Glacier Bay – the Wildlife

We’ve been seeing a great deal of wildlife up here in SE Alaska, but the concentration of wildlife in Glacier Bay is pretty overwhelming.  Humpback whales are numerous – particularly when the tide starts flooding, bringing herring and other food on the incoming current.20140624 8934 whale tail underside psrWe saw humpbacks everywhere.  A group of 4 or 5 were hunting in Bartlett Cove (the park headquarters) for days.  When we were anchored near Reid glacier we had one whale hunting in the cove all one morning, and then two came to hunt the following morning.  I was paddling my kayak and I watched them – they typically blow about 4 times and then dive deep, which is when you see their tail appear.  It would be quiet for a little while and then the blowing would start all over again.20140628 9237 whale blow and adventures psrFinding whales is pretty easy – just look for the white puff of mist when they breathe, and in the coves and near vertical rock walls you can really hear the sound reverberate.  Sometimes they will breach – leap entirely out of the water, and that is a sight to see – the splash and noise are impressive.  An adult humpback is about the same size and weight as our boat, and we learned that they are passive listeners – they do not echo-locate, so the rangers tell you to make some noise so they will know where you are.  Ever try to paddle a kayak in a noisy manner?20140628 9218 reid whale tail psrThe bird life is varied and plentiful, with bald eagles…20140705 10406 eagle on ice 2 psrBlack oystercatchers…20140627 9167 black oystercatcher in flight psr…little murrelets, murres, loons, harlequin ducks, northern shoveler ducks, black legged kittiwakes, and sea gulls who attack.  Both Jim and I were attacked by gulls – Jim was hiking and there were some gull chicks nearby that we never noticed until the parent gull made some screaming swoops at Jim’s head.  Another time I was paddling near the oystercatchers and a gull made several bombing runs at me – precision pooping.  I never figured out what I did to provoke him, but he went after me no matter how far away I moved.  Luckily the long paddle helped me divert the gull a bit, but I didn’t escape completely unscathed.

The puffins are some of my favorite birds – so compact and colorful.  We’re used to seeing the horned puffins in Nova Scotia, but the more common type here are the tufted puffins, with long yellow feathers swept back from each side of their head.20140625 8983 tufted puffins psr20140708 10828 horned puffin psrWe saw puffins in flocks around rocky areas, and their bright orange beaks were unmistakeable when they zoomed past us in flight.  I was pleasantly surprised to find a lone horned puffin among all the tufted puffins – I think they are unusual to find in this part of Alaska.

We have been hoping to see some mountain goats for a long time, scouring the rocky areas with binoculars rain or shine.  We finally lucked out, finding a big male and his harem of five just past an eagle’s nest that we found the previous day.  I keep looking at that shaggy coat on the male, wondering what that wool would be like to knit with.20140706 10536 mountain goat and harem psrWe’ve had a few bear sightings in Glacier Bay, but we got very lucky exploring up in the less-visited Wachusett Inlet.  Jim spotted a younger brown (grizzly) bear right near the inlet’s entrance, and we were able to bring the boat very close to shore so we could watch him.  He kept an eye on us, but the big boat didn’t seem to bother him very much.20140705 10435 young bear paws and claws psrNotice the size of the claws on this young bear!  He was turning over rocks to find clams and mussels in the intertidal zone, and then he moved up to the grass above the tide line and munched on sedge.  At the far end of the inlet, almost to the head we saw a very large brown bear who came out of the woods and sat down on the side of a creek.20140705 10472 sitting brown bear and stream psrIt was so funny to see him sitting like that, but he was watching the rushing water intently for quite a while, and as we started back out the inlet we saw him run into the creek and pounce on a big salmon.  He made quite a splash, but then he took his fish and headed back into the woods to eat it.  The salmon are just beginning to run so we expect that we’ll see more bears fishing for the rest of the summer.  We saw a black bear fishing in a creek near where we anchored for the evening – the first black bear we’ve seen in a while; we’ve mostly seen the larger brown bears.

We heard occasional reports of orcas in the park, but we only saw some briefly once.  They seem to be scarce this year.  20140625 8961 beachmasters barking psrA more plentiful predator in the water is the Steller sea lion – a species that is much larger than it’s California cousin.  The beachmasters can be quite large – 1500 lbs or more.  Although sea lion colonies are loud the big male beachmasters (there are 3 in this photo) are easy to hear above the din.  Sea lions seem to spend a lot of time napping in piles, and making noise…20140625 9065 sea lion primal scream psr…but we can always count on the young ones to give us a great show as they frolic in the waves.

