PART 7 BB, Sitka continues......leaving the Sea Otters and heading back to the cruise ship dock-

    After  leaving the family group of Otters, the boat continued on a northwest direction with the eventual and final destination being the dock near the cruise boat dock. The Captain announced that he would give us one more look around for a short time before going back. He said that he would be going a different way because he wanted to show us the "other" harbor in Sitka. We had only gone a short distance and spread out on the water was a small flock of Red-necked Phalarope. This was the first group I saw in these waters. 

      The Phalarope were in the same area where we started seeing a concentration of Common Murre. Interesting though, that most of the Murre in this location with the Phalarope were paired: Male Murre with its fledgling. This must have been a good place for the young Murres, most of the Murre here were in pairs.

                      Fledgling on left, adult on right- This fledgling was more advanced in development- 

                        Another pair. This fledgling was much younger and smaller in size- 

                                                       An advanced fledgling-

                                   Adult in the early stages of its transitional moult- 

      And mixed in with the Phalarope and Murre pairs, and immature Rhinoceros Auklet-

     Two pair of small birds were flying out in front of the bow of the boat. As the boat advanced, one pair broke off to the left and actually flew towards the moving boat. The other pair flew straight out and veered slightly to the right. The pair that broke off towards the bow of the boat were going to pass by the bow while the second pair kept their direction. I was thinking they were Marbled Murrelets due to their size, dark plumage and flight characteristics. The angle the boat was moving was slightly towards the sun and the birds were quite backlit. For taking pictures especially of flying birds at a distance, this was not the most ideal light angle and direction to photograph dark birds flying along a bright and reflective water surface, but what am I here for?

     It only took a few shots through my viewfinder that I realized I was photographing two pair of  ANCIENT MURRELETS!! I kept that shutter button depressed and the shutter kept grabbing images. I was only able to get a few shots of the pair that veered to the left in front of the bow. They disappeared around the bow as the boat passed. But I kept with the second pair and followed them as long as I could. The boat eventually passed them and they disappeared into the distance keeping their original flight path. Never expected to see any more Ancients on the ride back. Another wonderful gift!!

\

           Steller's Sea Lions loafing the day away on a channel Buoy. Sadly, one of them appears to have a severe eye infection or damage to both eyes. 

I was wondering why I wasn't seeing many Kittiwake, they were loafing together-

     The closer to the harbor we went (which was still a distance away), Common Murre were still present, many with fledglings. And, more small flocks of Red-necked Phalarope- 

                                            ........ and more Common Murre!

      While I was photographing this group of Murre, an Ancient Murrelet snuck into the picture that I never saw.

                                             This Murre had an enormous bill! 

    On the shoreline on the way back to he harbor, every sand bar was literally covered with Gulls. some had a few Harbor Seals close in the water. I figured with all these Gulls, and since it was Salmon fishing season, there should be fisherman nearby.....and there was. I would guess this is a popular fishing spot!

                                              Possible Herring x Glaucous-winged  Gull-  

     We were about a quarter mile from the O'Connell Bridge at the entrance to Sitka Harbor. The Captain said that he wanted to show us this harbor. He mentioned that the waiting period for obtaining a boat slip in this harbor was at least six years......and he had finally gotten a slip just a few weeks before we were on this tour. He said the only problem he was having was that he had two boats, he had to make a decision what boat he wanted in the slip! Looks like more boats than boat slips in Sitka! 

    

      Getting a little close the bridge, my attention was not on the Captain as he told everyone about the history of the area and the bridge. However, my attention was on the several hundred Red-necked Phalarope that were covering the water all around the boat!

      

     SPECIAL  NOTE- At this point in my blog, we were going under the O'Connell Bridge and entering Sitka Harbor. 

     When I was home working on this part of the Sitka blog, I was copying and transferring images from the original SD card to my folders set aside for this blog. I had finished for the night with the Phalarope images I posted above, and I stopped  and put the card away until the next morning when I would continue on my blog. I put my SD card in my computer, and all the images that I took beyond these last Phalarope images (about 500 images) just disappeared on my SD card. My card apparently got corrupted judging by the new gibberish folders that appeared on my SD card. As of now, (according to the Geek Squad) the expense of (trying) to recover the lost images would not be guaranteed and the high lab technician fee expenses would not make sense to me. So, with the images lost, I will just give an overview.

     The Harbor was full of Phalarope that were swimming, flying around the harbor, and even standing on the docks; something I had never seen them do before. Also in the harbor were many  species of Gulls including good studies of  the plentiful Thayer's Gulls that I photographed which are rare here in New England. I took a lot of images of both the Phalaropes and Gulls that I really want to post here and hope I haven't lost. Also there were more birds and great scenery on the ride from Sitka Harbor back to the docks.

