My first week in Alaska

I made it to Alaska and wanted to share an update to what I have been up to during my first week instead of being in Dayton!

On monday the 15th of January I drove from Anchorage to Homer on the Sterling Hwy, the views were lovely. In Anchorage I visited the Anchorage museum and went to the Peanut Farm restaurant.

The rest of the week was full of activities. I am beginning to develop an idea for a research project that will span the entire semester, I am interested in researching either bald eagles and whether their dietary strategies differ from predation to being scavengers because they live in a town, or the role of different seafloor habitats, such as kelp forests or rocky outcrops in supporting the fish and crab communities in the Cook Inlet in Homer Alaska. I also started my internship were I will be using GIS to evaluate storm water drainage patterns in the City of Homer. On Friday, the semester by the bay cohort went to Sweetgale Meadworks, where we tasted their made in house mead (wine and kombucha), during the semester there will be research done to discover which species of microbes are present in the fermentation of their products. We then spent several hours observing sea otters, harbor seals, and several species of birds.

So far I have seen 6 moose, several sea otters (which we collected scat and will be analyzing it to see what they have been eating), and many species of birds including bald eagles, harlequin ducks, rosy finches, common goldeneye ducks, red breasted mergansers, long tailed ducks, and more!