of the rain in the mountains. I simply turned and faced the other direction.
You can see how quickly the weather changes here.  We carry our rain jackets with us all the time and have put them to use often.

Ketchikan keeps a record of the precipitation. What we call rain, they refer to as "liquid sunshine."

This sign welcomes visitors as they get off the cruise ships. This is their first view of Ketchikan.

The Ketchikan tunnel is through a rock. I read that it is the only tunnel that you can go through, around and over.  Traffic going north goes through the tunnel while traffic coming south goes around it to the left.  It appears there is a road up on top, though I have not yet been up there.

 

Ruth had dropped us off down town as she needed to get home because she worked this evening.  So Juel and I planned to catch a bus home.  This was not as easy as it looked.  It seemed like we were seeing buses all the time and we had a bus schedule.  However, we couldn't figure out how to read the schedule, so we started walking. We were told we needed to catch a green line bus.  When we finally saw one it stopped at a bus stop about half a block from us and didn't wait. So we walked some more. It is a little over two miles from downtown to our home. We were less than half mile, I think when we just couldn't walk anymore so we found a bus stop and sat down. We had been walking most of the day (since 11:00 and it was now nearing 8:00)....wow! That is much of 9 hours of being on our feet.  No wonder my feet are getting anxious to get these shoes off.  Finally a bus came and we got on.  Now we did know that the green line bus comes right up Carlanna Street (which is one of those UPHILL streets off Tongas).  All we could think of is that we would have to walk up that street.  But the bus driver did tell us that if we rode the bus as far as WalMart, he turns back to go downtown.  On this part of the route he does go UP Carlanna.  So we decided that that was what we would do.  However, after a few minutes the bus pulled into the hospital and we decided since we had caught our breath we would walk from there.  We cut through the hospital. The bus stops at the front and we went out the back through the emergency entrance.  From there we can cut over to Carlanna, but we are half way up.  We did make it home, but two very tired ladies.  

Oh, I forgot to tell about where we ate dinner.  It was a little place down town called Burger Queen.  It looked like a rather dumpy place but a lady we asked about places to eat said that the locals eat there often.  So we went.  The food was good, but not cheap, and the place was clean...so it was a decent meal, but we will not likely eat there again.