We drove to Homer and then took a boat across Kachemak Bay to the isolated but arty island of Halibut Cove. Most the wildlife (all seabirds) that we saw on this trip was on islands viewed from the boat. The pictures on this page are arranged in the order that they were taken.

This large eagle provided a nice avian preview of what was to come, on the beach right near downtown Homer. It hopped along, flew low a bit, then came back to ground...

Our trip to Halibut Cove on the Danny J was when we really saw the birds, though...

...this dramatically beautiful island, almost covered with gulls, was the first one Henry photographed on our little voyage from Homer...

We occasionally saw birds over the open water as well (note the splashes behind this guy as he takes off):

Here are close-ups of a rocky island which seems to be home to an inter-species community of gulls and murres.

Unfortunately, since the slides don't have time stamps, we can't tell if this is the same island as the one shown above or a different one, although it looks like a wider piece of land, so I suspect it's the latter ...

Again, this next island might or might not be the same as one already pictured, but it also has what looks like a cormorant sharing the space (the black bird in the center of the frame)...

Here are a couple of birds (I think they're murres) that look like they're heading home...and another shot of what might have been their home rock...

These two shots seem like they were taken of yet a different island—there's a lot more vegetation, for one thing.

On top, everything looks nice and peaceful.

 

 

Whereas below, there's at least some conflict being displayed. It looks like the puffins are being chased off by the gull, while a cormorant is unmolested just above the fray...

And the cormorants in the picture below don't seem to be bothering the gulls, either. I wonder if they always get along like this...perhaps they eat different kinds of fish?

Back in Homer, we saw a good example of the commercial exploitation of Alaska's bountiful sealife in action.

 

 

These folks were processing absolutely huge halibuts. Whenever we have this delicious fish for dinner, or see it on a menu, I think about these workers...

While most of the wildlife spotted on this trip was from our boats, we did have this closer encounter, just off the Halibut Cove beach ....