Kenai peninsula, Alaska, day three

We boarded a Renown Tours boat in Seward for a five-hour trip to see whales, birds, and a calfing glacier. Our pilot was bird-alert; not all of them are. Mammals were encountered first — humpback whales, dolphins, sea otters, and then a pod of about 20 orca (killed whales). We passed a rocky point used by sea lions for basking and birthing. Baby sea lions look like big puppies. We passed close by cliffs used for nesting by Double-creasted, Pelagic, and Red-faced Cormorants, Black-legged Kittiwakes, and Horned and Tufted Puffins. There were a lot of puffins on the water, diving as we approached or flying off. Identification of these birds often requires good knowledge of bird butts. There were murrelets out there, but none close enough to positive ID. Later in the day we would drive a shoreline road out of Seward and get good looks at a pair of Marbled Murrelets not more than 40 feet offshore. Black Scoters were along that shore as well, along with a dozen immature Harlequin Ducks. Bird of the Day was the brown (grizzly) bear we found on the way home. Three cars parked along the road ahead of us and a wooded glen holding half a dozen people with cameras was the clue. The bear, a sow with cub, was less than 200 feet away, resting in the brush, but very alert. My host is a biologist familiar with bears. He pointed out that slowly advancing on the bears with digital cell-phone-size digital cameras cranking out bright little flashes each time a photo was taken was a bad idea. This was the basic approach of the viewers we watched. The bear was intently focused on us, its cub at its side. I took photos with the equivalent of a 900mm telephoto lens, keeping my distance. Well, I just made sure that one of the other photographers always was between me and the bear. It’s that old joke — I don’t have to run faster than the bear, just faster than that other guy. Glaciers, by the way, are big but don’t do much.

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