Seen while cycling the Bird-to-Gird trail the other day: Sun (!), Eagles, Bears, Tourists, Taco’ed Wheel, and…
… a Happy Wife
Eagle sightings were abundant. The picture I took was of one that appeared to be an adult Golden perched high atop a tree. A minute earlier it was standing on the mud flats of Turnagain Arm, the tide going out, I’m guessing hunting for small fish, possibly hooligans. The picture didn’t turn out very good, looked more like a gay hock vulture. The bears? A black sow with (at least) two cubs. Here’s the picture — I maxed out the zoom on my Android.
As Happy Wife correctly pointed out to me, false positive sightings of black bears occur all the time. Someone will scan a broad mountain slope and say, “Look, see that black spot, I think that’s a bear.” But when you see a real black bear, you understand what it means to be black. There is no mistaking it. So if you’re not sure it’s a bear, it likely isn’t. Grizzlies? They’re (usually) brown, that’s different. And up here they’re a helluva lot bigger than a black bear. Adults anyway.
We saw other less notable wildlife too. In total it was enough that we both paused and remarked, “Look where we live.” And when we returned home and took a gander at a heat index map of America, redder than a bad sunburn, we felt like gloating a bit.
Oh, and that taco’ed wheel. Two chicks were riding abreast going into a tunnel as I was coming out (opposite direction). I avoided a collision and said something to the effect of Hey, single file please. Seconds later I heard “Ugh…oomph…crap…!” Crash. Thought one of them had plowed into Happy Wife who was behind me a few clicks at the time. But it was one of the chicks who crashed, and pretty badly judging from the condition of her bike, which was clearly unrideable. I asked if she was hurt, she said I don’t think so.