Hey folks I just got back from a cruise and added a few birds to my life list. Most of the time I didnt have a pen handy when tour guides were pointing them out (I didn't go on any birding excursions, these were just random). So I know I saw more but can't remember.....
Not a life bird but I saw an abundance of bald eagles. So amazing in Juneau! Saw the first one right off the ship and then saw 30+ more within a 3 mile drive. They were all just hanging around town and along the road/edge of the passage between islands flying here and there.
On a cruise up the Misty Fjords we saw many pigeon guillemots and glaucous-winged gulls. There was one cliff side just full of them nesting. The cliffs are so huge you can't really see the birds until closer but eventually you notice the flashes of white and the abundance of black birds bobbing on the water. Saw many more of the guillemots on our at sea days, just floating and bobbing about, sometimes skitting across the water.
In the Tracy Arm fjord we saw hundreds of Arctic terns, especially near the Seward glacier. Also near the mendenhall glacier, they were nesting on little islands right at the foot of the observation areas.
Other birds I saw when the guides were watchful (sorry no pics, I was mostly on a boat, bus or train!).
Pelagic cormorant
Willow ptarmigan
Pacific slope flycatcher
Stella's jay
Northwestern crow
Common raven (assume it also around here, I wasn't sure)
Rock dove
Greater and lesser yellowlegs
Surf bird
Marbled murrelet
Winter wren
American pipit
Black turnstone
California gull
Chestnut backed chickadee (found this on my own while waiting for a tour bus in Juneau)
Aside from life in the air I saw so much marine life. Humpback whales off the bow of the ship, watching them breach and play while pedaling in the fitness center. Give me that for motivation any day! Sleepless mornings, 5am "never made the time change" in my nightgown on the veranda watching hundreds of Dalls porpoises or 10 pm sunset viewings of humpbacks spouting and showing off their flukes and porpoises following in the ships wake while we had dinner in the posh restaurant at sea. Several pods of orcas at different times of the day, all seen from the ship and one during an excursion. And the joksters of the sea - a group of sea lions crowded on a buoy, jockeying for position and several getting kocked off when a large one decided they called shotgun and tipped the buoy to its side trying to get on. But nothing eclipsed the mother and baby humpback, breaching and playing together, we watched them for 30 minutes until we sadly headed back to shore.....
Ya, I had a wonderful time. I have marvelled at the majestic Swiss alps, the unbelievable Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon, and now this peaceful, quiet, fresh air filled wilderness of Alaska with soaring mountain islands and unbelievable scenery every where you look. We live in an amazing world!
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