Grizzly Bear and Wildlife Viewing Blog: Yearly Archives: 2015

Extra day in Camp

Trapper Rick's view

If you choose to spend the extra day at Grizzly Bear Lodge it is spent with Trapper Rick on the Kakweikan River. This is a remote river that that requires a guide, which means that access to the public is limited. The view from the front of Rick’s small A-frame cabin can be both relaxing and exciting. Relaxing as a place to have lunch and enjoy a conversation with Rick who is so passionate about his bears and exciting when you walk down to the river in the photo and see grizzly bears feeding.

 

Orcalab – What is it?

Resident male orca

A male and female orca / killer whlaes passing close to the boat in Blackfish Sound. Blackfish is the native name for orca. In the background one can see the building of OrcaLab. From their website at http://orcalab.org/:

“The work of OrcaLab is centred on the philosophy that it is possible to study the wild without interfering with lives or habitat. A network of hydrophones, positioned around the orcas’ “core habitat”, helps us monitor their movements all year round. Supplementing the acoustic data are visual sightings of orcas as they pass OrcaLab, and reports from land observation sites staffed by OrcaLab volunteers during the summer “season”, as well as reports from other researchers and whale watchers who share observations and information.”

If you go to OrcaLabs second website at “www.orca-live.net/” and click on “OrcaLive” then click on the map “The Hanson Island area” you have a view of the area where Grizzly Bear Lodge does their whale watching.

 

 

Good fishing for Grizzly Bears

Salmon eating grizzly

The summer of 2014 was a good summer for the grizzlies because of the early arrival of the salmon in the river. This brought more bears to the river in early August before we were viewing the grizzlies from the viewing platforms. Once we were in the platforms the bears that were fishing close had many salmon to choose from and tended to stay longer in the area. As this photo shows there were often salmon floating around the bears so they had their pick for lunch.

 

 

See you at the Lodge

I (one of the guides at the lodge) have signed off the blog for awhile, to go to work where the Internet reception makes it hard to upload pictures. I leave you with a few comments. The majority of the pictures used in the blog were taken with a Pentax Optio 6MP 3X Optical Zoom (a good, but small pocket digital) the pictures attributed to Glen came from a much better camera and of course the guest pictures are from a variety of cameras.

Nursing Grizzly Bear

Nursing Grizzly

Not hard to tell that this is a nursing mother. The same mother in the July 1st posting and she has three cubs. This grizzly and her cubs were frequently fishing next to the viewing stands. There are three viewing times on the Glendale River set by government agencies and we are one of two lodges that has permission to use this area. Our time is between ten and noon daily. The scheduled use of the stands brings a routine for the bears and that means that many of the big males leave these times for the mothers, cubs and sub-adult bears. We do see a few large males but even though this is great for the guests if a large male is fishing most other bears remain in the bush until it leaves. As a guide I prefer ten or twelve grizzlies to one large male.

 

 

View from the Lodge

Sunrse at the Lodge

 

Grizzly Bear Lodge is located on Minstrel Island not far from the mouth of Knight Inlet. There is no other permanent human residence on the island but we do share with blacktail deer, one or two black bears, on occasion a grizzly will visit for a day or two and once we saw a wolf. The sunrise from the front deck does happen every day but many days it is obscured by a cloud cover. Knight Inlet is one of the longest on the BC Coast at 125 kilometers (80 miles) in length and because of its size has a microclimate that often becomes overcast in the evening. The good news is that normally by eleven o’clock the sun appears. As nice as it is to have the sun it does make it harder for good pictures when you are getting the reflection off the water.

 

Humpback Whales Feeding

Humpbacks Lunging

The humpback whales that migrate between Hawaii and Alaska have started to find that there is an abundance of food (herring) in the waters at the mouth of Knight Inlet. Our lodge in located on Knight Inlet 32 Kilometer (20 miles) from this area and it has become the center for humpback viewing. Five or six years ago a good day with humpbacks was four or five while now an average day is a dozen. With more whales comes more competition for the food so now it is common to have several whales lunge feeding on the same school of herring and this makes your guide happy because you are happy.

 

 

Grizzlies waiting for?

Grizzlies in River

Mid-august and we are slowly moving up the river in a 5.5 meter (yard) skiff as the tide rises. We arrived from the Lodge after an hour and fifteen minute ride up scenic Knight Inlet where, on this day, we spent time watching a black bear and several bald eagles fishing. On arrival we tied to the floating dock and transferred to the skiff and cruised the shore before entering the river as the tide rose. As you can see from the photo these grizzlies are not interested in the action behind them they are focused on the salmon in the river.

 

 

Grizzly cub staying close

Grizzly and Cub

First year grizzly bear cubs tend to stay close to their mother in most situations but this time it became an issue. We are in the viewing platform on Knight Inlet’s Glendale River, which we use after August 24th to watch grizzlies. This side of the platform overlooks the entrance to the spawning channel where salmon gather and wait before entering the spawning area. It is also one of the best areas to pick up salmon that have been killed or injured by other grizzlies. Because of all of this cubs often get in the way when mother is trying to fish and are sent to shore sometimes by a growl and others with a slap. This one got the growl and waited on the bank for a salmon to be delivered.

 

 

Relaxing at Trapper Rick’s

Enjoying Trapper's falls

The extra day in camp is spend on a seldom visited (except by our guests) wild river with Trapper Rick. This involves an hour boat ride, traveling over old logging roads by truck, crossing the river by boat, hiking to Rick’s cabin, fishing in the river if interested, a picnic lunch, watching salmon in a fish ladder, enjoying amazing scenery, watching salmon leap the falls below the cabin, and on most days watching grizzlies catching salmon. Not to forget conversations with Rick who has lived with the grizzlies for more than twenty years on this river.