I witnessed some extreme cuteness out in Big Lake this morning!

It took a little time, but William the Scottie and Studs Terkel the cat are now friends!

This weekend, I was in Fish Lakes Creek, near Skwenta, following a story. It's a tiny community just off the Yentna River, accessible only by plane or boat. We took a 35 minute float plane from Anchorage and stayed with our subjects at their gorgeous Northwoods Lodge, a year-round fishing and hunting lodge. Here are a couple of pics from the trip--as you can see, the best part was the fabulous dog (named Yentna)!

Yes, spring is finally here, and Fifi is really enjoying patches of sun from her favorite chair and her new summer trim!

Most photos by Mike Collier

Here are a few pictures of the drive from Anchorage to Valdez. Most of these were taken at Thompson Pass at 9PM. It was right between winter and spring up there. The waterfalls were half frozen, half thawed. The best part was the road was clear and dry!

Since I was driving, I turned over my camera to my cameraman. He came up with some amazing shots, in a stunningly beautiful place! My favorite is the mountain with the clouds, one light & one dark, I never woulda come up with that! I also like the top one because it looks like we're about to go down a steep rollercoaster!

Enjoying sunny skies in Anchorage, it looked like spring finally happened while I was away for two days!

I'm having a great time taking care of a two month old black scottie puppy, along with his friends--a tortoise and brown lab!

Valdez went great, but I need to catch up on my sleep before I write about it! In the meantime, here is a picture taken at around 9PM on the way there.

I got a gig producing for ABC World News a piece about the current oil spill from the perspective of Valdez locals...the fishermen and others who are still affected 20 years later.

I did a Wildlife Tech job out in Prince William Sound for US Fish and Wildlife Service a few years back, where we captured and did liver biopsies on Black Oystercatchers from oiled and unoiled islands of PWS (and then sewed them up and let them go!) The livers of the birds in oiled areas still contained oil residue due to their diet of mollusks and other invertebrates that inhabit an area below the surface oil clean up. As birds are an indicator species for the health of the entire sound, after twenty years, the area and its creatures are still impacted, along with a herring industry that has never recovered, etc...

This is a quick gig, leaving now for Valdez with a cameraman and returning by Monday morning, more later!