Death (of a Camera) on the High Seas

As soon as I opened my eyes on Tuesday morning, I checked the weather ... rainy, cold, windy.  I really doubted that my boat trip would happen, and that caused me all sorts of consternation.  The second half of my trip would come apart unless this trip happened today.  I dressed quickly and headed to the tour group's headquarters.  I was prepared for the day (I thought), but feared the worse. 

Sea Otters at Play

However, I shouldn't have worried.  The trip was going ahead as scheduled despite the rain.  I had a rain parka, but the thought of wet jeans wasn't too pleasant.  I dashed into the company shop and bought some rain pants, put them on, and soon we were under way. 

At first the rain was no more than a mist.  True, it was a cold mist, but I could handle that.  The seas were calm in Resurrection Bay, and almost immediately we saw two Sea Otters frolicking in the waves.  They looked up as we passed by, and I got a nice photo of them checking us out.

A bit later I got my first lifer of the day, a Marbled Murrelet.  It wasn't long before I got another, a Pigeon Guillemot.  The Captain spotted it off the starboard side, and I was really pleased that I was able to pick out the right field marks as it flew past us.  Studying pays off!  Who knew?

Black Oystercatcher

After a visit to one of the glaciers we headed to a spot where the Captain thought we might be able to find a Black Oystercatcher.  Sure enough, it was standing out in the open as if it were hired by the tour company to pose for us.  That was the third lifer for the morning.

Throughout the day we visited small coves and inlets, looking for something rare and interesting.  Each stop seemed to produce something wonderful.  In one small, dark crevice we found Red-faced Cormorants.  We watched at least three Humpback Whales send geysers of water well into the sky before showing us their tails as they dove deep into the frigid waters.  We saw Steller's Sea Lions and Harbor Seals stretched out on the rocks, oblivious to the cold and rain.  Dall Porpoises swam with us, racing along next to the boat and diving into our wake.  Mountain Goats and a Black Bear roamed the mountains above us.  And then we heard the thunder of a glacier cracking and watched as a huge chunk broke off and fell into the sea.  All of it was breathtaking.

Horned Puffin

Meanwhile, as soon as we cleared Resurrection Bay and entered the Gulf of Alaska, the seas got rougher and the rain turned fierce.  Most people headed for cover, but I was enjoying the adventure of it all and stayed on deck as long as I could.

Eventually we reached the Chiswell Islands, part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.  There we found one island that was home to hundreds of Common Murres and a few Thick-billed Murres scattered among them.  Fortunately the Captain found one of the latter and pointed it out to us.  A second island held hundreds of Tufted Puffins while yet another held hundreds of Horned Puffins.  The puffins were amazing.  They literally threw themselves off of the cliff, then flapped their wings like mad until they pulled themselves out of their dive.  Sometimes they flew right at us, only to veer off at the last moment and jet away.   I have to admit that the puffins were my favorite part of the trip.

Harbor Seal

Soon the rain drove me back inside, but the birding didn't stop.  As I watched through a starboard window, a Kittlitz's Murrelet flew past the boat.  Fortunately, others on board saw and identified it too, so I was confident in counting it.

It was about that time that things started going bad.  First, I took a serious cold-water bath when the bow of the boat slapped into a wave, throwing seawater on deck.  I took the brunt of it while trying to aim my camera at a  bird.  The camera died on the spot and has not returned to life.  Fortunately I was able to retrieve a few photos, but it is generally pretty useless now.  Then I tried to wipe the salt water from my glasses which promptly broke in half.  So I had no camera and no glasses.  Fortunately, my bins were just fine.  I refocused them to my horrible vision and returned to birding just in time for my last lifer of the day - a Rhinoceros Auklet.  That made ten new birds for the day and 34 for the Alaskan trip.  I had a back-up pair of glasses in the hotel, so that wasn't a big problem.  Of course, now I would have to bird without a camera - but wait - I could go back to digiscoping with my iPhone.  So all was well with the world.

In fact, it was a fabulous day and I'll be thrilled by its memory for the rest of my life!

Mountain Goats

The last photo before my camera died.  R.I.P.