Alaska; Day 7
Jun. 18th, 2011 03:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
draggonlaadyLast day on the boat. Weather was finally "Alaska-like", raining off and on and windy all day. No worries though, as this was a travel day; we were all on board as we headed back to port at Petersburg. Nobody had to sit out watching nets, or be running around in the skiffs.
We ran near a group of humpback whales feeding; many pictures were taken!
Flukes, flukes, and flukes!
A pair diving together
Surfacing/blowing
Lateral fins during a roll aka "playing shark"
Dorsal fin
Whale face (really, I promise that's what it is!)
Lots of birds, mostly gulls (mew, and either herring or glaucous), but some cormorants (still no pictures, sorry, I suck) and a couple species that I'd never heard of: White wing scoter and pomarine jaeger (yeah, it's a cruddy picture; he was a long way off and moving fast). Here, wiki has a better picture than I got. These are apparently a rare sighting, I was told repeatedly that I was lucky to see it. Also Arctic terns, and a Pacific Loon in his pretty tuxedo colors.
One daring gull was trying to steal fish from a seal.
As you come into the harbor near Petersburg, there are large buoys to mark the channel. These have become a favored hang out of sea lions, who don't want to swim the 30-40 miles back to the haul-out beach. There was a solid layer of sea lions on the platform of every buoy we passed, and usually 1 or 2 more circling and looking for a place to haul themselves up.
I also got a kick out of the sea lions who would line up in the shallows, each with 1 flipper sticking straight up in the air, just group-napping.
There was this mighty handsome eagle posing as we came into town.
I wandered around through town for a while; not much town to wander through, but there is a fairly neat (and sobering) memorial park, with plaques for folks dead or missing at sea. There are about 4 pages of pictures of plaques here, for any interested.
Dinner was at a bar in Petersburg, Keto's Kave. I gave up and went back to the hotel for bed about 1. A few of the others ended up closing the bar down. Guess I'm too old for that anymore?
Fish and Wildlife has posted a blurb about the otter project.
We ran near a group of humpback whales feeding; many pictures were taken!
Flukes, flukes, and flukes!
A pair diving together
Surfacing/blowing
Lateral fins during a roll aka "playing shark"
Dorsal fin
Whale face (really, I promise that's what it is!)
Lots of birds, mostly gulls (mew, and either herring or glaucous), but some cormorants (still no pictures, sorry, I suck) and a couple species that I'd never heard of: White wing scoter and pomarine jaeger (yeah, it's a cruddy picture; he was a long way off and moving fast). Here, wiki has a better picture than I got. These are apparently a rare sighting, I was told repeatedly that I was lucky to see it. Also Arctic terns, and a Pacific Loon in his pretty tuxedo colors.
One daring gull was trying to steal fish from a seal.
As you come into the harbor near Petersburg, there are large buoys to mark the channel. These have become a favored hang out of sea lions, who don't want to swim the 30-40 miles back to the haul-out beach. There was a solid layer of sea lions on the platform of every buoy we passed, and usually 1 or 2 more circling and looking for a place to haul themselves up.
I also got a kick out of the sea lions who would line up in the shallows, each with 1 flipper sticking straight up in the air, just group-napping.
There was this mighty handsome eagle posing as we came into town.
I wandered around through town for a while; not much town to wander through, but there is a fairly neat (and sobering) memorial park, with plaques for folks dead or missing at sea. There are about 4 pages of pictures of plaques here, for any interested.
Dinner was at a bar in Petersburg, Keto's Kave. I gave up and went back to the hotel for bed about 1. A few of the others ended up closing the bar down. Guess I'm too old for that anymore?
Fish and Wildlife has posted a blurb about the otter project.