         (Picking up where I left off)- After we emerged from the ride through Sitka Harbor and all the birds I photographed in the harbor, we were greeted by even more Common Murre and this one last Marbled Murrelet that flew out ahead of the boat. 

     When the tour boat pulled up to the dock, Jen was waiting for me sitting on a bench reading her book at the top of the gangway. It was a gorgeous day, warm and sunny. My thoughts on this boat tour were even though it was a relatively short tour, it was absolutely packed with birds to observe and photograph. There were only a few minutes here and there that the auto-wind on my camera wasn't screaming. In total, I shot nearly four thousand images for a little over three hours time! That to me was amazing!! This area and Sitka Sound had a very high concentration of birds especially for this time of year. Thank you Sea Otter and Wildlife Tours and Thank you Sitka!! Jen and I decided to take a little walk around the square and visit a few gift shops. I certainly needed a couple of Sitka Alaska hats to remember this day! Jen also bought a few bags of Salmon jerky to take home. I had never had Salmon jerky before and it was absolutely delicious. One bag never made it home!

     We decided to head back to the Orion and have lunch. After a stop to our suite and get cleaned up, we decided to have lunch at Mamsen's Café which is in the Explorer's Lounge. Mamsen's is a Norwegian Café that serves classic Norwegian sandwiches (such as Liver pate and sweet pickle, beef and mushroom, salmon and mustard sauce, etc.) and two kinds of home made soups every day. Our favorite and one that was on the menu every day was the Pea Soup! It tasted better than anything that you could make at home! They also had small dessert bites which included a Norwegian specialty; Waffles with Gjetost Cheese and strawberries. This cheese is a brown color and made from goat and cow's milk. It has a mild, pleasant and distinctive toffee taste. Its quite delicious!  

                                                                The Best Pea Soup-

      After lunch, we decided to just relax the day away in the Explorer's Lounge. Jen had a Hot Toddy, and I had my usual Beefeater's and tonic. Jen picked up her book to continue, I looked through my images that I had taken today. I also picked up the Alaska Birds Book again to look up to see how common the Rhinoceros Auklet and the Ancient Murrelet are in this area in the fall. Well, no sure about that!

     The Orion was scheduled to leave Sitka at 4:00 pm this afternoon. Time to take a good long nap in the Lounge before dinner! We got two of the best seats in the Lounge right along the sun deck windows. If I see anything, I just have a short sprint out the doors!

     Second Part, Leaving Sitka- The Orion cast off from the cruise ship dock promptly at 4:00 pm. The only birds I could see at this time were Gulls moving around the harbor. I didn't see much else. By 6:00 pm, Jen and I decided to go to the World Café for supper. The World Café is a buffet style restaurant with endless offerings. We liked the Café because of the open menu items..... they had just about anything you were in the mood for. But the best part of the Café, was that fact that the tables and seating was located along the sides of the ship with large windows looking out over the sea. If we spot any Whales or Birds, there are several doors that open to the outer decks. The World Café is located at the stern of the ship one floor below our Suite which  is in the bow. 

    Tonight they were featuring a home made soup bar and another Alaskan Seafood Feast. The Salmon Chowder and the Beef Goulash Soup were absolutely delicious. Soups were very popular on this cruise.....everyone wanted soup! The Alaskan Seafood Bar featured Hanger Crab and Pouched Halibut along with every kind of seafood imaginable. When we left our Suite for supper, I decided to leave my camera behind in our suite. Usually I take it with me just in case we see something that I need to photograph. But I told Jen, I had such an amazing day in Sitka that there would be nothing that would compare to it, especially out here in the Gulf of Alaska! I left the battery on the charger (the other charged battery in my camera bag) while we were having supper. 

     You know what always happens when you leave your camera behind.......birds suddenly appear out of nowhere! Yup, you guessed it! Jen and I were sitting at our usual table near the window on the starboard side (next to the outside doors) . We were right in the middle of our meals when I saw Jen lean over and look down towards the water. I then heard her say; "Wow! Look at all those birds......what are they"??? I thought she was joking a little at first because she told me earlier was I sure I didn't want to take my camera with us to supper?  

