This is my first chance to upload some photos from Glacier Bay, Alaska. I have been here for a week and a half and will be taking off for Juneau tomorrow. My trip mainly consisted of collected foraging data on sea otters. Which means that we pick a spot (hopefully with otters!) and sit there for several hours hoping to get as much data as possible. Some days were booming with foragers and other days I spent a large amount of time looking for otters, enjoying the view and watching the other wildlife such as whales, harbor porpoises, sea lions, bears, etc.
I was graced with wonderful weather for most of the trip (which I deserved because last year I got mostly rain!). Southeast Alaska is known for its summer rain, much like rain in Seattle, workable and light but not ideal for photo taking. There are only a few photos for now, but many more to come in the next 2 weeks!
First I will start with the Alaskan Gyre (one of the boats we used while working in Glacier Bay) in front of a foggy mountain setting.
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| Looking east in the central bay. |
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| Looking east in the central bay. |
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| A black oystercatcher (Haematopus bachmani) who was not happy that we disturbed their nest area. (see below) |
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| The oystercatcher eggs that we were near. (When we realized that we were near the eggs, we moved to a different part of the island so we would not stress out the birds) |
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| Raft of sea otters (about 300 plus pups) at Rush Point that is near the mouth of the bay. This is something you don't get to see in California! |
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| South Marble Island. South Marble is home to several hundred Steller sea lions and nesting sea birds. |
