We had a bit of drama yesterday morning in Leesoffskaia Bay! Well, WE didn’t, but this heron sure did. We heard a big racket outside and went to take a look. One eagle was going after a heron — big mid-air maneuvering and uncomfortable sounds from the heron — the eagle forced the heron to land in the water and then it landed in a nearby tree.
Another eagle soon came to join in the fun.
Together they continued to dive-bomb the heron, and eventually the heron flew out toward the bay’s entrance, about ΒΌ mile or so away.
One of the eagles followed it out, then continued harassing it. A handful of crows came to the heron’s defense and tried chasing the eagle away. (We’ve seen eagles attacking a heron before, and in that case, seagulls came to the defense of the heron and chased the eagles away. Interesting!)
Eventually, the heron came back toward our boats and landed on Melissa Lynn for a break, and the eagles seemed to lose interest at this point.
Salmon were still jumping like crazy in Leesoffskaia, so Kevin and Russ went out to see if they could catch a couple before we left. We were hopeful they were sockeye; that did not turn out to be the case. Chum. We pulled our anchors and headed over to meet Dan and Eileen on Fortunate in Redoubt Bay. The exit to our bay was almost completely cut off by gillnets, so we had a bit of a slalom as we made our way out. Thankfully the water was calm…much easier to spot the nets and floats.
What a beautiful day! 68 degrees and mostly sunny. Melissa Lynn dropped their anchor and we rafted to Fortunate, and after a while Dan came back with more beautiful sockeye!
We all got together on Airship for happy hour and had fresh sockeye for dinner.
Overnight the rain returned, and the morning brought fog and drizzle, which did not stop Dan from fishing a bit more before they headed back into Sitka to pick up friends.
It’s busy over by the falls here this morning already! Low tide means less water and more concentration of fish!
A young brown bear showed up just next to the island we’re anchored behind, and we watched it for a while as it chewed on something it found on shore. At first we thought it was a carcass, but when we zoomed in, it looked more like something man-made.
After gnawing on this box or whatever it was for a while, the bear started making its way along the shoreline, and ended up walking right behind Airship, giving the opportunity for some cool closeup photos.
We’ll hang out here for a bit and then head back around Povorotni Point and up near Cape Burunof to check out Three Entrance Bay. The best (most northerly) entrance has a depth of 6ft at zero tide, so we’ll wait for the water to come up a bit before cautiously making our way in.