escape from the cottonwood den...

 okay...the cuteness factor may be too much for you to take here!!  i will save the baby polar bear from the zoo for the next installment. black bear cub cuteness and polar bear cub cuteness would put you into a cuteness coma!

 karen joined me for today's final monday walk of the season.  we cleaned up the remnants of the tree decorations that we put up earlier and from another tree that won't be accessible through summer due to  bog.  i'd hate for all that stuff to become litter.
karen had seen on her way up that mama bear was on the ground and the cubs were out in the tree.  i saw black in the tree, but was late coming.

 we both stopped to check on the way back down the road and this is what we saw.  mama bear was on the ground with the other cub and this little one was slowly making it's way down the big tree.  it looked a bit nervous.  blossom started barking and i eventually moved the car to a better location.  that whole don't want to be the bad dog owner thing.  i did get to see the baby get down the tree though!!  so adorable.

 the little one made cute little calls to mama on it's way down the tree.

 ears back is probably when blossom noticed the bear and started to bark.  dang dog!  right now she's barking at a neighborhood cat.  she is not perfect...though pretty dang close.

 several folks out there with camera's so i'm sure there are way better pictures of this and the other cubs trek down the tree...but i'm quite happy with my little group of photo's.

 saying a little prayer on the way down, taking a look at how far down still to go

 and almost down.

 still tough to let go of that safe haven that they have lived in this whole time i'm sure.

 once down they did have fun in the snow and moved into the woods.  several walked up the road to follow the bears a bit.  i figured that was probably enough for one day.  not sure if they will return to their den for a few more nights or if they will just move on.  always learning more about bear habits and activities. i never would have thought they'd be sleeping in hollow trees.

 also learned that it can take awhile for their metabolisms to wake up and for them to be actually hungry.  you'd think they'd wake up starving, but they have to wake up their whole system.

 here the family ambles off together.  so many new things to learn and explore.  animals in the wild have a steep learning curve.  so fun to have these guys so close to home and i look forward to watching this tree in the years to come.

 will put in several from yesterday that i ran out of room for.

 someone did snow circles down there on the beach. i could see them clearly from the trail over the beach here.

 much more artistic than my attempts.  looks like just boots, not snowshoes for these.

 turned out to be another beautiful day today.  felt hot out there.  always amazing how "hot" 40 feels at the end of winter.

 i'm still debating a run to denali tomorrow.  not too excited to do the drive alone.  might be too much for my leg too early.  not much luck finding a place to crash with the dogs.  may have to spend some cash to do it.  there is some call for snow too so that is another thing to think about.  the road is open though so quite tempting.  not too many more opportunities before they open up for the season.

 the dogs on the dunes.  blossom always enjoys it here.

 the snow is melting and making little rivers in the sand.

 not the bear tree...or is it.  now one must wonder, which trees are housing little sleeping bears.

 the dogs enjoy their time at the beach.

 blossom has never seemed to mind the cold waters.  she is pretty dang happy actually.

 always love lowell point.  great beaches.  my dream alaskan house would be here...though the tsunami risk isn't very appealing.  hmm.....

 some signs of life on the shore...though actually i sense both of these are not doing well. the sea star was flipped over and the jelly just lying there.

 don't think i posted any of the sea otter though the ones i got were way to far out and the guy was sleeping so really nothing you are missing.

 have always loved this whale mural across from the sealife center.  big fan of wildlife murals anyway.

 these signs are all over town.  the rv parks and parkland are located in the tsunami zone.

 amy and lucy out walking on rovers with us the other day.

 didn't get my camera out on the trail today much.  here is karen down in the snow.  we crossed over and it was getting kinda soft out there...we avoided the areas over known lake/ponds.

 my only zoo picture from the day.  most of our zoo enclosures are pretty sad really.  they are small and these 2 polar bears live out a pretty pathetic life circling and circling.  happy to see the new little guy will be able to move on to hopefully a better zoo situation.  learned a bit about zoo life and all from my days as a volunteer zoo keeper at the los angeles zoo.  i went through their keeper training program and then was a volunteer keeper for several years.  most zoo's are always striving to improve enclosures for animals so that their lives behind bars are less dull.  our little local zoo does serve a purpose and does have animals for the most part that are acclimated to our weather.

 i do prefer to see animals out in the wild, but that isn't always possible for everyone and sometimes a zoo is the best place for education to begin.  our zoo here also plays a role in assisting animals like the baby polar bear.  takes a lot of care to keep a baby like that healthy until it finds a good home.  the cub was having fun and seemed to enjoy the screaming kids. i just felt bad as the poor guy needed another bear cub to play with.

 while at the zoo the volunteer at the baby polar bear enclosure mentioned that the snow geese were out at potters marsh.  since i was halfway to potters marsh i went ahead and went there.  above is a seagull of some sort.  they are all returning quickly to town.

 the snow geese will only be here briefly.  fun to get a good look at them . i texted friends that the birds were here.  karen went over later than i did and said a few sandhill cranes also stopped by.  so fun to have those guys coming back too.  i love the cranes call...so unique.

 there were probably over 100 snow geese when i got there. i do remember seeing some big camera's around potters when i was headed to seward but i didn't see what they were seeing that day.  hard to miss today though as they were everywhere.

 saw some canadian geese as well so they are making their way back here as well.

 alaska becomes a birders paradise in the summertime.

 it was a great day as far as wildlife goes for me.  so fun!!  the bear activity was awesome.  i'll have to try and get myself moving tomorrow and get to denali unless it totally looks like crap.

 most of my bird in flight photo's were deleters but i did get a few that i liked.  always love pictures of birds in flight though.  just more grand with their wings all spread out.

 don't they look pretty!

 so welcome back to alaska, snow geese.  enjoy your stay in anchorage and safe journeys to your final destinations.

 birds are pretty amazing in how they travel miles and miles.  we get those arctic terns up here and they travel all the way to and from antarctica.  simply astounding!  oh to see what they have seen and been where they have been.

so i'm exhausted from a day of fun.  hope you have enjoyed these pictures as much as i enjoyed taking them.