We come now to the final blog post on my May 22-26 trip to Nome, just in time for me to head there again in two days. This post is about “critters” – non-human mammals from my trip to Nome. If mammals were as prevalent and easily seen as birds, I might be more of a mammal-watcher and less of a birdwatcher. Nearly every time I see a mammal I drop my birding and watch and try to photograph it. Some of the results follow:
Some type of seal on the ice at mouth of the Nome River:
Arctic ground squirrel (I believe that is what the Nome animals are called):
Reindeer, mother and young, seen a couple of days out on Safety Sound:
Musk Ox, seen every time I drove Teller Road, often very near town; there was at least one herd with mothers and young and elsewhere there were individual animals, probably males:
Moose, one seen this trip on Kougarok Road, coming up onto the road, leaving the road, running alongside the road, returning to the road and running for over a mile ahead of me as I drove extremely slowly before it finally left the road so I could drive on. The second one was out Teller Road:
For added measure, following are a few pictures of the two moose that make my birding interesting this week, taken in Anchorage on my last Birds ‘n’ Bogs survey at Oceanview Bluff park:
Lynn Barber's Birding Blog 