Tales of Water and Whales and Such

While visiting Seward several of us made the 6 hour journey out on the water to see some of the sights of Fjords National Park and the wildlife there in.   It was a chilly, gray, misty sort of day but apparently the wildlife don't mind. The ship's captain tried to tell us several times that the number of whales, orcas and dolphins that we saw was not the norm for the trip.   But since they showed up for our trip we were just glad it was our trip!

The mountains come down to the sea.  

 

I shot back towards one of the glaciers that we were not going to go see.

The cliffs were the two eagles were hanging out.  But the pictures of the eagles wasn't worth uploading. The clifts on the other hand....

Then we started seeing the orcas.....

Mama, Papa and Baby...  They cam quite near the boat or my camera would not have been able to capture them.

I just liked this one..... dressed for a chilly boat ride and hunting for the whales.....

There is one now!

And the one that swam straight towards the boat and right along side...

And waved "good-bye"  (Okay, I admit that we have been informed that the whales sometimes slap to try to dislodge the barnacles, seen so clearly in this picture.....but we also think babies smile at us when they really only have gas...)

So ends the tale of the whales....

These waterfalls were on the side as we headed back towards the glacier.

This smaller glacier coming in no longer reaches the tidewater to calve.....it did about 6-7 years ago..... Another glacier slowly melting back....

A close up of one small section of the larger glacier....the melt water was roaring out from under the ice at the edge...

 

Several "calves" were born while we sat still upon the water.  This smaller one was on the left side of the glacier. The cracks and thunderous roars reminded me of thunderstorms..... There was also times when you would hear the thunder but see nothing moving...yet....

On the way back towards other sights, we observed more whales, this time feeding at the surface.  The birds were the first give away. They found it beneficial to feed with the whales....

Moving into a cove we noticed white spots on the green hills.

There were a group of goats, some feeding and some resting. The captain mentioned that they usually don't stay down this close to the water after birthing the babes but here they were.....all in all another plus for one exceptional excursion...

We also passed by rocks full of Stellar Seals resting and saw hundreds of Puffins flying and floating out on the water.  I took pictures but there is a limit of what can be uploaded at one time.....

ANd for all the puffins flying and floating and fishing, it wasn't until we walked through the Sea Life Museum in Seward the next day that I could really see them up close and how remarkable these birds are.  But I leave that for another day's postings.

So Nan and I are still sitting besides the clear calm waters of Kelly Lake for another day.  The kayaks are calling out again as we left them inflated just for this reason.  If the camera doesn't come up with a dead battery after the first picture (as it did yesterday) there will be pictures.  ...till then....