Driving to and from the viewing stands we drive slowly along side of the spawning channel for a short distance. This is a shaded area mentioned in Jan 5th post often contains allot of grizzly bears. The drive is slow enough to allow some good photos such as the one above.
This is the look of a determined grizzly bear. The photo taken from Grizzly Bear Lodge’s viewing stand in one of British Columbia’s best grizzly viewing areas. This river on Knight Inlet has a man made spawning channel, which attracts bears from a large area. The grizzly population will increase from a dozen bears in the spring to more than forty grizzly bears once the salmon have entered the river. This look is directed at another bear in the river, which is coming to close to a fishing spot. Fights that cause serious harm are rare as there is an abundance of salmon and the main goal is to fatten for the winter. Mating season is long gone so that tension is not present.
In the many years of blogging for Grizzly Bear Lodge this is the first time I have received a photo of a pine marten taken on the Glendale River. This old viewing stand is no longer in use as is demonstrated by the moss on the ladder. That is no longer in use by humans but seems to be an ideal location for the pine marten giving a good view of the river and surrounding area.
A pine marten is about half the size of a house cat, but with the shorter legs and long supple body typical of the weasel family. It has a pointed muzzle, prominent ears, and a thick, bushy tail. The basic body colour of most martens is a shade of brown, but there with a range from pale blonde through yellows, tans, reds, grays, and dark browns to nearly black. The legs and tail are darker than the rest of the body on most specimens, and most animals also have a distinctive yellow to orange “bib” patch on the throat and chest.
An incredible photo of a Humpback whale lunge feeding up through a ball of herring. As the photo shows these whales have throat groves that run from chin to navel. The grooves allow the throat to expand and take in large volumes of water and food into the mouth. As the mouth closes the whale presses down with its tongue forcing all water out through baleen plates. The photo shows that the baleen plates hang in row from each side of the upper jaw. Baleen is made of a similar protein to the human fingernail; they are very strong and flexible.
This is a rare site a grizzly with four cubs and you will need to look hard to find the fourth cub. Grizzly bears can give birth to up to four cubs, although litters of two and three are most common. The number of cubs that are born depends on how healthy and fat a mother is at the time she enters the den.
“Grizzly bears typically mate between May and early July. Although grizzlies have a gestation period of only 6-8 weeks, birth doesn’t actually occur until 6 months later in dead of winter. How is this possible? Upon conception a fertilized egg begins to divide until it gets about the size of a pinhead and is called a blastocyst. In some mammals like humans, the blastocyst implants into the uterine wall within a week of conception where it continues to grow until birth. Female bears however have evolved “delayed implantation” whereby the blastocyst does not implant into the uterine wall until late fall, just before a grizzly mother enters her den for the winter. Within a week of conception (during the spring) the blastocyst enters a state of dormancy. In late fall the blastocyst will implant into the grizzly mother’s uterus if she is fat and healthy enough to support cubs during the winter hibernation. If she is under severe stress, and under nourished, the blastocyst will simply be reabsorbed into her body. The number of cubs in her litter is also determined by how healthy and fat the mother is in the fall. A really fat and healthy mother may give birth to up to four cubs, whereas a marginally fat mother may only give birth to one or two cubs.” Delayed implantation in grizzly bears from GrizzlyBay.org
If you read the posting from Jan 1 about the location of the viewing stands when we leave the finger viewing stand we are required to back the SUV past the upper end of the spawning channel. We tend to do this quite slowly to enable some interesting pictures. This picture is of a first year grizzly bear cub sitting mid-channel waiting for a salmon actually waiting for it’s mother to bring it a salmon as first year cubs do not catch many salmon. This area would provide for many more great photos if it were not for the trees along the bank but these are necessary to provide shade so the water does not become too hot. If the water heats up it tends to hold less oxygen and salmon will suffocate. This happened this August as the temperature rose the water intake from Tom Blown Lake was not regulated correctly and there was insufficient fresh water into the spawning channel and hundreds of salmon died.
Did you ever feel that you were under the watchful eye of a grizzly bear? This bear was directly below the viewing stands as you can see the reflection of the stand’s posts and cross pieces in the water. The grizzlies tend to ignore our presence in the stands but every once in a while they do glance our way and that creates a special moment especially when captured in a photo.
Excellent picture of two orca (killer whales) on a day whale watching in Johnstone Strait adjacent to Vancouver Island. Any photo showing the white eye patch or the white under belly of an orca is great but to have one photo showing both on two different killer whales is excellent. This female and juvenile orca are members of the resident or fish eating orca that spend their summers in the area near Telegraph Cove. This whale watching area is fifty minute boat ride from the lodge and contains a variety of marine life from orca, humpback whales, harbour seals, Steller sealions, dolphins, porpoise as well as bald eagles and a variety of ducks and gulls.
Grizzly bears that fish in the holding pool next to Grizzly Bear Lodges viewing stands on British Columbia’s Glendale River normally take the salmon to bank to eat because of the deep water in the centre of the pool. If you look closely there is another salmon by its front paw and several more in the water. Grizzlies fishing further up the channel often wound salmon, which later die and drift into the holding pool making it in ideal fishing area for the bears, which want to conserve energy. Bears are able to reach into the water and pull up salmon with little effort while grizzlies on the other side of the stand actually work for their catch.
This photo of a great pose for a grizzly bear was taken from the viewing stand located on BC west coast (Knight Inlet’s Glendale River). The viewing stands are an hour and quarter boat ride from Grizzly Bear Lodge on Minstrel Island as well as a fifteen-minute truck ride once you have reached the mouth of the Glendale River. Once in the stands grizzly bears may appear on any side as you are at the end of a finger of land. The natural river is on two sides; the holding pool to the weir, which is the entrance to the spawning channel is the third and the road down the finger to the stands makes the forth side. In this case the bear is coming up the bank from the natural river and crossing the road to the holding pool.
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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