walrus rock....

 seemed fitting to toss this one in.  there is a baby walrus at the SeaLife Center.  found in Nome.  the guys who called about the stranding were calling him Nugget.  seems fitting.

 so today i made the drive out to see the little guy.  left late but the SeaLife Center is open until 9 in summer and the low tide was at 9:45 i think so worked out well.  i just got home.  drove out.  stopped by to take a peek. then headed to lowell Point with the pups.  then back to the SeaLife Center for a bit longer walrus observation time.

 so cute to watch.  i ended up missing feeding time.  oh well.  i think it gets packed at feeding times.  he was active when i was there the second time.

 just got home so haven't looked at the pics from the real camera's yet.  above was just a snap from the phone.  you observe from above.  would love to be down in there doing walrus snuggle time.  of course, there was mention of some little mites on the guy.  the girl sitting with him was plucking some off of him.

 he is gaining weight i guess.  the pictures you are seeing are that first sunset that lasted forever.  all are taken from my tent as i was far too lazy to get out.  i'd read then open up the door and take some pics....then back to reading.  lovely.

 after watching him i went and watched the birds in the aviary.  they seemed to all be taking baths.  this one puffin was cracking me up.  he was zipping around, doing back flips in the water.  hopefully i have a few fun pics of him.  silly birds.

 love skies like this.  breathtaking really.

 after my second SeaLife visit of the day i headed back to Lowell Point with the pups. the tide was much lower so they had lots more beach to run on.  they crashed on the drive back.  they are crashed now as well.

 so all in all a successful day.

 loved the water color above.  infused with the remains of the day.

 these are looking back the other direction at the pink sky remnants

 i believe this was a sunrise shot.  i was pretty tired so i think i snapped this and then rolled over.  too much day light.  haha.

 early morning light was pretty amazing as well.  yesterday looked beautiful out on the island.  loads of walrus.  this was great because there is a BBC/PBS film crew out there i think.  today looked windy and the bulk of them took off again.

 walrus swimming by

 it's all green now.  when i was there this time it was still brown.  cool to see it in different times of the summer though.

 loved the clouds

 at first only the cormorants were on the flat rocks

 the tide came in and then as it receded the big guys began to return.  i chilled with these guys for a while that morning and that was probably my best walrus photo ops of my time there.

 they do tend to work hard to get the prime spots on flat rock as the tide recedes.  once it's low tide they will just chill there.

 a handsome lot joined me there.

 lots of swimmers around there as well.  debating whether to attempt to find their place on the rock.

 i have a mosquito in my office.  dang thing keeps flying around me

 they do sometimes get bloody around their tusks.

 this guy has one shorter one.  it's typical for them to have chunks break off.  it doesn't seem to hinder them all that much according to the rangers and what i've viewed.

 getting cozy

 love their flippers.  often scratching or shading their eyes from the sunshine.  i hear they have much better vision under water than out of water.

 this guys seems to be checking me out though.

 light rain off and on today.  i hit it right on the beach times and missed any rain both times i was at Lowell Point.  with two pups in and out of the water i did manage to get pretty wet though.

 a bit of a scuffle over positions on the rock.

 this guy looking pretty chill

 a swimmer comes by to see if there is any room

 lots of chiming happening which was great. love the chiming.  below you can see the one walrus with his pharyngeal sacs blown up....that is what causes the chiming sounds.

 speaking of scratching.

 so a great day.  back to work for three more starting tomorrow night.  it's almost 1 am.  another late night.  i didn't get home until after 11 pm though.

 figure i did pretty good to get a blog entry in.  :-)

 another swim by.love those back flippers.

 surface blow.

 and another diving walrus.  i better get to bed soon i guess.

grateful for: A .  baby walrus viewing.  little Nugget is 3 weeks old they seem to be saying.  B.  places like the SeaLife Center and the care they give to our wildlife.  C. a safe and fun day in Seward