Saturday afternoon, October 13, 2018 Sunshine after storm


Seward, Alaska

The clouds thinned and by early afternoon the sun snuck through and dominated the surreal blue sky. It was hard to believe how dark, gloomy, and wet the morning had been! The sunny afternoon seemed to normalize the flooding, or at least made it seem less damaging. How could there be any problems on such a beautiful day?

A fishing boat puttered out of the boat harbor on calm Resurrection Bay heading for the fishing grounds. One of the last tour boats sailed forth with expectant and appreciative guests. Mt Alice peeked through remnant clouds, white with snow down to 3700’.

Meanwhile, Seward Public Works continued to furiously excavate gravel from the cauldron at the base of the waterfall to save Lowell Point Road bridge. Two enormous mountains of gravel rose beside the road, waiting to be hauled off. The tide was too high for any bulldozer work in the creek itself. The road remained open intermittently to accommodate the excavators; vehicles got a free car wash passing through the waterfall spray.

I checked out the Seward Airport. The Resurrection River continued to pour across the main runway leaving uprooted trees stranded in the middle. The heavily compromised runway will not be open for a while, and then likely not for heavier aircraft.

I drove up Resurrection River Valley on Exit Glacier Road, following the flooding café au lait river upstream to the bridge at Kenai Fjords National Park. The pattern of the boiling water under the bridge looked like smoke curls or mist swirls. The silty river banks were completely gone or buried underwater. None of the tributary creeks ran clear; all bore a heavy load of silt, heading to Resurrection Bay.

On this merry rampage, the river grabbed trees like a looter to toss into the bay for navigation obstacles and eventual beach furniture. The collective power of raindrops!

As for birds, I did not see the usual Bald Eagles, Ravens, or Kingfisher at Exit Glacier. Aside from a chipper BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE feeding in the alders, it was very quiet bird-wise.

Hope to find more birds tomorrow.

Happy Birding!
Carol Griswold
Seward Sporadic Bird Report Reporter












No comments:

Post a Comment