Grizzly Bear and Wildlife Viewing Blog: Monthly Archives: December 2015

Also Whale Watching 1 of 3

Humpback whales

A little more interesting than deer on the beach is a humpback whale lunge feeding on a herring ball. This is why your guide is always looking for herring balls. (See September 25th posting) At first I thought that this photo taken by Glen (a fellow guide) was a little out of focus until I realized that was water running off the whales back. Better tomorrow…

 

 

 

While Whale Watching 2 of 2

Deer eat seaweed

More interesting than a deer in mid-jump is the fact that it was eating seaweed. Using Google I found an article that seems to explain “Deer will eat seaweed if forced to the beach by snow, but it isn’t very nutritious or digestible and, under this circumstance, probably indicates they are in danger of starvation.”. This fits with the fact that these deer were on a small rocky tree covered island. The trees were evergreen and therefore not eatable, grass was replaced by lichen, which I saw the deer eating, and on all the deer on could see their ribs. Only part not making any sense was that the small island was separated from a large island with fields of grass by a narrow (40 meters/ yards) channel that deer swam to get to the island why didn’t they leave?

 

 

 

While Whale Watching 1 of 2

Blacktail deerBlacktail deer

We not only see grizzly and black bears along the shore but also blacktail deer. Although more common in the Glendale River estuary where we go to view grizzly bears they are also on some of the small islands on the whales watching safari. On this day we observed several deer on the shore near the seal lion haulout. These pictures were interesting because I caught the deer in mid-flight as it jumped down the rock face. Tomorrow…

 

 

 

Returning from a Grizzly Bear Tour 4 of 4

Black Bear on tour

Another ten minutes along the shore we found a black bear that we watched eat barnacles it had scraped off the rocks. It then sat and watched us until we moved on to the lodge.  If you look at the lower part of the photo you will notice the bare spot missing barnacles.

 

 

 

Returning from a Grizzly Bear Tour 3 of 4

grizzly on shore very close

I know the grizzly bears are omnivores but I had never seen one grazing on seaweed. As the photo shows this bear is in good shape for the time of year so this is either a source of salt and iodine for a health reason or this bear has found a food niche that works for him.

 

 

 

Returning from a Grizzly Bear Tour 1 of 4

Grizzly Bear on Shore

Running back to the lodge after a successful grizzly viewing trip we are constantly of the lookout for black bear. The key word is “black” and on this day it was an alert guest that spotted the “brown” spot on the beach that “lifted it’s head” as we moved past.

 

 

Lunch on the float

dock lunch

As mentioned in yesterday’s post it is lunchtime. Madeline (our cook) prepares a wicked picnic lunch that guests enjoy and never able to finish.  The other boats at the dock belong to Tiderip Tours who are doing an estuary tour. After lunch if time permits we may take a tour up the river or return down the inlet looking for more bears and other marine life. See the next four posts…

 

 

 

Returning from the grizzly viewing stands

loading for lunch

We use the viewing stands on Knight Inlet’s Glendale River after August 24th. After an hour and twenty minute ride up the inlet we tie to a float, take a skiff to shore, ride in a van, climb into the viewing stands and watch grizzly bears for two hours. The above photo is part of the return process of getting back into the skiff to return to the float for lunch. The skiff comfortably holds five or six people and even has a ramp to keep your feet dry.

 

 

 

Commercial Salmon Fishing 2 of 2

Commercial fishing

A test set often takes about and hour and a half and if time permits we will go closer to the boat for the last ten minutes to get a feel for the work that the fishermen do and see the results of their efforts. On this day they are looking for salmon in the net and do not see any. They pulled the nets out of the water without releasing salmon. On other days while on whales watching trips we may pull along a boom of logs or float houses being towed and often see cruise ships, large self dumping log carriers and barges taking freight to Alaska. Always something different on the Inside Passage.