Le Conte Bay And Petersburg
The sighting of a humpback whale was definitively a good way to start the day; besides a nice, hot cup of coffee. We were on our way to Le Conte Bay when the naturalists and officers from the bridge spotted our first whale of the trip. We spent a fair amount of time watching this single individual repeatedly diving, and coming up to the surface, blowing its vapor plumes, clearly visible against the dark shoreline behind the whale.
After breakfast, when the sky was clearing, the sun rays were sparkling off the water; it was the beginning of a glorious morning. We all had a chance to go for a Zodiac tour around the icebergs, bergy bits and growlers, which were drifting from Le Conte Glacier. This is a tidewater glacier, which has been receding during the past few years. As the chunks that break off the glacier slowly melt, beautiful shapes, like ice sculptures are formed, some of the bigger bergs have a deep unique blue coloration, which makes them quite striking. Lots of sea birds were flying around, herring gulls, glaucous winged gulls, pigeon guillemots, white winged scoters, loons and many others, including an elegant bald eagle, sitting on an iceberg. The distant view of the snow covered peaks of the coastal mountains made the scenery even more dramatic.
Some people decided to venture on a float-plane ride for a spectacular flight experience; the view form up high in the ski gives you a great perspective of the massiveness, shape and formation of a glacier.
Our afternoon was spent at Petersburg, a small fishing town, which was founded in the late 1800's by Scandinavian people, who mostly came from Norway. Many different activities were available to partake of; some people even went on a helicopter ride over the glaciers and actually landed on one of them, for a unique experience!
Most of us went for an energetic hike across a temperate rain forest, making our way uphill to a "muskeg" or "bog" environment. In this unique habitat, we found many interesting plant and animal adaptations to the wet, acidic and nutrient poor conditions. A small group ventured by kayak up Petersburg Creek, where they had the good luck to surprise three big black bears.
Some of the naturalists decided that after exploring, and learning about the land habitat, it was necessary to explore a little bit of the marine environment. So we used the ship's splash camera, and took some nice footage of some of the invertebrates that live attached to the floating dock. Tube worms, blue mussels, different types of alges and a large number of the white plume or frilled anemones were filmed, which beautifully opened and displaying their tentacles.
As a great finale for the day……a second humpback whale was encountered!! What a wonderful way to begin and end our second day of the trip!
The sighting of a humpback whale was definitively a good way to start the day; besides a nice, hot cup of coffee. We were on our way to Le Conte Bay when the naturalists and officers from the bridge spotted our first whale of the trip. We spent a fair amount of time watching this single individual repeatedly diving, and coming up to the surface, blowing its vapor plumes, clearly visible against the dark shoreline behind the whale.
After breakfast, when the sky was clearing, the sun rays were sparkling off the water; it was the beginning of a glorious morning. We all had a chance to go for a Zodiac tour around the icebergs, bergy bits and growlers, which were drifting from Le Conte Glacier. This is a tidewater glacier, which has been receding during the past few years. As the chunks that break off the glacier slowly melt, beautiful shapes, like ice sculptures are formed, some of the bigger bergs have a deep unique blue coloration, which makes them quite striking. Lots of sea birds were flying around, herring gulls, glaucous winged gulls, pigeon guillemots, white winged scoters, loons and many others, including an elegant bald eagle, sitting on an iceberg. The distant view of the snow covered peaks of the coastal mountains made the scenery even more dramatic.
Some people decided to venture on a float-plane ride for a spectacular flight experience; the view form up high in the ski gives you a great perspective of the massiveness, shape and formation of a glacier.
Our afternoon was spent at Petersburg, a small fishing town, which was founded in the late 1800's by Scandinavian people, who mostly came from Norway. Many different activities were available to partake of; some people even went on a helicopter ride over the glaciers and actually landed on one of them, for a unique experience!
Most of us went for an energetic hike across a temperate rain forest, making our way uphill to a "muskeg" or "bog" environment. In this unique habitat, we found many interesting plant and animal adaptations to the wet, acidic and nutrient poor conditions. A small group ventured by kayak up Petersburg Creek, where they had the good luck to surprise three big black bears.
Some of the naturalists decided that after exploring, and learning about the land habitat, it was necessary to explore a little bit of the marine environment. So we used the ship's splash camera, and took some nice footage of some of the invertebrates that live attached to the floating dock. Tube worms, blue mussels, different types of alges and a large number of the white plume or frilled anemones were filmed, which beautifully opened and displaying their tentacles.
As a great finale for the day……a second humpback whale was encountered!! What a wonderful way to begin and end our second day of the trip!
