Gandering Geese

Once upon a time, somebody thought it was a good idea to let a whole lot of foxes loose in the Aleutian Islands. “Easier to catch ’em!” reasoned the Russian fur trappers back around 1750. And like in all fairy tales, the uncensored ones where someone ends up eaten, those foxes pretty much wiped out the local geese. By 1938, the Aleutian Goose was pronounced dead.

Until many years later when …(this is where the magic happens) … a biologist rowed his boat out to one of the remotest islands in the Aleutian chain, and there he found, waddling and pecking and reproducing, a small flock of Aleutian geese.

They weren’t extinct! But they were in trouble, so much so that the U.S. Government put them on the Endangered Species List before the Endangered Species Act was even passed. This was 1967.

But now, now there’s thousands of ’em. An Endangered Species Success Story. And each spring they land here to fatten up before taking that long flight over the Pacific and back to their summer home in the Aleutian Islands.

If that isn’t a reason to throw a party, well then, what is?

Join us March 30 – April 2 for the Aleutian Goose Festival! Four days of birding, learning, discerning (and flirting? Who knows…) The organizers have assembled a top-notch website with all the details: www.aleutiangoosefestival.org

Register online or give a call to Sandy (707) 954-5253 or the GooseNest (707) 465-0888.

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Wide awake in the Redwoods

After a month of down time, Redwood Hostel is again open for business.  January uusually sees lots of rain and very few travellers, so hostel management decided to go south for the winter–three weeks in central America.  But now that we’re back, we’ve learned there wasn’t much in the way of rain in these parts.

Returning guests will notice a number of changes–most notably in the color of bedroom walls, but there are other more subtle changes afoot (including better plumbing here and there and new fans in bathrooms, among other items).   For while some of us were off playing in distant lands, at least one person was here looking after the hostel and working hard.  (We meant to send you a postcard from Guatemala, Matthew.  But hey, since we put a stop to the mail, we knew you wouldn’t get it anyway.)

Ah, the beaches…the Redwood trees…the rivers…the free WiFi at the coffee shop.   It’s great to be home!

Oh! Just an FYI: through February, the hostel will be closed on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights.  But we’re open to any and all on Thursday through Sunday nights.  And come March 1, we return to our regular schedule of being open 7 nights/week.