Wild Office Window Sighting

No photos for this one, sorry... but I just lifted my head from my computer to see some big splashing out in the cove. A group of 4-5 Steller sea lions (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steller_Sea_Lion) was out there, with one thrashing on the surface a bit. Took a minute to get a good look with the spotting scope, but then I saw that a big bull sea lion was whipping around a very large octopus (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Pacific_Giant_Octopus), with 3-4 smaller (females?) sea lions following close behind, perhaps picking up scraps.

Spring is picking up... just in the past week or so, from my desk I've seen humpback whales, orcas, harbor porpoises, river otters, and all the usual birds, including bald eagles, great blue herons, belted kingfishers, marbled murrelets, surf scoters. The bald eagles that have been nesting for years on Indian Island, across the cove, are back at nest building now. And there are a few new spring arrivals.. the red breasted sapsuckers are back and a large flock of Bonaparte's gulls was surface feeding on Wednesday.

And in the spirit of keeping the photos flowing, here's a nice sunset shot from late winter/early spring... The north end of Admiralty Island, the ridge just south of Barlow Cove.