Birds and Nature North America

Kenai Fjords and Denali National Parks

– 27 June to 6 July 2021

Common Murres on nesting cliff

The Ripley Waterfowl Conservancy organized a natural history tour to Alaska. Nine intrepid souls made their way to Anchorage, AK, to meet Erin Henszey, our all-knowing guide from Alaska Wildland Adventures. AWA had organized a 10-day visit, to focus on two of the most picturesque protected areas in North America. We first did Kenai Fjords, followed by Denali.

Horned Puffins

Our boat ride out from Seward to the Kenai Fjords Glacier Lodge took us south down Resurrection Bay, out into the Gulf of Alaska to the isolated Chiswell Islands, and then west and north into Aialik Bay. The Kenai Fjords Glacier Lodge is hidden on a Lagoon of Aialik Bay that looks toward the Pederson Glacier.

bubble-net feeding by Humpback Whales

Highlights of the boat ride out included various marine wonders. Perhaps the most remarkable was an aggregation of 14 Humpback Whales doing bubble-net feeding in the middle of Resurrection Bay.

It is rare to see so many whales together participating in this special feeding method, whereby they form a circle of whales producing a net of bubbles that concentrate small prey fish for consumption.

The great beasts finish each bout by bursting up out of the surface of the sea, mouths open, gathering up the tiny baitfish in their giant distended mouths, their baleen filtering food from water.

At the same time Glaucous-winged Gulls ranged about overhead, looking for tidbits missed by the feeding whales.

We spent about forty minutes watching this whale assemblage, and then continued to the Chiswell Islands, famous for their seabird colonies.

Tufted Puffin

The Chiswells provided close encounters with two favorites—Tufted Puffin and Horned Puffin.

Horned Puffin

We also stumbled upon a flock of Parakeet Auklets, one of the more retiring of the little seabirds that nest out here.

Parakeet Auklets (above and below)

We also saw loafing groups of Steller’s Sea Lions. Here is a youngster hauling out to be with its mother.

Steller's Sea Lion youngster

The beautifully-situated Kenai Fjords Glacier Lodge is accessible only by boat or float plane. We were delivered by boat to the rocky beach and walked the half-mile in to the lodge, hidden among the White Spruces.

view of Pederson Glacier from the Kenai Fjords Glacier Lodge

The walk in provided our first encounter with a Black Bear. This lodge could well be named “Black Bear Lodge” because of the abundance of this species on the lodge’s campus.

We saw Black Bears morning, noon, and night (though the sky was bright from 4 AM to Midnight).

One evening I took a short walk out from the Lodge and encounter 5 different foraging Black Bears.

Chocolate Lilies

We stayed at the Lodge for two nights, and probably racked 20+ bear sightings. Needless to say, when we went out for walks we carried bear spray with us.

Harbor Seal mother with pup

One field trip took us, by canoe, across the lagoon to Addison Lake. This produced encounters with a Harbor Seal mother and pup.

As well as a group of Common Mergansers.

Marbled Murrelet in breeding plumage

And some foraging Marbled Murrelets, which nest in the conifer forests in the interior.

Sea Otter

As well as a friendly Sea Otter.

River Otters

Later in the evening, after dinner, a visit to the dock on the Lagoon was enlivened by the arrival of four River Otters passing through the Lagoon.

Bald Eagle adult

Bald Eagles were everywhere... (This one we photographed in the harbor at Seward.)

Pigeon Guillemots foraged on the calm waters of the Lagoon in the early morning.

Red Squirrel

The spruce forest was encrusted with mosses and other epiphytes as well as flowers of various kinds. The common creature in these woodlands was the Red Squirrel, which feasted on the spruce cones, creating mountains of disarticulated cones under those spruces in fruit.

Semipalmated Plovers

Out on the stony beach, a pair of Semipalmated Plovers guarded a nesting territory.

face of the glacier

On another morning we kayaked to the Aialik Glacier, at the head of Aialik Bay. The thundering sound of the calving glacier was repeated over and over again as we paddled back to the Lodge. Kayaking up to the face of a calving glacier is a very “Alaska” experience—coming to grips with the vast scale of everything in this gigantic state.

Common Murres (above and below)

The boat ride back to Seward provided new natural history encounters. First we came upon cliff festooned with Common Murres.

Groups of this alcid species also bobbed around in the green water below.

Black-legged Kittiwakes on nesting cliff

On other cliffs we found nesting Black-legged Kittiwakes, ocean-loving gulls rarely seen in the US mainland.

We also spent time admiring a group of Orcas. These, the most charismatic of the smaller toothed whales, are always a crowd favorite.

Photographing them is a challenge. One tends to get the creature as it is headed back under the surface...

We also passed a great wide glacier that drains the massive, 700-square-mile Harding Icefield on the Kenai Peninsula.

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Denali from Talkeetna

After a night in Seward, we transited northward to Denali National Park and Preserve. We passed south of Denali, getting a nice view of the mountain in Talkeetna, where we spent a night along the way.

Denali from interior glacier (summit under a lenticular cloud)

In the afternoon here we did an overflight of the Denali massif. To say that this is a jaw-dropping experience is an understatement. The flight, in an DeHavilland Otter dating from 1954, was mind-blowing.

We landed on a glacier, and saw, at close range, the wonders of North America’s highest summit.

blue glacier lakes

There is just so much to see when touring around the great snowbound mountain.

large mountain glacier flowing out of Denali range

The next morning, we drove the 92-mile Denali park road, most of it gravel, with a 35-mile-an hour speed limit. It took us seven hours to get to our destination, Camp Denali, just above Wonder Lake, and almost due north of Denali. It took so long because of the many stops to look at wildlife and scenery.

Vista from Eileson in Denali NP (with Caribou antlers in foreground)

Over our three days based at idyllic Camp Denali, we traipsed here and there in search of wildflowers, wildlife, and wild scenery. The guides were excellent, the food scrumptious, the wildlife fabulous.