If you check the white shoulder patch on the bear in this photo with the bears in yesterdays posting you will notice that these are the same bears. It was an interesting morning on the viewing platform with these two bears constantly play-fighting which sometime seemed to goes a little beyond the “play” part. But all is well that ends well…. more tomorrow.
The fall grizzly bear viewing starts after August 24th up the Glendale River. The viewing platform used by Grizzly Bear Lodge is located on a finger of land that has the natural river on one side and the holding pool or entrance to the spawning channel on the other side. This photo taken on the natural side of the river shows to sub-adult or juvenile bears have a disagreement…. more tomorrow.
Grizzly Bear Lodge opens in late May or early June depending on the bookings. The grizzlies do not depend on booking and start to appear along the shore of Knight Inlet by mid-May. On the grizzly bear watching day guest leave the lodge at 8:00 and have an hour and fifteen minute boat ride up the inlet to the Glendale River estuary. Any time in the last twenty minutes or so of the ride it is possible to see grizzlies on the shore and the first hour likely black bear. This photo of mother and triplets was taken in the river estuary and even at this early age one of the cubs is more adventuresome and off (if only a few meters) on its own.
On the whale watching tour from Grizzly Bear Lodge we are fortunate to view between eight and sixteen different humpback whales each trip. These whales spend their summer in our area feeding on the herring, which provides our guests with ample opportunities to watch them lunge feeding. In a lunge the humpbacks come up beneath a herring ball with mouths open as shown in James Kastelein’s photo. The baleen shown is a row of a large number of keratin plates attached to the upper jaw. These plates have a composition similar to those in human hair or fingernails. They are triangular in section with the largest, inward-facing side bearing fine hairs, which form a filtering mat. The humpback whale has about 330 pairs of dark gray baleen plates with coarse gray bristles hanging from the jaws. They are about 0.6 m (25 inches) long and 34 cm (13.5 inches) wide.
A Wikipedia quote “When spyhopping, the whale rises and holds position partially out of the water, often exposing its entire rostrum and head, and is visually akin to a human treading water. Spyhopping is controlled and slow, and can last for minutes at a time if the whale is sufficiently inquisitive about whatever (or whomever) it is viewing.
Generally, the whale does not appear to swim to maintain its “elevated” position while spyhopping, instead relying on exceptional buoyancy control and positioning with pectoral fins. Typically the whale’s eyes will be slightly above or below the surface of the water, enabling it to see whatever is nearby on the surface.
Spyhopping often occurs during a “mugging” situation, where the focus of a whale’s attention is on a boat rather than on other nearby whales. Spyhopping among orcas may be to view prey species. For this a spyhop may be more useful than a breach, because the view is held steady for a longer period of time.” And thanks to James and Wendy Kastelein for the great photo.
A mother brings her second year cubs to the edge of the river by the viewing stands while another grizzly bears stands in the background. They all have the same concern and that is a larger male grizzly further down river. Fortunately at this time the larger male did not proceed up river which gave the others a chance to come and feed on the many salmon. Most guests want to see the big male grizzlies and they are a magnificent sight but they tend to keep other bears out of the viewing area.
These photos provided by James and Wendy Kastelein of Australia were taken from the viewing stands on Knight Inlet’s Glendale River. In the fall, after August 24th our grizzly bear watching takes place from stands overlooking the entrance area to Department of Fisheries spawning channel. The channel was built to improve the run of Pink salmon or humpback salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha). The males develop a pronounced humped back, hence their nickname “humpies”. It is the number of salmon that return to spawn every year that attracts the grizzlies to the area and as the photos show not always to eat. Once the sub-adult siblings have caught and eaten enough fish for the morning it often becomes playtime which can be more interesting than watching them fish.
James and Wendy Kastelein of Australia provide the photo taken on the evening black bear tour. The first evening in Grizzly Bear Lodge on Minstrel Island involves an evening boat ride to look for wildlife. Top on the list is a black bear. On this evening the Kasteleins obtained several good photos as this bear stayed on the beach ignoring us for food. Although there is not much boat traffic in the area the bears accept boats as part of their environment and as long as the boaters are not aggressive the bears are good for repeated viewing.
The bears of yesterday’s post may be siblings but the sharing of their catch is not an option. Even as cubs with their mother for the first two summers they did not share their mothers catch except with their mother and then under protest. A cub or sub-adult bear does not gain enough weight (fat) to survive the winter if it worries about another’s health.
The fall grizzly bear watching season in Knight Inlet starts on August 24th and at this time guests are permitted into the viewing stands on the Glendale River. The stands overlook the entrance the man-made spawning channel that contains over eighty thousand salmon as well as the natural river, which may contain several hundred thousand pink salmon over the season. This photo by Alfred Bittner shows two juvenile grizzlies, likely siblings, fishing side by side in the small rapids below the stands…more tomorrow.
Bald Eagles are frequently sighted in our area. At times they can be seen in large numbers. This is usually where food supplies are high. For example this could be in areas with high concentrations of baitfish or along the rivers in the fall when the salmon are spawning. They are not migratory, but do move around with the food supply. As mentioned earlier when the salmon are spawning we often see many along the rivers, while there will be fewer along the coastline. With little need for camouflage their white head and tail feathers can be spotted easily. The female is slightly larger and her white head extends down a bit farther onto the body, but it is subtle. It takes these birds 4.5 – 5 years to acquire this unique plumage. As juveniles they are a brown colour. With exceptional eyesight and the ability to view 270 degrees they are understandably often seen in high perches and in trees near points and passageways.
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