If I Were Going...: Stevens Family Calendar: July

This is part of a series about the Stevens Family Calendar (if you know, you know).

A Bald Eagle in Dutch Harbor, Sea Otters in Kenai Fjords National Park
and an island in the Bering Sea

We go to Alaska often (almost every year). You have already seen some of the Bears we photographed there and you will see more. Plus, there are scenics sprinkled across the the calendar.

But, July is dedicated to the beauty you can find in and around the cold, cold ocean. Most of the photos come from a birding trip Scott and I took to Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands that also included time at Silver Salmon Creek Lodge in Lake Clark National Park (where we photographed a lot of the Bears in the calendar), and visits to Kenai Fjords National Park and Prince William Sound in our time between the major destinations.

The focus of both the cover and the calendar page is scenery, seabirds, marine mammals and Bald Eagles.

So, let's start with scenery, because Alaska is certainly stunning. On the cover, we featured an island that we passed while out on a small boat looking for pelagic birds in the Bering Sea. I was struck (as I always am when I encounter this phenomenon) by the heart-shaped opening. Scott thought the island looked like a giant stone Bear (his nose at the upper left of the heart).

We named it "Bear Heart Cliff"

The calendar page featured two more shots of Dutch Harbor's gorgeous scenery ...

Left: from our bird-watching boat; Right: along the coast

... believe me, selecting them was extremely difficult because we had so many pretty shots for that wild and wonderful place.

We passed over these four taken from the boat

I loved these two coast shots, but couldn't fit them in

These are from our birding excursions up in the mountains;
Left and upper right photos: Scott Stevens

The calendar page also featured a shot from Silver Salmon Lake ...

The original is much prettier than the cropped version

... the cover and back cover had some iconic pictures of Dutch Harbor ...

The bottom middle photo was on the cover and the right close-up of the cupola was on the back;
see the Bald Eagle on the cross?

It's a crabbing town, so there are colorful nets everywhere;
the photo on the right was on the back cover

The rejections included more scenics from Lake Clark National Park, as well as some from Cook Inlet ...

I actually like the left photo better than the one we used, but it didn't crop well

This spot in Cook Inlet was where we saw the Puffins featured in June

When we were in Kenai Fjords and Prince William Sound, we saw some calving glaciers, despite dreadful weather.

The photo of the Holgate Glacier from Prince William Sound was in the opening section
and the calving glacier was in Kenai Fjords; Right photo: Scott Stevens

This close-up of the Holgate Glacier didn't fit

This photo is just slightly different, showing more reflection

We went to Dutch Harbor for two reasons:

#1: To look for birds that are found only in the cold northern waters there.

#2: A birding trip was the most reliable, affordable and efficient way to get to a place that can be tricky to travel to.

Our target bird was the diminutive Whiskered Auklet, of which we saw hundreds, maybe thousands.

The left photo is featured in the opening section and we ended up not using these other ones

Capturing these fast little guys from a moving boat on the (blissfully calm that day) ocean, wasn't easy.

In addition to the Whiskered Auklets, we had many other good sightings in the Aleutians ...

This Black-footed Albatross was a treat (and Scott's favorite bird of the trip);
In this shot used on the July calendar page, it is feeding with Northern Fulmars

Another frenzied feeding shot, left, is in the opening, but we had to forego the goofy landing

We saw large flocks of Tufted Puffins (a different subspecies than
the Horned Puffins featured in June) in the Bering sea

We also saw lots of birds elsewhere in Alaska ...

In Kenai Fjords, we saw thousands of Black-legged Kittiwakes
(the rare Red-legged Kittiwake's very common cousin)

In Cook Inlet, we saw hundreds of Common Murres

I featured the top photo of Murres on the opening page, but didn't use the flock on the bottom

Of course, there are many other creatures in the sea. We certainly saw a lot of them.

These adorable Sea Otters that we saw in Kenai Fjords National Park
are featured on July's main page

We had a lot of photos of them; two more were in contention
(it was tough not to use that one on the left)

We also saw Sea Otters in Prince William Sound, upper left and bottom,
and hauled out in Kenai Fjords

This spinning Orca is on the July calendar page

We also had some great photos of Steller Sea Lions, left, and Harbor Seals from Kenai Fjords

What I didn't expect in Dutch Harbor was that my very best photos would be Bald Eagles. The town is packed with them (I saw seven in a single small tree one morning and we routinely saw about 50 a day). The best sighting was a nest on a a small island in the harbor that we cruised past as we headed out for pelagic birding.