After finishing a walk with a group from Premier Alaska Tours I had a few extra minutes before my ride was ready to head back to Seward. So I decided to do a little birding. At 1:30 pm on a relatively hot day there wasn’t a whole lot of commotion in the bird world near Exit Glacier. 10 minutes down the trail though I did notice the slightly different song of a Swainson’s Thrush. I am very accustomed to hearing the rising-then-falling flute-like call of the Hermit Thrush. This time however, there was a very persistent song that was equally flute like but it only ascends in pitch. I pin pointed the sound and saw the individual opening his beak wide to let the world know of his presence high in a cottonwood tree. Luckily I had a camera with a telephoto zoom lens. I was able to get a few shots of him singing away in the cottonwood shade. When I got back to the office a quick edit with an artistic filter resulted in this shot:
