Glacier Bay National Park
Rain greeted us this morning as we sailed into Glacier Bay National Park and picked up National Park Service Ranger Adrianna Cahill, who would spend the day aboard sharing her knowledge and interpretation. A black bear off the starboard bow near North Sandy Cove brought people on deck shortly after breakfast to discover that the rain had ceased. After spending time viewing the bear, naturalist Richard White gave a presentation on sea birds, enabling us to begin to identify a wide variety of local avian species: loons, cormorants, murres, puffins, guillemots, marbled murrelets—even the more elusive Kittlitz’s murrelet.
Shortly after our first bear sighting, we discovered a group of mountain goats, mostly nannies with their kids, grazing and lazing along the rocky shore of Gloomy Knob. At Russell Island, a brown bear was spotted, followed by two more on the mainland, which kept everyone glued to their binoculars and our spotting scope until, and even into, lunch time.
After lunch we visited rubble-strewn Grand Pacific Glacier at the head of Tarr Inlet. At its snout, Margerie Glacier, which calved magnificently as we watched, entered the inlet at a right angle. On our return, we visited Lamplugh and Reid glaciers. A sudden plunge in temperature (20 degrees in a matter of minutes) sent all but the most hardy scurrying to warmer areas inside the Sea Bird, where ranger Cahill presented a slide show, “One Drop of Water.”
On our way out of Glacier Bay, we swung past South Marble Island to a cacophony of bird and Steller sea lion objections. The sun broke out of the clouds to light the scene as bald eagles sent the birds into flight and sea lions glistened in the late sunlight. After dinner on board our ship, we stopped at the park headquarters visitor’s center, bid farewell to our host, and headed toward Sitka, the final stop on our journey aboard the Sea Bird.
Rain greeted us this morning as we sailed into Glacier Bay National Park and picked up National Park Service Ranger Adrianna Cahill, who would spend the day aboard sharing her knowledge and interpretation. A black bear off the starboard bow near North Sandy Cove brought people on deck shortly after breakfast to discover that the rain had ceased. After spending time viewing the bear, naturalist Richard White gave a presentation on sea birds, enabling us to begin to identify a wide variety of local avian species: loons, cormorants, murres, puffins, guillemots, marbled murrelets—even the more elusive Kittlitz’s murrelet.
Shortly after our first bear sighting, we discovered a group of mountain goats, mostly nannies with their kids, grazing and lazing along the rocky shore of Gloomy Knob. At Russell Island, a brown bear was spotted, followed by two more on the mainland, which kept everyone glued to their binoculars and our spotting scope until, and even into, lunch time.
After lunch we visited rubble-strewn Grand Pacific Glacier at the head of Tarr Inlet. At its snout, Margerie Glacier, which calved magnificently as we watched, entered the inlet at a right angle. On our return, we visited Lamplugh and Reid glaciers. A sudden plunge in temperature (20 degrees in a matter of minutes) sent all but the most hardy scurrying to warmer areas inside the Sea Bird, where ranger Cahill presented a slide show, “One Drop of Water.”
On our way out of Glacier Bay, we swung past South Marble Island to a cacophony of bird and Steller sea lion objections. The sun broke out of the clouds to light the scene as bald eagles sent the birds into flight and sea lions glistened in the late sunlight. After dinner on board our ship, we stopped at the park headquarters visitor’s center, bid farewell to our host, and headed toward Sitka, the final stop on our journey aboard the Sea Bird.
