Aside from the stunning scenery, the immense beauty, the glaciers and the wonderful solitude you can encounter at Aialik Bay, there is also the wildlife. Now I am extremely passionate about wildlife, and every opportunity I get, I will spend hours watching and learning the behaviours of all of these wonderful creatures that we encounter on our travels.
We saw these beautiful otters every day as they resided in the lake where we stayed.
Every morning we would wake up to their playful antics and 'Happy Sounds'. The sounds the otters would make when they were playing with each other was sometimes like a chirp, purr, squeal or a gurgling sound.
They were very curious little critters and when we were paddling they would come up beside our kayaks.
Nothing like hitching a ride with your mate.
This particular morning the otters put on quite a performance for us.
We encountered many bald eagles on our way over to Aialik Bay;
and also on our kayak adventures around the lakes or out to the glaciers.
I spotted this bald eagle in the mountainside bushes beside where we saw our first Black Bear.
I had so much fun with this little creature. We had just kayaked across the bay and after hiking up the mountain through some dense bush, knee deep mud, we started our climb back down towards another lake where we had a set of kayaks stored for us. Unfortunately, I do not know what this little critter is, but he/she was very social and followed us everywhere. I have just been advised that this is a MearKat.
Posed constantly for the camera.
And when we went to put our kayaks in the water, decided to come with us.
These trumpeter swans followed us as we paddled across the lake.
On our return to Seward, we came across this whale feeding. It was amazing to watch this whale vertically positioned with it's mouth wide open taking in water and many fish.
To watch a humpback whale bubble-net feed is a marvel of nature. The whale will dive under the water for a short period and you can hear their strange song reverberate through the hull of the boat. The sounds made by the whale is what drives their prey toward the surface. The bubbles rise to the surface and create a perfect ring, whilst inside the ring are panicked fish trying to escape. The whale will swim through the centre of their own bubble trap, with its mouth agape, swallowing hundred of pounds of fish. They break the surface while slamming their mouths shut, and then use their massive tongues to push water through their baleen, capturing the fish. We watched this one whale feed for about thirty minutes. Impressively, it would launch its entire body out of the water, again and again.
