#cityofkenai

[gmessy30]

Hoverfly There are over 200 species of syrphid, or hover- or flower flies, in Alaska. This is one of them. This adult is feeding on some cow parsnip pollen, but will also drink nectar. As such, it is a pollinator. Its coloration mimics that of bees, giving it some protection from other predators. The larval maggots eat decaying material of all sorts, as well as aphids, depending on the species. This hoverfly was occupied for a while so I was able to take many shots with different fields of depth, flash, &c. #hoverfly #syrphid #syrphidae #syrphidfly #flowerfly #cunninghamparkkenai #cunninghampark #cityofkenai #kenaialaska #kenai #cowparsnips #sonydschx400v #SonyCameras (at Cunningham Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/CRQKdtyhtmu/?utm_medium=tumblr

[gmessy30]

This was in itinerant parking today. You can Google the tail number for why it exists. #sonydschx400v #kenai #cityofkenai #kenaialaska #sonydsc #sonycybershot #SonyCameras #n1kd #kma #kenaimunicipalairport #citation560xls #duncanaviation #friedemannsánchez #ena #paen (at Kenai Municipal Airport) https://www.instagram.com/p/CTbntjlLq-g/?utm_medium=tumblr

[gmessy30]

Gnocchi was the first to go, undulating like a slug to the water's edge, then onto the moist sand until a wave overtook... hmm, they never mentioned their sexes... until overtaken by a wave, which wasn't all bad by Gnocchi's standards. Swimming was next, and soon Gnocchi was ducking under the water without the help of waves. Diving was next. #alaskasealifecenter #harbourseal #harborseal #sealpup #kenainorthbeach #kenaibeach #kenaialaska #kenai #cityofkenai #sonydschx400v #sonydsc #sonycybershot #SonyCameras#alaskasealifecenter #harbourseal #harborseal #sealpup #kenainorthbeach #kenaibeach #kenaialaska #kenai #cityofkenai #sonydschx400v #sonydsc #sonycybershot #SonyCameras (at Kenai Beach) https://www.instagram.com/p/CTTT7_WlsXA/?utm_medium=tumblr

[gmessy30]

Spotted these folks on the south beach from the bluff. They may be picking up litter, but they're probably clamming. PSA: it is never a good idea to go clamming within sight of a sewage treatment plant! #kenaisouthbeach #kenai #kenaialaska #cityofkenai #sonydschx400v #sonydsc #sonycybershot #SonyCameras #clamming #litterpatrol #beachcombing (at Kenai Beach) https://www.instagram.com/p/CTe6GCXldZx/?utm_medium=tumblr

[gmessy30]

At the end of Cook Inlet View Drive (one of the longest street signs around here) there is a knotted nylon rope tied to the remnants of a low guard railing to aid in getting back up the bluff. When I got here in 2004 there was a rope, but you could also get down there on a much gentler slope. In times past it looks like there was some infrastructure that is now well out to sea at high tide. The part of the guard railing that was doing the guarding part was gone when I got here, but some was still sticking out over the bluff. Now that's gone as well. Granted, it probably didn't help to put the storm drainage there, but I'm guessing that comes out where it does now owing to erosion as well. #cookinletviewdrive #kenai #kenaialaska #cityofkenai #kenaibluff #erosion #kenaiblufferosion #kenaibeach #sonydschx400v #sonydsc #sonycybershot #SonyCameras (at Kenai, Alaska) https://www.instagram.com/p/CTe5gyunN59/?utm_medium=tumblr

[gmessy30]

Short beluga clip. This should illustrate why it is so difficult to photograph these whales. They are not real showy, not very big, and rather unpredictable as to when, and therefore where, they will surface next. They are only on the surface for a very short time, and because the Kenai and the Inlet are so murky, they disappear a very short distance under the surface, despite being extremely white. Even looking down from the bluff they disappear almost immediately. #kenairiver #beluga #sonydschx400v #kenai #cityofkenai #kenaialaska #belugawhales #belugawhale #delphinapterusleucas #sonydsc #sonycybershot #SonyCameras (at Cunningham Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/CTbmCK6FMwP/?utm_medium=tumblr

[gmessy30]

