Juneau, Part BB continuing......Saturday, Sept. 07, Heading back to Statter Harbor

     Capt. Mike wanted to find birds for me on the twenty minute ride back to the harbor. He told me that he would hug the shoreline which would give us the best chance of seeing more birds. I really appreciated him doing that for me. The others on boat didn't mind at all..... they had a very successful morning Halibut fishing and were sitting back and relaxing. On the trip back to port, Gulls seemed to be the most plentiful (mostly Glaucous-winged) and a handful of Double-crested and Pelagic Cormorants. I did see one more small dark Alcid flying by the boat. But since we were traveling fast, and the bird was distance off, I didn't even pick up my camera. It may have been a Pigeon Guillemot or another Marbled Murrelet which is what it looked like to me judging by size and flight. 

       Oh yes, can't forget the Glaucous-winged x Herring hybrids..... they were quite common. 

                               Have a fish processing plant, you will have Gulls!! 

..........and of course, Bald Eagles!                    

       We were soon back at the harbor, quite a change after four hours. The tide in the harbor was much higher..... all the mussel beds were gone, now covered by the tides. The Gulls and Eagles had to perch on the dock posts or channel markers. 

     After all the Gulls I have seen so far on this cruise from Anchorage to Seward to now Juneau, this was the first Glaucous-winged Gull that was actually close enough for good portrait shots. This adult Glaucous-winged Gull was really handsome. 

     The day spent Halibut fishing with Jen was very special for both of us. Besides (finally) catching a Halibut, we were successful in honoring Dad. Great day!

     At the dock, we said Good-bye to Chris and Capt. Mike. I had asked him earlier if he would entertain a private charter for a group of birders, and he said absolutely! So if you are a birder and reading this and you are planning a trip to Juneau, give Capt. Mike a call.

     At the top of the main dock, the shuttle bus was waiting for us. During the ride back to the town dock and heading back onto the Orion, I was looking through the extensive marshes along the road to maybe find some waterfowl. I didn't see any ducks or geese, but I did see lots of Gulls! What a surprise!!

                                   Back on the ship's launch boat heading to the Orion. 

     After an absolutely spectacular morning which included a memorable time Halibut fishing, close encounters with a family of Humpback Whales, my first Short-tailed Shearwater , and a couple of Marbled Murrelets, we were back on the Orion. After removing the lovely essence of Halibut from ourselves, we went for a late lunch. The Orion would cast off its lines at 5:00 pm and head to our next port: Sitka. After lunch, Jen and I walked up to the Explorer's Lounge to have a celebratory Gin and Tonic and relax the rest of the day. 

     Bonaparte's Gulls, Short-billed Gulls, Glaucous-winged Gulls and California Gulls were flying around the harbor as well as both species of Cormorants. At 5:00 pm sharp, the Orion was moving. Again, we would cruise through the night and arrive in Sitka at 8:00 am. Heading out of the harbor, there wasn't much bird activity except a Gull here and a Gull there. But it didn't matter..... as usual the Alaska scenery was breathtaking!

    Well, maybe the feather winged birds may have slowed down, but not the same for the metal-winged birds, the afternoon Seaplane activity was remarkable. The flight traffic of these beautiful seaplanes coming into Juneau harbor was continuous. One after the other the planes came from over the mountains, dropped down in altitude, and passed by both sides of the bow of the Orion as they approached their landing destinations in the harbor. What a wonderful unexpected addition to our day and to our cruise.

     In a short time, we passed by the sea plane activity, time to take in more of those magnificent landscapes. 

      When we slowly put Juneau in our mirror, we came upon an area with sand bars and a flatter shoreline. This must have been the area where the Salmon fishing was good and accessible judging by the numbers of fisherman lining the sandbars and shoreline.  And where there is fishing, there is bait. If you have bait, the Gulls will line up behind you! 

   

              Soon we were steaming through Icy Straight and the back into the remote wildness

                        The Orion would pass through the Straight during the last couple of hours of daylight and then into Cross Sound tonight and back into the Gulf of Alaska. On a course southeast along the coast was Sitka Sound and then the main pier in Sitka Harbor. I wish we were taking this trip during the day......the scenery would be incredible (maybe a bird or two as well)!! 

     By this time of day, the winds had almost completely dropped off to near calm. However, it was still chilly and there was still a decent head wind that you could feel on the Explorer's Lounge sun deck. I put on my favorite Irish sweater, and my outer jacket and walked out outside to spend the last hour of the day doing what else.....looking for birds! The water was calm, the sky was threatening to clear out and the air was quiet. You could literally see for a mile or more on the flat calm water. Any birds swimming this late day could not hide behind waves, they would be easily seen.

      The majority of Gulls I started seeing especially flying Gulls were Short-billed Mew Gulls. 

   Off the bow out seventy-five yards, a pair of Loons skirted the deck of the Straight. I was hoping for Pacific Loons, but wasn't disappointed when I discovered they were Red-throated Loons. And what made this encounter special, was that both Loons were still dressed in breeding plumage! 

     As the sun started setting lower in the horizon, I started seeing "rafts" of flocked birds on the flat calm water in the distance. My first thought was Scoter flocks, or maybe gatherings of Common Murre. As we got closer I could see many of these rafts in varying distances from the approaching Orion. As we go closer, the closest rafts of birds revealed their identities......Gulls, hundreds of them. We were approaching the night time roosting area for the Gulls and/or possibly a feeding area since I had been seeing lots of Salmon splashing on top the water on the way here. Maybe it was for both reasons that the Gulls were here in such large numbers. 

