Gulls, grizzlies and grouse

The hen spruce grouse was going to take a bath beside a gravel road in Alaska. There she was, getting ready to snuggle down in a dusty wallow.

Sometimes you want dirt instead of water -- if you're a bird.

Her bathing partners cautiously followed her, six chicks not as certain as she was about the world outside their woods.

As soon as the hen had settled in, wriggling around a bit and tossing dust into the air with several wing flaps, the chicks took cover beneath her. She lifted a wing. They disappeared. Once in a while, one or more of them peeked out. For them, it was bathing by proxy.

Dust baths, by the way, are used by many species of birds. Experts think they help deter pests on the feathers and skin of birds.

A friend and I watched these bathing beauties on the Kenai Peninsula in southern Alaska. This was in July, not exactly high season for birds. Courtship was finished, most of the eggs had been incubated, the young fledged. Birds were harder to find, but if you like fuzzy and cute, the time was right.

We saw grouse chicks, tern chicks and three species of gull chicks as well as juvenile thrushes, sparrows and juncos. Because gulls and terns nest in the open, we also saw nests and, in some cases, eggs.

Gulls and grizzlies

I was following the Kenai Peninsula Wildlife Viewing Trail, a 69-stop trail that begins in Anchorage and spreads out along the highways that lead south to the Gulf of Alaska. This is about as urban as Alaska gets, which isn't very once you leave Anchorage. The trail offers plenty of access to great birding sites.

One place we visited several times was like a gull commissary. The birds -- as many as 30,000 of them -- were nesting in a salt meadow just across the Kenai River from our observation post.

It was the beginning of salmon season. On city docks along the river bank, there are several fish-processing plants. Here, salmon is unloaded from fishing boats and people in yellow rubber bib overalls stand at long tables and filet big fish.

The fish parts that do not make it to your market are ground into a slurry and spit into the river. Imagine for a moment being a gull in this place.

Aside from the birds, we saw the obligatory moose, two caribou and, best of all, a grizzly bear and her cub. We found the bears by following four tourists who were using wallet-sized cameras with firecracker flashes to capture souvenir photos.

My guide, a former Alaska state biologist, was aghast. While he tried to get the tourists to back away from the bears, I managed to take several prized photos.

Hey, the other guys were between me and the bears.

Jim Williams, a lifelong birder, serves as a member of the U.S. National Wildlife Refuge Birding Initiative Committee. He also is a member of the American Birding Association, Ducks Unlimited, Pheasants Forever and Delta Waterfowl. He can be reached by email at two-jays@att.net.