Back in Alaska

I've left my boat in Mexico, and made it back up to Alaska.  I had a week in Bellingham along the way, but then flew up to Anchorage and took a car down to the Safari Explorer in Seward, and off we went!  We did an "Aleutian Islands" trip, so Seward to Kenai Fjords, then to Kodiak.  At Kodiak we found some nice foxes

I love the intensity of the eyes.

And nesting Arctic Terns

Then we headed over to Katmai, and found some bears.

  and then on to Kijulik Bay, where I saw this little Arctic Ground Squirrel...

And then on to the Shumigan Islands, to Unga Island, where I had a skiff tour with some Orcas, and the Pavlof Volcano in the background.

There's also this Palm tree kelp along the rocks there.

Later on in the evening, we were cruising along towards the Pavlof Volcano and found some Fin Whales.  

We dropped some skiffs and I did a fun little skiff tour with a few Fin Whales.  They are quite big.  They are second only to the Blue Whale in size.  This one might have been 80 ft long. 

Then we went to Volcano Bay, and it was very calm and we got more looks at the Pavlof Volcano.  I did a kayak and a little walk around in the intertidal area of a river mouth.

Another view of the reflection

Jeremy also did a beach walk

There was a small bird lurking around and I think it was a dunlin, and it was watching me, and then crouched down.

A little further on we came across the Shashaldin volcano, which is lightly erupting

Then we got to Akutan Island and I found a sea otter and pup in the kelp there.