Though I have been watching with increasing attention over the last two weeks, I was away from the river at 11:20 A.M. Friday when I got a text alert from the Alaska Wildlife Alliance (AWA). The beluga whales were back in the Kenai! The chase was... afin! Given the timing, I decided to start at Cunningham Park. A fisherman there said there were no whales. I next went to the bridge pullout. The people there said they'd heard, but seen nothing. I went to City Dock next. There they were! Four or five of them. (I have four whites in a single photo, but I have a photo of a greyish one as well, which is a young one) Very close to shore, in very shallow water, over the tidal flats, in fact. The dock was active and the boats leaving in various directions would send them in the opposite. At one point they were no more than five meters from the end of the dock! I was so startled I couldn't manage a photo. Anyway, it was clear they were following the silvers (salmon) and trapping them in the shallows. The beluga is the only whale that can articulate it's neck and swim backwards, so they can negotiate these sandbars. They rounded the bend, so I went back to the bridge, but they took to long, and I thought they may have doubled back. I checked, but they hadn't. When I got back to the bridge they were just passing. Again, very close, and I just watched. They stayed in the corner by the large boulder, herding silvers, and do it took a while for them to get to Cunningham Park. On the way there was a tremendous splash. Almost too big for a salmon, but it was less than two seconds after I saw a blow. The beluga aren't known for their active, splashing antics, but who knows? They made it to where the riparian rights of the park would begin, and turned about. Perhaps the three fishermen on the bank made them change their mind. It was about this time it began to rain, and I stopped my pursuit. They are in the river this time of year not only to feed, but possibly to give birth as well. #kenairiver #beluga #sonydschx400v #kenai #cityofkenai #kenaialaska #belugawhales #belugawhale #delphinapterusleucas #sonydsc #sonycybershot #SonyCameras (at Kenai River) https://www.instagram.com/p/CTaZd6OPsgy/?utm_medium=tumblr

[gmessy30]

Here's some video. #alaskasealifecenter #harbourseal #harborseal #sealpup #kenainorthbeach #kenaibeach #kenaialaska #kenai #cityofkenai #sonydschx400v #sonydsc #sonycybershot #SonyCameras (at Kenai Beach) https://www.instagram.com/p/CTTTGmMJ3ZG/?utm_medium=tumblr

[gmessy30]

Oh, and the seals were back on the riverbank today, after a week's absence. #sonydschx400v #sonycybershot #sonydsc #SonyCameras #harbourseals #harborseals #seals #hauledoutseals #haulout #kenairiver #kenai #kenaialaska #cityofkenai #kenaicitydock (at Kenai City Dock) https://www.instagram.com/p/CSq4XnALvMP/?utm_medium=tumblr

[gmessy30]

Sequence Well, some of these are sequential. Having the fireworks on this day, the Friday after Thanksgiving, also ensures a decent attendance, and gives two extra non-business days for rain delays, though I do believe one year the twins were so heavy they were delayed until Monday. I could be wrong to probably am. It was probably a Sunday. Once you get past five or so on a Sunday or a second day-off in a row it feels like a Monday already anyway. Am I not right? #sonydschx400v #sonydsc #sonycybershot #SonyCameras #fireworks #cityofkenai #kenai #kenaifireworks #kenaialaska #alaska #alaskaphotography (at Kenai, Alaska) https://www.instagram.com/p/CW328QGPGyf/?utm_medium=tumblr

[gmessy30]

Curtains and Streamers More of the fireworks from Friday. The ones I'm calling streamers are spun for stability during their ascent, and produce an interesting spiralling effect as the small rocket motor(s) that imparts the spin goes from facing toward the observer then away. They look lopsided, but that is an illusion. Most fireworks are launched out of un-rifled tubes like mortars (well, they are in fact called mortars, probably because they are), and so rockets or fins are used to impart spin. The curtains are just embers that drift slowly down, creating a curtain effect in a long exposure, though to some degree in the eye as well, owing to persistence of vision, and being so bright as to deplete exposed cells of their rhodopsin. #sonydschx400v #sonydsc #sonycybershot #SonyCameras #fireworks #cityofkenai #kenai #kenaifireworks #kenaialaska #alaska #alaskaphotography (at Kenai, Alaska) https://www.instagram.com/p/CW31hvOvUrX/?utm_medium=tumblr

