PART 3- Leaving Seward, and arriving in Valdez- 

      At 5:00 pm the Orion pulled away from the cruise ship dock in Seward. We would arrive at the next port of Valdez at 8:00 am the next morning and steaming through Prince William Sound. Our time in Seward was very memorable. Two wildlife boat tours in Resurrection Bay and the one trip in the Aialik Fjord were very successful; plenty of birds and other wildlife to keep you busy. The surrounding stunning coastline and magnificent Glaciers added just added to this incredible experience. Now, sadly, its time to move one. For me, I needed at least another week to explore and enjoy that spectacular area.....a couple of days in not enough!

     As we left Seward, Jen and I settled down for a nice dinner. We had Alaskan Salmon..... (what else)?? After dinner we went back to our state room to relax. Since there was about an hour and a half of daylight left, and we were leaving Resurrection Bay we sat on our veranda watching the day end. I did see quite a few distant Puffins and Murres making their way back into the bay coming in from the Gulf of Alaska. Kittiwakes filled the skies and were just about everywhere you looked followed by an occasional Glaucous-winged Gull or two. 

    Even though most of the trip would be at night, I was looking forward to cruising up Prince William Sound. Since that was considered a place that Marbled Murrelets were abundant, I was anxious for daybreak. Unfortunately, even though it happened many years ago, the haunting memory of the tragedy of the Exxon/Valdez oil spill still lingered in my mind. Not sure what bird species I would see there, but I was hopeful! 

     After about an hours sail, the Orion made the southeast turn into the Gulf of Alaska headed for Prince William Sound. The bird activity had quieted down and I wasn't seeing any birds since the mouth of Resurrections Bay. I started noticing small specks on the water in the distance. I knew they were birds, but had no idea what they were..... too far to even try photographing. I assumed they were Puffins and/or Murres? Soon these distant specks were close to the ship.... in fact right below us on our veranda. I started taking pictures of them and found them to be Common Murres. In fact the water was covered with them as far as I could see. 

     What I found most interesting was that these Murres were in pairs and fewer trios....... all were adult birds with a single fledged juvenile. Even saw a few clusters of adults and fledglings. I had finally seen what I had read about for years........Murre parent(s) taking their fledglings out to sea and teaching them how to be Murres! That was amazing!!! 

     I originally thought that the paired birds were their parents, and posted these images on my FB page.  Ornithologist/Alcid expert John Piatt messaged me that in regard to my images and my observations, it is the male Murre that tends to the fledgling. All this time and all my reading on Alcids, I can't believe I never read that or knew it! Maybe the pairs I saw with the young Murres were the male with other birds who were not tending young? Thank You John for this information.

     Even from high up on the upper deck of the Orion, I was able to capture fairly decent images of the adult and juvenile Murres. One interesting encounter I didn't realize or identify until I was going through my images and editing them at home on my computer. Originally when I watched this happen and photographed it, I thought it was a single fledgling Murre that had been separated from the adult. I didn't see any adult Murre near this orphaned fledgling....... 

 

     .......... but if you look closer at the image (and something I didn't see at that point), the father Murre was swimming just below the surface around the fledgling watching it from below! 

     When the fledgling Murre decided to dive, the adult returned to the surface and kept an eye on it! Amazing encounter!!

 


                                        The male decided to dive down with its fledgling!

     For a short distance the Murres still continued speckling the Gulf in small groups and pairs. The day was almost gone as the light began to fade. The sun cast a beautiful warm glow over the sea. Jen and I could hear a call echoing over the calming sea in the distance. It was a melancholy call, a pleading call. She asked me what it was and I told her it was a vocalizing Common Murre. The only reason I could recognize that call was from the vocalizing Murres I heard a few days ago at the Alaska Sealife Center in Seward. The call was continuous and it started getting closer. A single Common Murre came into view and we found the source of the pleading calls. Jen asked me why this Murre was calling, and why it sounded so sad! I told her, I really didn't know why from a Biological point of view, but from an artist's point of view it sounded to me like an adult Murre was had lost its fledgling and was searching for it. That of course made Jen sad!

    Fa very long minute or so, this Murre called frantically while it was swimming around erratically looking above and below the water and at one point.......

                                      ........secured a food item to offer its fledgling-

 

    But no fledgling! It wasn't until the Orion passed by that this story had a wonderful ending! Suddenly, they were reunited!! The fledgling was very young and very small...... younger than all the other fledglings we saw. It also may have had less experience with giant cruise ships passing by. This little juvenile was probably hiding by submerging itself below the surface with only its bill protruding above the surface. This is a classic posture to hide from danger. But whatever happened, this little fledgling was reunited with its parent! Very happy ending for the Murres, and a great ending for the day!

