While Capt Ronn was attending a mandatory class at Glacier Bay NP Headquarters, some of us took a short hike to Blackwater Pond. We were rewarded with a female moose feeding along the edge of the pond. This was an amazing chance because, we're told, moose are rarely seen in forested areas. The pond has a small island in the center of it and within the trees and brush we saw a newly born moose calf. He, or she, was safely curled up just where his mother had stashed him. Eventually, he stood on his wobbly legs and grazed a little before returning to his hideout.
With Capt Ronn's paperwork finished, we were free to roam within the park's boundaries. Our next photo op was at the Marble Islands on our way to Muir Inlet. We saw sea lions, cormorants, eagles, and puffins.
Still navigating toward Muir Inlet, we had another humpback whale sighting. This one was eating. Humpbacks are baleen feeders. With open mouth, they scoop up the sea water and quickly slam their mouths shut spewing out water through their baleen filters while keeping dinner, the krill, inside. The top of the humpback's mouth is flat and knobby while the bottom portion below the jaw is gusseted allowing the mouth to expand to gather huge amounts of water.
Inside Muir Inlet, we had a bear sighting. This wasn't just any bear but a grizzly bear with two cubs. The Delfinus crew brought the boat very near to the shoreline where the three bears were foraging for muscles and barnacles. The cubs, bored with looking for their own food, wrestled while mom worked.
The mother bear, dragged her enormous claws along the rocks to break open the shells of barnacles and muscles. The play fighting was too much for one of the cubs who briefly sacked out in the fucus (brown algae).
The boat anchored for the night in Muir Inlet.
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