Bubble net feeding and more

It has been a busy and eventful 5 days with visiting family. Helicopter tour of Juneau Icefield with a landing on Taku Glacier. Don't know how my niece manageed but she scheduled the Icefield tour at least 6 weeks in advance and got beautiful weather. It was sunny and 80 degrees that day. The wind and clouds returned just as our helicopter landed back at the pad. Taku Glacier is large, wider than the Mendenhall, and it is the only advancing glacier on the Juneau Icefield. The next day we sailed to Tracy Arm and back. Saw a lot of seals with their babies on the ice floes. Not much ice calving tho. The captain took to both Sawyer Glaciers. One in the north arm and one in the south. Our last tour was Whale Watching. We went with Orca Tours and Captain Larry. What a special trip that was! He took us to see Humpback whales feeding by using their Bubble Net technique. To see the whales do this is one of those once-in-a-lifetime events. We were truly blessed! There were 8 or 9 Humpback Whales feeding and we watched them dive and make bubblenets 5 or 6 times. I did get a picture of the whales coming up thru their bubblenet. If you zoom in on the photo you can see the mouth on the whale to the right. This is the last picture shown of the 5 I posted. In between, we did sightseeing, shopping, ate and played cards. Saw two bear at the Mendenhall Glacier. One was up in a cottonwood tree breaking off branches to eat. The other bear was on our trail as we walked out to see Nugget Creek Falls.

Chet at el Pabellon beach Baja

Miles and miles of sand and Chet is only critter to be seen. This picture was taken by Baja Winters during our drive down last winter or was it return trip in March. Thank you Becky.

Chet: 1997 - 2012

100+ Eagles lining the beach!

Here are some better pictures of those eagles lining the beach the other night. These pictures were taken by my neighbor. Thank you to them for sharing. In my 40+ years here, it was the first time I had seen eagles in such numbers in one spot (outside of Haines and the river in winter) and standing at the water's edge. Some looked like they were standing in water waiting to eat, but looking closer I think they found rocks to stand on. The pictures show a line of eagles at north end of the harbor and there were at least as many looking south.

An update on the eagles. This is weird. one of my neighbors counted over 55 and my other neighbor estimated at least 100. The eagles are lined up at the waters edge along the shore mostly from my house to neighbor, but there are more further along each direction. I'll try to post a picture(s). Those little bumps along the shore are eagles. I think you can zoom in on them. The third picture shows an eagle that just flew over to a different rock and landed.

Eagles, eagles, eagles! There must be at least 2 dozen eagles on the beach, flying over the water and thru the trees. The harbor must be filled with feed. They are playing King of the Rock/Limb. It is a mix of adult bald eagles and juveniles. And, whales are still coming into the harbor. Another cruised by close this morning and then did a deep dive with tail flukes showing. Awesome.

Fresh bear scat on the trail thru my woods.