Grizzly Bear and Wildlife Viewing Blog: Yearly Archives: 2014

Humpback Whale Visiting

humpback whale visiting
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The first thing to note is the white boat antenna in the left corner of the photo.  A telephoto lens was not required to get this close up. More than a dozen different humpback whales are found in our whale watching area on a daily basis. The whale safari travel about an hour from the lodge to an area close to British Columbia’s Vancouver Island and area rich in herring the many food of humpbacks. Our picnic lunches are most often eaten in the boast while we drift among feeding whales. It is sort of like the movie “Field of Dreams” but in this case if one waits quietly (boat motor off) the whales come to visit.

 

Grizzly coming for a look

grizzly from the front
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A beautiful mid-September day at the viewing stands made more beautiful by the sight of a large grizzly bear walking the causeway. After August 24th most grizzly bear watching from the lodge takes place on the Glendale River. This river is an hour and quarter boat ride and a fifteen-minute van ride from the lodge on Minstrel Island. There are two viewing platforms on a finger of land (causeway) that separate the natural river from the in-take to the man made spawning channel. The last kilometer (mile) to the viewing stands passes along the edge of the spawning channel and is a common walkway for the grizzlies. Why walk through the thick bush when it is easier to walk a road. This also applies between the viewing stands why walk in the water and disturb the salmon and other bears when the road is dry and bears are not protesting their fishing rights.

 

Knight Inlet Slide 2013

Knight Inlet Slide 2013
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Knight Inlet Slide 2013 2
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These two photos show the massive amount of driftwood in the water last summer after the slides up Knight Inlet. One night after a three-month rainless period there were heavy rains and over a dozen slides that stripped mountainsides down to bare rock. The result is that it suddenly took up to two hours to make an hour and fifteen-minute trip to view grizzly bears. There was never any danger of large waves because of the slide as Knight Inlet is close to 145 km (90 miles) long and in places over a mile wide and even the shore opposite the slides looked normal in the morning. The drift covered the beaches for months and can be seen in yesterday’s posting.

 

August Black Bear Cub

black bear and cub
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Guests normally arrive at Grizzly Bear Lodge on Minstrel Island between three and four o’clock. Once the luggage is moved to rooms, introduction to the lodge on the front deck, welcoming snacks of prawns or dungeness crabs it might be time or the first day’s black bear trip. “Might be” because it requires a reasonably low tide so there is a beach for the bears and at times that may be after dinner. This trip was successful finding a mother and cub on the shore looking for dinner. Important to note that this photo was taken with my small pentax with only a ten times optic zoom.  I assure you the guest photos were much better.

 

Early Spring Grizzly Cub

spring grizzly cub
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Our first grizzly bear tours in late May and early June grizzlies are often viewed along the shore before we arrive at Glendale River estuary the normal viewing area. The cubs that are born in the den in January or February are too young to be taken to the estuary where there may be mature male grizzlies. These small bays are referred to as nurseries and it gives the cubs time to grow on mother’s milk, which is more than 30% fat. They also become accustomed to the presence of boats and learn to ignore us from their mothers.

 

Guide Photos

grizzly shaking water head
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The advantages of being a guide for Grizzly Bear Lodge are many; good food, guest on holidays enjoying themselves, the common interest in wildlife, great conversations around the dinner table and the list goes on… But the one shown by this photo is that if you take enough pictures during the season you will capture some unique images.

 

Guide Photos

eagle resting
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Bald eagles can be viewed from the front deck of the lodge on Minstrel Island as they fly from the nest behind the lodge to their fishing areas. On all the day trips for the whale watching safari, grizzly bear tours and wild river trips eagles are plentiful. The hardest part for a good bald eagle picture is to have the eagle so it is not “sky lined”. They need a dark background to set off their white head as shown in this photo. Also to note is the spread wings as it enjoys the sun while drying after the summer’s morning fog.

 

Guide Photos

grizzly tasting salmon
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In the May 27th posting I mentioned that grizzly bears would fish beside the stand. The deck of the viewing platform is just over three meters (ten feet) above the ground and this bear was down the bank about two meters (six feet) and out from the bank about four meters (12 feet). I did the math allowing for the fact that the stand is not at the edge of the bank and the bear is approximately eight meters (25 feet) from the where the guest stand to watch the bears. To tell the truth none of the guests take time to comment on the closeness of the bears when their photos allow them to count the number of claws and their size.

 

Guide Photos

flying dolphin
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Pacific white sided dolphins are frequently seen in the area of the lodge; whether on a grizzly bear tour, whale watching safari or the extra day trip to Trapper Rick’s wilderness river. The pods range in size from several hundred to over one thousand individuals. They are playful and like to ride the bow wave of our boats and will cross beneath the bow as if they are trying to see how close they can come without being fit. The prop wash is also popular and they will come within two meters (six feet) of the back of the boat. The unusual aspect of this picture is that there is only one dolphin.

 

Guide Photos

grizzly sleeping
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A picture from the grizzly bear viewing stands used by Grizzly Bear Lodge. These stands are located on the Glendale River that empties into Knight Inlet BC about 40 km (26miles) from our lodge. Is this bear dead? No just taking advantage of the cool sand in the shade along the river. Shows how concerned and fearful the grizzlies are of the activity in and around the viewing platform.  The bears have walked beneath the stands, will fish for salmon in the pool beside the viewing platform and even take a nap in the close by shade.