Glacier Bay Gulls

My biggest regret about the Glacier Bay shots was that I forgot to set my ISO back from the end of the Skagway trip since I was shooting in very dark conditions. This left me with a lot of noisy images. Fortunately it didn't matter too much for the glaciers but played havoc with my bird shots.

Oh, well. At least I got some ID shots to keep. Like more Black-legged Kittiwakes than I even remember taking shots of. To start off, a Kittiwake heads toward the Margerie Glacier area.



Yet another glides by. Such a cute little gull.



Finally, a shot of their namesake black legs! The other ID is that their wing tips seem to be dipped in ink.



They kept swinging by, I kept shooting.



I like this one showing the red at the base of the bill.



Didn't even notice this one until recently but one of the resting birds could be a Winter plumaged bird.



There were also a few Glaucous-winged Gulls hovering around. Glaucous meaning "bluish-grey or green". They are very common on the Pacific Coast.



Is this a Glaucous-winged? Not sure yet. I do not know all of my gulls and especially all of their 'cycles'. It takes years for gulls to reach full breeding plumage and the differences are very different. I will have to do more research.



Case in point. I have NO idea what species this bird actually is. Update to follow. Hopefully.



Before the ship left Margerie Glacier there was a couple of Glaucous-winged Gulls playing around with one another.



Tomorrow we arrive at Ketchikan and I should be more familiar with the land birds there.

Glacier Bay-Margerie Glacier, Pt. 2

Part 2!

I love this ice cave opening at the edge of the glacier. So nice and ominous.



For scale, the cave can be seen along with another sight-seeing boat off to starboard.



As I was taking that shot, we heard huge crack and spun around to see a large chunk falling into the water.



One of the interesting things to watch was when the claving would take place and then watch the Kittiwakes zoom in to search for any morsels broken loose or stirred up after the ice hits the water.



More car-sized ice slides off of the terminus and causes a splash.



A larger fall from higher up was much more dramatic!



We knew that more ice would fall and remembered that our room was now facing the glacier so we hurried up to the balcony to check out that view. Here, Carolyn uses the Flip to record some calving.



On the way up to the room we missed a big calving but we were rewarded with the biggest event of our stop before heading away.



I have a bunch of sequence shots of these calvings but they will have to wait for the planned family DVD.



The stop did not disappoint at all. The sounds of that cracking ice will be with me forever. Eerie and beautiful. Could sit there forever.

Next up: Birds! Promise.

Into Glacier Bay-Lamplugh Glacier

Off to the big event. Glacier Bay. Time to try and see some massive chunks of ice falling into the water!



I took a little walk early in the day to get a feel for the weather. Fog was closing in and hopes were dropping as to if we would be able to have a good viewing day for the glaciers. The fog horn even began to sound right after this shot.



Far off in the distance were a couple of swimming specks. After watching them for as long as I could, I can only determine that they were Sea Otters.



We entered some of the more narrow portions of the journey and from the room I spotted some specks on the cliffs. Mountain Goats!



Pointing the way to the glaciers was a lone Black-legged Kittiwake.



Making our way down to the 4th deck, we discovered we were a little late. To our left was a giant slab of ice that is Lamplugh Glacier. Discovered it is pronounced LAMP-LOW.



I found it odd, though, that most folks were more impressed with a tiny subject at the base of the glacier. Just a Bald Eagle, after all. Then I had to remember that a lot of people might not get a chance to see our National Bird as much as I do. Second only to Alaska, Florida has one of the largest concentrations of Bald Eagles in the country.



This 8-mile long glacier reaches John Hopkins Inlet at this point but it not as 'active' as other glaciers in the park. Still, pretty to look at.



Massive hunks of ice seem ready to topple over but we saw no ice falls.



The mix of ice and dirt make for some very interesting patterns along the glacial face, or terminus, where a glacier reaches its end point.



I liked this little cave at the base of the terminus. I could imagine an adventure or taking a small boat inside to see if there was a larger cave inside. Don't think that would be a wise trip, though.



From the Crow's Nest, Carolyn took this shot before she headed down to join us on the deck. This shot gives a better sense of scale than I can get with my big lens. The terminus is 3/4 of a mile wide and nearly 160 feet tall. That is the height of a 16 story building!



I know I mentioned in an earlier post that this was not a landscape blog, but these are glaciers, man! I do get some birds in there most of the time. Next up: John Hopkins Glacier.

Tracy Arm Birds

Yes, birds! I did take some time to actually look for birds as we ventured through the Tracy Arm fjord.

One of my main target birds for this trip was the Black-legged Kittiwake. I stepped out on the 4th deck to get a better view of our surroundings and a couple were just passing by the boat. Moments later, they were gone. So, not a fantastic shot but nice enough to get started.



As we moved along we came to a spot where a waterfall was entering the water. Hundreds of birds were flying toward this spot and few passed in front of us. Half of the flocks seemed to be Surf Scoters, pronounced ScOH-ter. Long O.



These sea ducks are fairly common on the Pacific but usually farther out.



The distinctive orange bill and white head patches are easily seen up close.



Most of the other flocks were primarily White-winged Scoters. Easy to tell the difference when they are in flight!



Completing the species list in the feeding flock were Pigeon Gullimots. Hard to determine at a long distance but we finally had a few fly close enough to the bow for a nice shot against the blue water.



Rounding out the bird list, there was a flock of Northwestern Crows ignoring the waterfall and heading to feed on the small beach nearby.



OK. One more shot. I am not the best with gulls. Especially early-cycle gulls. Gulls take up to 4 years to achieve adult plumage. If anyone knows what these gulls that were sitting on ice on the way out are, please fling a guess my way!



Time to head to Juneau!