What wildlife have you guys seen & where? (Anchorage, Cordova: areas, mosquitoes)

[rntim]

Lets see...6 or 7 humpbacks, a sea otter, 3 eagles, a resident mink and lots of seagulls. Some herring jumping. The herring fishery is about 3/4 done, maybe one more day. No Browns out yet.

[Music_Man]

Swatted my first mosquito of the year today.

[riceme]

Noooooooo!!!

[Claudia Dare]

Uh-oh, are mosquitoes considered wildlife in Alaska? How about other bugs. Anyone ever been bitten by a tick?

I hardly saw any, and we were there almost three weeks. But at a rest area south of Talkeetna, I was looking for rocks on the slope down to the tracks and I saw what looked like a GIANT pile of deer poop. I mean, these were the size of ping-pong balls. I thought to myself, I wonder what the heck makes a giant pile of deer poop like this? Yipes! Jumped up and spun around to look for the moose.

No moose to be seen, but there were some footprints, and a few piles of smaller poop, so they must have been there recently.

The only animals we saw were some flocks of birds around Anchorage, which I have tentatively identified as black-billed magpies.

[jabogitlu]

If you end up back in Alaska, you should time it to the bird migration. The festivals in Kachemak Bay and Cordova are pretty great.

I've never seen a tick in Alaska. I don't know if we have them or not. We do have heavy concentrations of some interesting plant life that you have to watch out for, like pushki and devil's club.

[warptman]

If you want to see wildlife, drive the Alcan Highway. You see more game in one drive than you do on a two week vacation to Alaska.

[Dakster]

Warptman - nice poetry...

Driving the AlCan I have certainly seen a ton of wildlife and I agree with the statement that you'll a ton of wildlife on that drive. I have seen Moose and Bear around my yard. The State Bird - the Mosquito and of course house flies, both of which are significantly larger than what I am used to seeing. Even saw a spider the other day....

I don't like seeing Bear and Moose ON the Glenn Highway or really any road in front of me either -- but that is where you most likely see them.

That Penguin traveled a long way Met... Wow...

[Metlakatla]

I remember when it happened.

South American penguin found in Alaska waters | Peninsula Clarion

[TKO]

Wow! I had just assumed it was a dead one they found. Reminds me of that Mexican fisherman lost at sea for a year or so.

Interesting to read how they've been seen before in the PNW.

[Metlakatla]

Another time, didn't get a picture of it -- we had a delivery truck show up just off the barge, and as the crew was unloading out stuff, a snake jumped out.