Glacier Bay National Park
Today we enjoyed a wonderful day in Glacier Bay National Park, a very dynamic and special place. Shortly after breakfast we were delighted to see the comings and goings of a great number of marine birds at South Marble Island, including black-legged kittiwakes, glaucous-winged gulls, tufted puffins and common murres, whereas many Steller sea lions grunted and roared from their haul-outs on the rocks. A few bald eagles watched the activity from top of the tallest trees and the occasional sea otter poked its head out of the water to watch us.
After a while we continued our way into the bay and soon spotted a brown bear slowly moving around on top of a hill; after watching him for a good deal of time, we continued sailing north and watched numerous mountain goats along the way on Gloomy Knob. A lonely humpback whale and a few harbor porpoises were seen breaking the glassy waters. Many seabirds were seen around the National Geographic Sea Bird, mainly marbled and kittlitz’s murrelets, and even a hopelessly lost black tern.
A little bit south of Russell Cut we saw a brown bear on the beach; we admired him as he walked right next to the water at low tide, effortlessly turning over big boulders to feed on the small fish and crabs underneath. After watching him look for his meal, we went inside to do some munching of our own, whereas the ship continued her way towards the end of the bay. After lunch we arrived at the beautiful Margerie Glacier and watched it calve several times. Harbor seals and glaucous-winged gulls were seen around and added a touch of life to the icy landscape.
The late afternoon had several more surprises for us, the first one of them in the form of a solitary black bear that walked along the forest edge. We watched him as he scratched himself on a couple of trees before disappearing back in the woods. Almost immediately we discovered a brown bear a bit farther along the same beach and were able to catch up with him and watch as he quietly ate grasses and other plants. We thought that this bear marked the end of the day and went back inside the ship for recap.
However, the day was far from over, and at the end of recap another great sighting was made, a killer whale! We all rushed outside and marveled at the sheer beauty and elegance of an adult male killer whale with a distinctive notch near the tip of his dorsal fin; after looking at the published catalog of killer whales, we know now that he is known as T87, a transient killer whale member of the T88 pod, estimated to be about 49 years old. Dinner was delayed, of course!
