Misty Fjords
Midmorning found the Sea Bird continuing her journey south, cruising towards her afternoon anchorage inside a fjord system located near the border of Southeast Alaska and British Columbia. At the entrance of a particularly narrow fjord we were met by a welcoming committee of Killer Whales. Acting almost like sentries, these beautiful animals moved back and forth across the entrance, and the Sea Bird stopped to enjoy watching as the whales surfaced, dove and resurfaced.
These deeply cut fjords are aptly named for their abundant rain fall. As the Sea Bird made her way into Rudyard Bay, misty clouds draped over trees and rock cliffs giving new meaning to a common Northwest phrase, “a gray on gray day with shades of dark green!”
Our afternoon would be spent kayaking and enjoying Zodiac rides, although it would be a dance between raindrops. Our views would only enhance our understanding of the rain needed to make a temperate rainforest. The Sea Bird dropped her hook in deep waters at the far end of Rudyard Bay. 3500-foot mountains surround this bay, and two rivers along with many waterfalls poured into this body of salt water. Once all kayaks, a kayak loading platform and Zodiacs were lowered, we began our afternoon of exploration. The two rivers inside this bay were loaded with humpy salmon. Gulls and eagles were hovering over the rivers, while the potential for other salmon predators filled our imaginations as we donned rain gear and life vests and headed out into a world of water.
This area of Southeast, Alaska receives at least 170 inches of rain per year. The early fall rains had begun and all creatures large and small, human and animal, feathered and not were wet… very, very wet.
As we approached one of the salmon streams, we could see that the trees all along each bank were lined with bald eagles, both mature and immature. Watching us watch them, they waited for the salmon to spawn out, and die, providing a bald eagle delicacy of many recently dead salmon, rolling up along the shores of Rudyard Bay on the incoming tide. Sitting on snags and tree limbs, bald eagles waited with patience, knowing that their wait of several hours would bring dead fish directly to them. Sweeping across the water, we heard the high staccato whistle of eagles arguing over territory and dead fish finds.
All was draped in drops of rain from the tips of cedars to the tips of spruces to the very tip of the beak and feathers of each eagle… water was all around from the sky, under the Zodiacs and kayaks and streaming down the walls of Rudyard Bay in magnificent waterfalls. Slowly both gulls and one bald eagle took flight... shaking feathers of rain, we watched the graceful assent from one lookout to another... a feather drifted down to the surface of the water... a visual gift and a blessing…
Midmorning found the Sea Bird continuing her journey south, cruising towards her afternoon anchorage inside a fjord system located near the border of Southeast Alaska and British Columbia. At the entrance of a particularly narrow fjord we were met by a welcoming committee of Killer Whales. Acting almost like sentries, these beautiful animals moved back and forth across the entrance, and the Sea Bird stopped to enjoy watching as the whales surfaced, dove and resurfaced.
These deeply cut fjords are aptly named for their abundant rain fall. As the Sea Bird made her way into Rudyard Bay, misty clouds draped over trees and rock cliffs giving new meaning to a common Northwest phrase, “a gray on gray day with shades of dark green!”
Our afternoon would be spent kayaking and enjoying Zodiac rides, although it would be a dance between raindrops. Our views would only enhance our understanding of the rain needed to make a temperate rainforest. The Sea Bird dropped her hook in deep waters at the far end of Rudyard Bay. 3500-foot mountains surround this bay, and two rivers along with many waterfalls poured into this body of salt water. Once all kayaks, a kayak loading platform and Zodiacs were lowered, we began our afternoon of exploration. The two rivers inside this bay were loaded with humpy salmon. Gulls and eagles were hovering over the rivers, while the potential for other salmon predators filled our imaginations as we donned rain gear and life vests and headed out into a world of water.
This area of Southeast, Alaska receives at least 170 inches of rain per year. The early fall rains had begun and all creatures large and small, human and animal, feathered and not were wet… very, very wet.
As we approached one of the salmon streams, we could see that the trees all along each bank were lined with bald eagles, both mature and immature. Watching us watch them, they waited for the salmon to spawn out, and die, providing a bald eagle delicacy of many recently dead salmon, rolling up along the shores of Rudyard Bay on the incoming tide. Sitting on snags and tree limbs, bald eagles waited with patience, knowing that their wait of several hours would bring dead fish directly to them. Sweeping across the water, we heard the high staccato whistle of eagles arguing over territory and dead fish finds.
All was draped in drops of rain from the tips of cedars to the tips of spruces to the very tip of the beak and feathers of each eagle… water was all around from the sky, under the Zodiacs and kayaks and streaming down the walls of Rudyard Bay in magnificent waterfalls. Slowly both gulls and one bald eagle took flight... shaking feathers of rain, we watched the graceful assent from one lookout to another... a feather drifted down to the surface of the water... a visual gift and a blessing…
