Sitka

NaturesLens visits Sitka on small-group wildlife photography holidays in the United States, with time here planned around Bald Eagle, Brown Bear, Harbour Seal, Humpback Whale and Otter rather than general sightseeing. Current itineraries using Sitka include Breathtaking Bubble-Netting Whales, with photography shaped around hide, boat-based, flight, garden and close-up and landscape and behaviour photography sessions. Sitka lies on the western shore of Baranof Island, facing the open Pacific along Alaska’s rugged southeastern coastline. This is a landscape defined by the meeting of temperate rainforest & marine wilderness, where steep, spruce-cloaked mountains descend to a shoreline of rocky islets, sheltered channels, & kelp-fringed bays. The surrounding Tongass National Forest, the largest temperate rainforest in North America, provides a dense green backdrop to waters rich with nutrients drawn up from the Gulf of Alaska, creating one of the region’s most productive coastal ecosystems for wildlife encounters both on land & at sea. The waters around Sitka support a remarkable concentration of marine mammals, with humpback whales frequenting the nutrient-rich channels to feed, often visible breaching or lunge-feeding near the surface. Harbour seals & Steller sea lions haul out on rocky outcrops & skerries, while sea otters & their freshwater relatives, otters, forage among the kelp beds & tidal margins, the former often seen floating on their backs cracking shellfish against stones. Inland, the forest edges & river corridors are prime territory for brown bears, particularly during salmon runs when they gather to fish. Overhead, bald eagles are a near-constant presence, soaring along the shoreline or perched in old-growth conifers, taking advantage of the same abundant fish stocks that sustain the region’s rich marine food web.