     I looked down figuring to go along with the joke which suddenly became clear..... it wasn't a joke! What I saw were a thousand or more dark brown Shearwaters passing by the stern of the vessel in an endless procession. The flight just kept coming and streaming by. Jen knew exactly what I was thinking.....she told me to hurry up, go get your camera! And......that's just what I did. I walked swiftly (no running on the ship) heading back to our Suite. The Viking Orion is approximately 750 feet long. We were in the stern, and our Suite is in the bow. Plus its up one flight of stairs. Got back to our room, grabbed my camera, pushed in the battery, grabbed a new SD card (which I formatted on the "walk" back) and was back at our table in just over five minutes! But as expected,  you guessed it, all the Shearwaters were gone, they had passed by the Orion! Yeah, I was bummed a bit.

     We finished our cold dinner and had a wonderful Cappuccino. I decided to walk out on the deck anyway and see if I could see any more Shearwaters. It was a little chilly tonight, the wind had picked up along with the head wind from the Orion. Jen decided to stay in the restaurant and watch out the window. At first I didn't see much, but slowly I would start to see distant Shearwaters heading in the opposite direction as before. Now they are traveling in the same direction as the Orion. The birds were so far out they looked like small dots that were moving quickly skimming the tops of the waves. 

     One by one they came only a few seconds apart, followed by pairs and trios. They were all heading in the same direction almost paralleling the ship but angling slightly to one o'clock. My experience with Shearwaters off the New England coast...... they will always lead you to food. 

          For me, this type of birding is fun, and when others get involved its even better! When I was standing on the deck taking pictures of way distant Shearwaters that were just about too far to see, let alone photograph, a couple of staff members came out on the deck to see what I was doing. They were quite curious about just what the hell I was photographing! They were very interested in my new camera set-up and asked me in broken English about it. I understood enough to figure out they had no idea that I was taking pictures of Shearwaters that were probably three hundred yards away. I explained about the birds I was photographing by showing them a passing distant Shearwater. I took its picture and then showed them the enlargement on the camera's replay screen on the back. They were amazed, judging by their reaction. They told me they never knew birds were out there. Soon, they were joined by a handful of their fellow kitchen staff workers. They all started pointing out the Shearwaters to me in the distance for me to photograph. I would oblige each one of them by taking a picture of the bird they spotted and showing them the enlarged image in the back of my camera. What a great time watching all of their smiles!! This to me is what bird watching is all about! I shook all of their hands, thanked them for helping me (and gave them all a tip) and they all said good-bye and back to work. Fantastic! I will always remember and cherish them and this incredible memory! 

     I had waited another fifteen minutes and not much happened. The light was starting to fade; there wasn't much time left in the day. Again, without expecting too much to happen, a series of distant splashes came from the one o'clock area about a quarter mile distant. Again a series of splashes and blows.....Whales!!! All the Shearwaters I had seen the last half hour were heading in that direction. My usual sea birding mantra started bouncing around in my head: Follow the Shearwaters, they will lead you to the Whales.....Find the Whales, you'll find the Shearwaters. And that is exactly what happened!

     As the Orion sliced the sea forward, there they were .... a pod of feeding Humpback Whales, and surrounding this pod was a few thousand Shearwaters covering a wide area of the Gulf of Alaska! While I was pushing my new camera to the shutter speed limit, I realized just how lucky I was to be here at that moment being part of this spectacular event. I mean, what were the chances that the ship I was on would come this close and make visual contact in the vast Gulf of Alaska with the large gathering of sea birds and whales......all within a good visual distance from the ship. And assuming a percentage of the raft was Short-tailed Shearwaters, even better! Its was too far and the light was too low combined with the difficulty separating and identifying the Sooty and Short-tailed, I assumed the raft contained both species......but I will never know. 

         Good size comparison between both Shearwaters. Its only an assumption that the larger is a a  Sooty Shearwater and the smaller bird is a Short-tailed Shearwater. No way to know- 

     You never know what you will find when you review your images. This pair of Shearwaters just passed by an adult Tufted Puffin in winter plumage. Again, what are the chances to get this photo out here in the Gulf of Alaska? 

       Another Puffin appears, this time a juvenile Tufted Puffin, maybe the fledgling of the adult in the above images?

     When I missed the stream of Shearwaters passing by the ship at supper, I thought I had blown a really good opportunity. However, look what can happen.....it was actually a better scene with a pod of Humpback Whales included! The Whales sounded and slowly e Shearwaters broke up and dispersed. This all happened as the Orion slowly put distance between the Birds, Whales and this ship.

     There is only one thing that could be the perfect ending to this amazingly perfect day birding.....a gorgeous Moon over the Gulf of Alaska.....and there it was!      

      

     We will sail all night and we are scheduled to arrive in Ketchikan by 8:00 am tomorrow morning. After a long day like this we will sleep good tonight! 

    PART 8, Monday, Sept. 09, Arriving in Ketchikan will continue.............