         With the fading light........ the last bird of the day was this 1st cycle Glaucous-wined x Herring Gull hybrid flying across the bow of the Orion.

     The Murres slowly faded into the distance and the light of the sky became too dark to see. What an amazing day overall. The morning started with Resurrection Bay, Aialik Fjord, Aialik Glacier, and Marbled Murrelets, and ending with a totally unexpected treat: Common Murre adults with their fledglings! Add to that a beautiful sunset over the Gulf of Alaska!! 

     Well, Alaska keeps on giving!! Around 3:00 am I woke up and went for a drink of water. Me always being curious, stepped out on the veranda to breath in some of that fresh Alaskan night air. As I looked out I noticed hundreds of small white balls following the ship along the waterline. In the blackness of the night sky all I could see were these bright white balls illuminated from the ship's lights flying alongside the ship at water level with some seeming to land on the sea and then taking off and following the ship again. 

     I knew they were birds being attracted to the ships lights, but what species?? I tried my cameras but I have no idea how to (try) and take images in the dark..... so no luck. All I could capture were blurry white balls on a couple of images. I knew that I could probably capture better images n my cell phone, but I really didn't want to take a chance dropping it overboard! I ended up using my smaller Canon SX 70 HS camera with the strap securely around my neck! 

       So the bird species mystery will remain a mystery. I tried to see if I could make out any bird shapes through my squinted watering eyes, but the shapes were just tooo distorted and fuzzy..... just bright white balls. For a moment, I thought I could make out a wing shape, and oddly it looked like a Shorebird wing. The only thing that I did have an idea about was that the birds were not Songbirds because these birds were landing on the sea, and then getting up and flying again. 

     The only birds I could think of were Storm-Petrels judging by their flight behavior and being nocturnal. I grabbed my Alaska Birds book and the only bird species that matched the behavior, size and color were Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels which were common in that area at this time of year. That would be my best guess! Later it occurred to me, they were probably Red-necked Phalaropes judging by the large numbers of them I saw in later days farther down the coast!  

    I went back to sleep and we woke up just before dawn. The day was very overcast with low clouds and patches of fog. Jen and I could make out the shoreline mountains every once and a while. I watched from the veranda for birds but with the fog and overcast skies I didn't see too much just on occasional passing Kittiwake or Gull. 

     While we were enjoying the first look at the fog-bound Valdez, I noticed scattered Songbirds flying away from the Orion. I looked up just in time to see hundreds of Passerine species leaving the upper decks of the ship almost appearing panicked. The birds scattered in all directions, but their destinations became clear..... land!! The reason for the panicked departure soon became clear; Merlins, Sharped-shinned and Coopers Hawks were patrolling the Orion. They appeared to very familiar with cruise ships and the stow-away Songbirds. This is an event I witnessed each and every morning while on this cruise!

                                            Patrolling Coopers Hawk buzzing the Orion!-

                                               Prince William Sound and Valdez-

     Salmon would be seen every now and then coming to the surface....got the Gulls worked-up a bit! We didn't see and Bald Eagles while we were here......lucky Salmon!! 

 We eventually dropped anchor outside Valdez harbor and the launch boats were getting ready to shuttle people back and forth to the docks-

   . Since there were no day trip Wildlife Excursions scheduled today, just a free day walking around Valdez, Jen and I thought about exploring Valdez by foot, but with the intermittent rain and overcast skies we decided to stay on the ship. Even the Gull activity was slow, but I did start seeing more Short-billed Mew Gulls in Valdez. Up until this point I had only seen two.

 

     Jen and I spent a good part of the day in the Explorer's Lounge and I made periodic trips to the sun deck looking for birds, but I didn't see too much.

     At 4:00 pm, the Orion pulled anchor and we were on our way to our next two destinations: Yakutat Bay and Glacier Bay. We would be at sea for two days so any birding I did would be on the Explorer's Lounge sun deck or any sun deck on the vessel. On the way out of Prince William Sound, I didn't see too much as far as birds, but again, it didn't matter...... the scenery was stunning!!

      As the Orion headed out of Prince William Sound, Kittiwake were numerous as well as the occasional Glaucous-winged Gulls. The sky had cleared up considerably, but still overcast. The fog was gone so my hopes of Kittlitz and or Marbled Murrelets remained positive. At the end of the day...... no Murrelets or even any Murres. I was not disappointed, well, maybe a little!!

We will be at sea for the next two days. PART 4, Yakutat Bay and PART 5, Glacier Bay will continue......