A fair weather day we had skimming o’er the sea. In a clear, blue sky the wind whisked around Mt. Fairweather, its 15,000 foot snowy peak jutting through a cloud halo. “Nature is ever at work building and pulling down, creating and destroying, keeping everything whirling and flowing,” wrote John Muir in 1879. That year he came to Glacier Bay to prove his theory that Yosemite was indeed carved by glaciers. The glacial recession in Glacier Bay began 250 years ago and continues at a rapid rate. From the bridge of the National Geographic Sea Bird we were lucky to witness the calving of Margerie Glacier, close to Grand Pacific Glacier, or Sit’ Tlein in Tlingit.

The sightings from our ship were quite exceptional. On Ixde Neixh X’aat’I Island, South Marble Island, referred to by the park rangers as the Glacier Bay’s “bachelor pad,” hundreds of young male Steller sea lions growled. Because all of Glacier Bay was under ice 250 years ago there were no sea lions in this area in the 1970s. Now, the population is increasing by 8% a year. While sea lion populations are dwindling in all other parts of Alaska, this rebound is testament to the ecosystem benefits of conservation, as is the park’s biodiversity.

On South Marble Island we saw:

tufted puffin

black legged kittiwake

long tail duck

black oyster catcher

juvenile bald eagles

mature bald eagle

glaucous winged gull

pelagic cormorants

common murres

pigeon guillemots

sea otters

Steller sea lions

tree swallow

crows

ravens

mottled sea stars

anemone

In the afternoon, numerous sea otters hauled out on another rocky outcrop, as opposed to in the ocean, a sight that even surprised a seasoned team of rangers. Other highlights included five bear sightings.

John Muir advised all to “climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.” While we did not climb the Fairweather peaks we capped the day with a sunset walk through the Sitka spruce at Bartlett Cove. “The winds will blow their own freshness into you,” John wrote, “and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of autumn.”