      There were many of species of Gulls represented in these flocks that I could see with quick views through my binoculars that I could identify: Kittiwake, Short-billed, Bonaparte's, Glaucous-winged, California and I am sure a few others. All the Gulls got stirred-up when the Orion approached. Some of the flocks flew off and joined more distant flocks that weren't bothered by the ship's movement. Quite a gathering of Gulls.

                             1st cycle Glaucous-winged, and a Short-billed Mew Gull

          In and around the Gulls were many Common Murre pairs.....adult with fledgling.

 

                                                                California Gull

    These next few paragraphs will be a little (or a lot) cliché'!! Just as the rafts of Gulls had dwindled as the Orion moved on, the sun broke out of the clouds. Even if it was just for short period of time, it was welcomed! In an instant, I looked over to the starboard side and there it was..... the most magnificent rainbow! It was enormous; wide and long and stretched to the shoreline in he distance. With the sudden appearance of the rainbow, the Explorer's Deck emptied of people as if the water were full of Whales. For the last forty-five minutes, I was alone on the bow, now it was packed with people. Everyone was just enjoying the rainbow or at least the selfies in front of the rainbow.

     Over the years I have learned to photograph everything while on birding excursions. Even if it ends up being nothing, you will still have those times when that distant floating dot that you thought was a weed or a log may end up being a bird in the images. Since I am a picture-taker, not a photographer, this is exactly what I do. Being that we are on an Alaskan cruise, and we will cover a great distance, anything is possible in this vast wilderness. Take pictures first, evaluate them later. 

     The Rainbow was barely losing its intensity and I spotted a small white dot about one hundred yards off the starboard side of the Orion. As the ship was passing by, this dot was angling away from the ship with its forward progress. The only reason that I spotted this very small distant white dot was that it leaving a small wake behind it that was illuminated by the sun's reflection. I was able to get one quick shot as the small dot disappeared behind the outside wheelhouse structure. 

      Being really anxious and curious, I enlarged the image on the back of my camera. The image was really small even though I had enlarged it. To my eye, it sorta' looked like a bird, but I really couldn't tell, it could have been a floating stump of a tree. To get a better look and hopefully identify "if" its a bird and "what" species it is, I used a birders trick. By taking your binoculars and placing the eye cup from one side of the binoculars on the back screen of the camera you create a sort of make-shift microscope. Looking through the large end of the binoculars with one eye, the image is a little larger and more defined. 

    I looked into my binoculars microscope and judging by the very happy "YES" I shouted. It wasn't a floating stump, I could identify that it was a bird in this very blurry, pixelated image......it was either a juvenile or transitional adult KITTLITZ Murrelet!!! I could even see that this Murrelet was getting ready to dive having its wings placed on its sides and out of its pockets. This is the bird that I now considered the Holy Grail bird for me on this trip. I thought I would see them in Aialik Bay, but after striking out and only having a real quick view of a juvenile, I felt my chances had diminished considerably the farther south we go. Even with this less than desirable image I was thrilled. Even more so seeing one here where I would have never expected one. it became another bird encounter that I will always remember.

     Now the cheesy cliché'!  This Kittlitz Murrelet for me was the pot of GOLD at the base of the rainbow. (I know, I couldn't help it)! 

    Even though the Kittlitz was a distance behind, the excitement was still with me..... I still had a large smile on my face. Why so excited about a relatively common Auk species in this area of Alaska? Since it is later in the season and most of the Kittlitz Murrelets had moved out of the area, and......this may be our only visit to Alaska, I didn't want to miss this special species. 

     With only a few minutes to go before the day ended, the clouds slowly moved back in blanketing most of the sky. The last breath of sunlight was still visible as it brushed the snow on the peaks of the mountains on both sides of Icy Straight.

     With the last few minutes of the day slowly fading away, a series of splashes came far in the distance along the shoreline (in the image above). The splashing was very brief. I looked for Whales, but I didn't see any....maybe they had sounded. Then there it was, a single dorsal fin appeared briefly and broke the surface. A few quick pictures later, the fins was gone. Again I looked on my camera screen, and there it was......a female Orca!! Finally, after all this time and all these miles, my first Orca. I can't believe that I hadn't had the opportunity to observe them in all the very common Orca locations we had been to in Alaska so far. But purely by luck and chance, my first Orca. 

     Ten minutes later, the day was over, and what a spectacular day it was. Within a half hour of the end of the day, a Kittlitz Murrelet and an Orca! What a great way to end tis day! 

   

    Tomorrow morning at 8:00 am, we will dock in Sitka. Jen and I are looking forward to this town, we have always heard so much about it.

Birds seen in Juneau: Glaucous-winged Gull, Herring Gull, Glaucous-winged x Herring Gull hybrid, Bonaparte's Gull, THAYER'S GULL, Short-billed Mew Gull, California Gull, Black-legged Kittiwake, Double-crested Cormorant, Pelagic Cormorant, Bald Eagle, Northwestern Crow, SURFBIRD, Surf Scoter, White-winged Scoter, SHORT-TAILED SHEARWATER, Common Murre, Pigeon Guillemot, Marbled Murrelet, KITTLITZ MURRELET, Red-throated Loon, 

ORCA, PACIFIC HALIBUT

             PART 7, Sunday, Sept. 08, Arriving in Sitka......... begins.......