In 2009 I took a short contract with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to look for marmots on Montague Island, which is in Prince William Sound, Alaska.  As it turns out I didn’t find any, but I haven’t so much fun not finding marmots anywhere else!

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Welcome to Alaska

If you fly with the US Coast Guard, you have to undergo the mandatory “emergency egress training”. Trust me, it’s not as much fun as it looks!

Then off to Cordova

I was based in Cordova, but my “study area” was Montague Island.

Friendly locals

The Coast Guard version of a Black Hawk helicopter – pretty cool

Crew accommodations, Cordova

It’s a busy airport

Downtown Cordova – makes Powell River look downright cosmopolitain!

Roofers at work. I liked the context.

I took a free day to go out and help mist-net and band migrating shorebirds

I was suffering from serious lens-envy…

But the banding was great fun, and having the military help out was great

Cordova is actually pretty well-known, in birding circles, for it’s wonderful spring shorebird migration.

You can still see signs of the Exxon Valdez spill of 1989. I think about that every time I think about the Northern Gateway proposal.

I liked having the windows open…

Did I mention that flying with the Coast Guard was FUN?

Wow. Just wow.

See all those life-rings on the wall?

There’s a story behind each one of them…

Indeed, there was all manner of neat stuff to see in the hangar.

That is one pretty cool job-title…

Like I said, it was nice to keep the window open

Really open…

Nothing confirmed, but these could have been marmot burrows…

maybe…

On the beach…

Another of those great moments…

The grizzlies of Prince William Sound are the world’s largest

Lousy photo, but impressive sight!

Flying with the U.S. Coast Guard over this kind of terrain to truly humbling…

These were the spots that, to me, looked “promising” for marmots..

Cordova has a big fishing industry

I loved this graveyard…

More stories…

My first sea otters!

They are wonderful!

Adult with pup

My computer crashed about 1/2 way through the trip

So I played chess, read and went hitchhiking…

see?

I loved this place

All too soon it was time to go home…