Seward, Alaska
Taking advantage of a break from the sprinkly weather, a friend and I visited Kenai Fjords National Park and walked up the recently exposed canyon leading to the snout of Exit Glacier.
The raw landscape was devoid of any plants, not even tiny mosses or lichens. Merry Exit Creek tumbled noisily through a mostly gray bed of jumbled rocks, many with amazing patterns of white quartz veins, conglomerates shot through with fragments of black older rocks like chocolate chip cookies, sedimentary dark gray rocks with lighter gray banding, and occasional patterned orangish rocks.
On the opposite side of the canyon, a large deposit of dark gray sand slumped where the ice had delivered it then melted away, possibly part of a lateral moraine.
Exit Glacier seemed to grin, a large chunk of ice lying in front looked like a jagged tooth. Large cracks above the face promised future calving and continued retreat up the canyon. The dirt-laden ice above the face leading back to the Harding Icefield looked water-worn and smoothed with cracks and facets of turquoise blue.
Although shrinking both vertically and horizontally, the glacier is still impressive. Most stunning was the depth of ice that had melted in the past few years, revealing this canyon that we so had casually walked up.
Places where seracs loomed near the trail and where one could safely touch the ice existed now only in the interpretive signs on the trail far above.
While sitting on a convenient rock, we noticed many VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS swooping overhead, across the canyon, then down to the creek, and back up to the opposite wall. We wondered what they were eating and why they were so attracted to this rather desolate spot.
They also occasionally perched on the rock face. Scanning with my binocs, I realized that the fractured rocks provided nesting cavities! The swallows were zipping in and out, checking out the many possibilities. In a place with no suitable trees with holes, they had become cliff dwellers.
As for food, we found a few tiny black flies about 2mm long. Had they recently hatched from this cold, glacier-fed creek? I also saw a spiderweb float past in the breeze. Perhaps there were also spiders to eat on the rocks. Interesting to ponder.
Walking back out to the outwash plain, the noise of the creek gradually subsided. As we approached the alders, willows, and cottonwood pioneer forest, ORANGE-CROWNED, WILSON'S and YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS sang their beautiful melodies. VARIED and HERMIT THRUSHES joined the chorus from their respective perches.
A RAVEN croaked from the parking lot and school kids milled about on their field trip. What a different world, traversed in such a short time.
Happy Birding!
Carol Griswold
Seward Sporadic Bird Report Reporter