[gmessy30]

Planar Fireworks Shots from Friday, 26 November, 2021 Because it is too bright and often too dry to have fireworks on the Fourth of July, the City of Kenai has settled on the day after Thanksgiving for their fireworks display. They begin at seven sharp, and usually last between fifteen and twenty minutes. The duration seems to be shorter of late, but there frequency has increased. Anyway, I cheated by using the automatic Fireworks Program on the Sony DSC-HX400V, and it works quite well. I didn't understand exactly what it was doing at first, but I figured there is a slightly longer exposure, which lead to some blurring, not because I couldn't hold the camera still, but because I didn't know I was supposed to. It was a happy accident, though, as it less to some interesting images, with one firework blurred and another crisp in the same shot, or the center of one being perfect, but with wildly wandering extremities. This is a selection of very 'flat' fireworks. I didn't realize how many weren't in 3D. #sonydschx400v #sonydsc #sonycybershot #SonyCameras #fireworks #cityofkenai #kenai #kenaifireworks #kenaialaska #alaska #alaskaphotography (at Kenai, Alaska) https://www.instagram.com/p/CW3z-qyv3pO/?utm_medium=tumblr

[gmessy30]

Misty Morning In Infrared A view from Kenai's Spur View Picnic Ground looking south-by-southeast. There's the first bend with virtually no fog, but the mist is really rising off of the third run, with the Warren Ames Memorial Bridge at far left. The fog bank rising in the distance, some 30km away, has been gently blown by mountain breezes, first settling over the Harding Icefield, then spilling down glacier filled valleys on the southeast end of Tustumena Lake, in the next river valley over. Tustumena is the headwaters of the Kasilof River, and is the largest lake in the Kenai Peninsula. #sonydschx400v #sonydsc #sonycybershot #SonyCameras #fog #fogbank #mist #kenairiver #kenai #kenaiparksandrec #cityofkenai #kenaialaska #spurviewpicnicground #tutumenalake #kasilofriver #kenairange #hardingicefield #glaciers #kenaipeninsula #alaska #alaskaphotography #alaskaininfrared #ir #infrared #850nm #kenaiininfrared (at Kenai, Alaska) https://www.instagram.com/p/CWmg4QYlAjU/?utm_medium=tumblr

[gmessy30]

Every couple of days Kenai Parks and Rec have been assembling another one of the City's decorations. This one used to have company, but they've been seeing them up separately lately, to sorry of spread them around town. Fine for this one, but for the two that are ice skating, where one has fallen on their bum and the other is offering a helping hand, it has been calamitous, in my opinion. It looks like the former has had an accident and can't get up, while the later, instead of extending a strong, confident hand, now looks as though it is falling uncontrollably forward and is about to fracture its forearm. I suppose it doesn't matter much, though, as whenever I see this one, given the "Oh!" expression on its face I don't see it as warming its backside by the fire (which, I suppose, would put it in existential peril, given it's a snowman, by the way), but, rather, I imagine it ate something too spicy and is now paying the ultimate price. But that's just me. #sonydschx400v #sonydsc #sonycybershot #SonyCameras #kenai #kenaiparksandrec #cityofkenai #kenaialaska #alaska #alaskaphotography #holidaydecor #seasonaldecor (at Kenai, Alaska) https://www.instagram.com/p/CWmCHXtvAeK/?utm_medium=tumblr

[gmessy30]

Kenai Range from Cunningham Park 52 minutes before sundown #sonydschx400v #sonydsc #sonycybershot #SonyCameras #cunninghampark #cunninghamparkkenai #kenai #kenairiver #kenairange #kenaiparksandrec #cityofkenai #kenaialaska #alaska #alaskaphotography (at Cunningham Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/CWlyy0HvXwk/?utm_medium=tumblr

[gmessy30]

Cunningham Park No whales today! #sonydschx400v #sonydsc #sonycybershot #SonyCameras #cunninghampark #cunninghamparkkenai #kenai #kenaialaska #cityofkenai #kenaiparksandrec #alaska #alaskaphotography (at Cunningham Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/CWlyVGmvvCq/?utm_medium=tumblr