Birds & other creatures... up north

General rule: up north every 'crow' you see is a raven. It was the most common bird we saw.

And they are iconic.

                             

Then we saw a good number of ptarmigans. They are so earnest, alert, & approachable.

Whiskey-jacks showed up whenever we had a picnic in a campsite.............Ground squirrel...

Brandts-- a smaller Canada goose cousin....

& tundra swans, gathering before migration...

A hawk eagle-- a life bird for me. I got a picture of one stuffed.

But sadly for me, no big mammals.  This would have to do....

At Eagle Plains a few stuffed animals amongst the house plants from Maui!

 ...& a spritely 3-legged dog in Dawson...

On my last day on the road we saw an aerie--it had been there many years. The guano marks the spot...& there's lots of it.

In Whitehorse we spotted a sanderling on a main street. It was filling the English sparrow/starling niche.

The north is a hard place to make a living for creatures, human or otherwise. It was a big contrast to Africa which has the same kind of vastness, but surviving there is considerably easier, hence there are more animals.

Though in both places non-native or modern practices have created big depletions.

That's it for now.