#spurviewpicnicground

[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]

Northern Goshawk 𝘈𝘤𝘤𝘪𝘱𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘴♂️ It was an overcast day today. Photographing a slate grey and white bird in low light against a light grey background does not make for a great picture! Then the autofocus decided the branches were more interesting... Anyway, this was at the Spur View Picnic Grounds, which I have just discovered is what the City is calling the bluff by Vintage Pointe, a punny name for the large retirement building nearby. It is perched on the bluff with a great view, or vantage point, but it's full of people of a certain age, or, not unlike wines, I suppose, vintage. I don't know why the street is called Spur View. It used to be Ryan something it other. You can't see My. Spurt from there, and it's spelled wrong besides. Anyway, this appears to be a male, as it is smaller than the one I saw a few weeks ago. Northern goshawk males are about 25% lighter than the females. I'm not sure when they moult, but this one looks very dishevelled. They usually look very streamlined. Like an osprey, they have a dark band around the eyes, which are blood orange. I have weakly tweaked two of the photos in IG to attempt to illustrate this. They are much smaller than an osprey, however, and their wings don't look like a Napoleonic era soldiers tunic when folded, and are relatively shorter and broader in flight. There is yellow at the base of the beak, turning black towards the tip. I overheard some birders this summer mentioning that people had been claiming to see a vagrant Cooper's hawk. After doing some simple research I found that The Cornell Lab website mentions that the goshawk is an unlikely sighting as it doesn't tend to live near people, and tells you to disambiguate with the Cooper's hawk. As these have been living in town for about two years now (like bald eagles they maintain and rotate through several nests), I am guessing people deferred to the guide, neglecting the range of the latter doesn't extend to Kenai, making it the far less likely species. #sonydschx400v #sonydsc #sonycybershot #SonyCameras #kenai #kenaialaska #spurviewpicnicgrounds #alaska #alaskaphotography #alaskawildlife #alaskawildlifephotography (at Kenai, Alaska) https://www.instagram.com/p/CVXJM7irCFr/?utm_medium=tumblr