I think some of my favorite animals are the sea otters – they are just adorable.  They lay on their backs with their big flipper/feet sticking up to eat and sleep, individually or sometimes in large groups.  20140704 10084 otter big feet psrThey dive underwater to hunt for shellfish and crabs, sometimes using a rock to break the shell.20140630 9910 sea otter eating clam psrThe otters carry their pups clutched to their chests, though the pups are getting pretty big and it’s funny to watch a parent make the young one chase after it – a little tough love.20140704 10367 otter mom and pup psr

Exploring the Ice – About Glaciers

We have seen and experienced so many different things in Glacier Bay National Park that I’ve been struggling to decide which stories to tell.  The wildlife is so plentiful and varied, but for this post I’ll focus on the glaciers since they represent history – they are creating and changing history as they advance and retreat.20140627 9401 glacier bay river of ice psrIf you look at the photo above you can see a glacier winding its way through the mountains, and at this distance it looks like its description – a river of ice.  A glacier is formed when snow falls upon snow, eventually piling up and compressing until it forms solid ice.  Over time ice continues to accumulate and compress until the weight of the entire mass (now a glacier) begins to move, scouring the land underneath it and pushing dirt and odd rocks ahead of it (glacial moraine).  Did you know that once a glacier retreats the land rises?  It’s called “glacial rebound” and the land at the mouth of Glacier Bay continues to rise at the rate of a few inches per year.20140627 9454 grand pacific glacier psrThe photo above shows the Grand Pacific glacier, which is retreating.  Its face will probably cross back into Canada in my lifetime.  You can see the curving ice river towards the left, and the face which is almost entirely covered by dirt and rocks.  The bergy bit floating in the foreground calved from the Margerie glacier just to the west.  Of course, the photo doesn’t give any sense of the massive scale of the glacier – until you see a recognizable object up against it, you can’t imagine how big it is – the Grand Pacific is 2 miles wide at its face, it runs for a length of 34 miles, and it is between 60-180 feet thick.

This photo shows the smaller Reid glacier, only 3/4 mile across and less than 10 miles long, and if you look carefully you’ll see some people near its face – they look like tiny dots.20140628 9259 reid glacier and ants wide psrGlaciers don’t look that big until you start to approach them, and you find yourself going and going and going and it never seems that you get closer.20140628 9258 reid glacier and ants psrI’ve read that the ice on the face of these glaciers is approximately 200 years old – so we felt like we could reach out and touch “history”.  We were able to hike up to the edge of the Reid glacier, and we can tell you that “history” is very cold!20140628 9640 jim touching glacier psrWe were actually able to anchor in the basin created by the Reid glacier, and the mouth of the cove was formed by the terminal moraine – the biggest pile of dirt and rocks pushed along by the glacier before it started to retreat.  We were anchored a mile from the glacier face, and the water in the cove was an opaque turquoise turning into a putty color closer to the face – caused by all the silt from the glacier.20140628 9563 reid glacier mud flats psrAt low tide it was interesting to see the fine silt and rocks carried by the glacier, and looking outwards it’s easy to see the classic “U” shape of a glacier-carved valley.  (Water carves land in the shape of a “V” and glaciers carve a “U”.)20140628 9619 reid glacier cut valley and flower psrHere you can see how scoured and barren the land is when a glacier retreats.  The foreground is mostly boulders and rocks, with just a few small scrubby plants starting to take hold – a dwarf fireweed in this photo.  Glacier Bay is a perfect laboratory to study “plant succession” – how plant life establishes itself as a glacier retreats.  If you remember from the last post, I mentioned that all of Glacier Bay was covered by a single massive glacier only 250 years ago.  The plant life found at the mouth of the Bay is the oldest since that land was uncovered first, and it is now a lush forest.  With so many glaciers in various stages of advancement and retreat, some hanging in the mountains and some tidewater glaciers coming right to the sea, scientists can study all phases of plant succession in real time throughout the park.

The park manages some of the areas in the Bay because of wildlife, and one of the inlets was closed until July 1 for seal pupping.  We were able to head into the inlet to the Johns Hopkins glacier a few days after it opened, though it was choked with brash ice.  Even a small chunk of ice the size of a softball or basketball can bend a prop blade, so we had to be very careful and pick our way through.  It’s also important to keep looking behind since the wind and tidal current will move the ice around, so a nice clear path going in might not be so clear on the way back out.20140706 10751 adventures going through brash ice psrIt was a fun challenge to pick our way closer to the beautiful Johns Hopkins glacier, and we saw other smaller glaciers along the way, as well as some seals still hanging around on the bigger bergy bits.20140706 10550 seals on ice psrWe had a number of great grand adventures in the ice, exploring just a few of the glaciers in the park.  20140706 10719 jim video brash ice psrOf course we had to scoop up a few small pieces of glacier ice for our evening cocktail, and of course I had to put some key lime juice from the Florida Keys over the glacier ice to celebrate the distance we’ve come.20140627 9559 glacier ice for drinks psr20140627 9707 glacier keys drink psr