Today we arrived at Delarof Harbour on Unga Island in the Aluetian Islands. The weather had finally cleared after three very showery days and the sun was really warm which made a very pleasant change.
Delorof Harbour is now a ghost town with all the towns building in ruins either partially destroyed by fire or the harsh winter weather. It was settled by the Aluet people in 1883 with a population of 116. It was the sire of a small gold rush in the early 1900,s. Most people had left the island by 1958 but the last family left in 1969.
We were free to walk anywhere on the island as there are no bears as they had been killed off to enable the former inhabitants to run cattle.
We were lucky enough to spot two coastal horned owls which was exciting because I have never seen owls in the wild before. They are quite a large species with a height of 43-64 cm with a wingspan on average of 122cm. They mate for life and don't build a nest together but raise their young together in the abandoned nests of other birds.
The landscape was very green and spongy, quite boggy in many places with streams running down the hillside.
The Master of all he surveys!!!!! Watching the salmon jumping along the coastline.
There was plenty of evidence of the old town with the ruins still half standing.
The wild flowers gave a beauty of their own across the landscape.
A lonely communal grave where human bones of fourteen people had been retrieved from a cave. The towns people buried the bones and put a rock memorial over the top of the grave. No mention of how they died.
When we came back down the hill and passed the tree where we had seen the owls two hours earlier we discovered that there were actually three. One out of shot. Very well camouflaged.
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