Icy Strait
Chortling calls of bald eagles, the powerful and haunting exhalation of a humpback whale, sharp screams of gulls and the soft swish of a kayak hull across nearshore kelp beds were sounds around and about Shaw Island this morning. Shaw Island rests in the north end of Idaho Inlet, just south of Icy Strait and a few miles east of the Pacific Ocean.
At nearby Fox Creek our morning walks began in lush meadows packed with beautiful wildflowers. Shooting star, chocolate lily, Unalaska and Indian paintbrush as well as the exquisitely spice- scented white rein orchid lined our pathway into the forest. A brisk uphill hike among large Sitka spruce trees (many skirted with red squirrel middens) brought us into a delightful wet and open landscape known as a muskeg or peatland, an area of poor drainage and acidic soil. One of the specially adapted plants found there today was common butterwort. This pretty insectivore’s prey lands on their basal leaves where the unsuspecting creatures are stuck and digested. Yorkshire farm women once believed this plant protected cows from elf arrows and humans from witches and fairies.
Perhaps two hundred Steller sea lions were hauled out or porpoising through the water near a large smooth rock in the Inian Islands as we approached with our Zodiacs this afternoon. The playful leaps and dives of these very large pinnipeds brought joy to us all. Though their populations are doing well in Southeast Alaska, the number of Steller sea lions has dropped 90 percent in the northern part of their range. In the kelp beds along the shore, we saw a number of sea otters, several of them mothers with young.
And as this truly stellar day draws to a close, our small ship is drifting near Point Adolphus, and we are watching a glorious echelon of humpback whales.
Chortling calls of bald eagles, the powerful and haunting exhalation of a humpback whale, sharp screams of gulls and the soft swish of a kayak hull across nearshore kelp beds were sounds around and about Shaw Island this morning. Shaw Island rests in the north end of Idaho Inlet, just south of Icy Strait and a few miles east of the Pacific Ocean.
At nearby Fox Creek our morning walks began in lush meadows packed with beautiful wildflowers. Shooting star, chocolate lily, Unalaska and Indian paintbrush as well as the exquisitely spice- scented white rein orchid lined our pathway into the forest. A brisk uphill hike among large Sitka spruce trees (many skirted with red squirrel middens) brought us into a delightful wet and open landscape known as a muskeg or peatland, an area of poor drainage and acidic soil. One of the specially adapted plants found there today was common butterwort. This pretty insectivore’s prey lands on their basal leaves where the unsuspecting creatures are stuck and digested. Yorkshire farm women once believed this plant protected cows from elf arrows and humans from witches and fairies.
Perhaps two hundred Steller sea lions were hauled out or porpoising through the water near a large smooth rock in the Inian Islands as we approached with our Zodiacs this afternoon. The playful leaps and dives of these very large pinnipeds brought joy to us all. Though their populations are doing well in Southeast Alaska, the number of Steller sea lions has dropped 90 percent in the northern part of their range. In the kelp beds along the shore, we saw a number of sea otters, several of them mothers with young.
And as this truly stellar day draws to a close, our small ship is drifting near Point Adolphus, and we are watching a glorious echelon of humpback whales.
