I just took a 2 day trip to one of my favorite lakes in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. The lake has had a good population of Beaver in it in years past. My son and I enjoyed watching several generations of Beaver growing up in this lake. We could hear the babies inside the lodge. Alas, the Beaver are no more. The lodges are 1/8 the size they used to be. The lodges appear to have been destroyed. I don't know what destroyed them, either human or a bear I guess. No more seeing Mink scurrying about on top of the lodge. I did see a giant Birch Tree that was being cut down by the Beaver, but not finished. Maybe the Beaver moved to another lake.

I saw Common Loons, Trumpeter Swans, Common Goldeneyes, Lessor Yellowlegs, Arctic Terns and a few other types of birds that I couldn't identify because of distance. This morning, I saw a Brown Bear Sow followed by 2 cubs crossing the road. The last cub stopped in the middle of the road and decided to do some acrobatics and tumbling. Then the Sow turned her head towards the cub and "woofed". The young cub stopped his playing and immediately ran towards Mom and they disappeared into the woods. I saw a Bull Moose standing further down the road and he watched patiently as I mounted my window mount and my 300mm lens w/ 1.4 teleconverter. After I got the camera mounted and started to aim it in his direction, he decided he did NOT want his photo taken today, and backed off into the woods behind him. A Wolf woke me up at 1am howling. The loons woke me up at daylight 5:00 am. It was music to my ears. It turned out to be an unsuccessful photography trip, but a great trip to visit Nature.