A minute later (time stamp on the photo) the lunge was toward the herring ball nearer the bow and the smaller boat…
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Humpback Whales Feeding 2 of 5
The boat is the 17 meters (55.8 ft) Oliver Clark II from Halfmoon Bay BC. The boat was drifting with engines off and this seemed to encourage the feeding whales. The lunges started away from the boat and slowly started to get closer to the herring, which were hiding under the boat….
Humpback Whales Feeding 1 of 5
Contrary to the blog title this is not a photo of a humpback whale lunge feeding but it does show the reason for the lunges in the next four posting. The boiling water off the bow of this boat and beside the skiff is a massive herring ball. The ball or rather large school of herring surrounds the boat….
Grizzly Bear View
Watching grizzly bears from the viewing stands on the Glendale River is a little different that from a boat in the river estuary. This is especially true when the bear walks directly below the stand. This downward perspective truly shows the size and bulk of this grizzly. This is a “well fed” bear that is a long way to fatting for hibernation. The photo was taken on September 2nd and means the bear still has two months to add additional layers of fat.
Trapper Rick’s Boat Pool 3 of 3
Part of the reason for crossing the river was to join it’s sister on the far side. In the previous posting the sister was looking across the river at this scene and a freshly caught salmon is always an invitation. This process of grizzly bears moving up and crossing the river took about an hour but the guests did not feel that it was time wasted.
Trapper Rick’s Boat Pool 2 of 3
As the grizzly came closer Rick started to talk to the bear and it listened. He has been in the valley for twenty-five years and knows the bears and they know his voice. Rick has great respect for the grizzlies in his valley and they accept his presence. This grizzly turned and crossed the river….
Trapper Rick’s Boat Pool 1 of 3
The extra day in camp we cross Knight Inlet through Thompson Sound to the Kakweikan River and spend it with Trapper Rick. This river is located on the BC mainland and we travel by road to the river which we cross before a short walk to Rick’s cabin. We arrived at the “boat pool” to cross and were stopped by a grizzly bear. Rick is kneeling down on a three meter bank that over looks the river as a grizzly makes its way up river toward us….
Drifting with Killer Whales
The white dot on land above the guest’s head is Cracroft Point. The area between our boat and the point is a common feeding area for killer whales. A good morning whale watching is to come out a Cracroft Point and find a pod of orca because that means we can turn off our engine and drift while the orca feed. With engines off the orca often surface close to the boat which makes for an excellent photo opportunity.
Decorated Sea Lion
Steller sea lions are a common sight on our whale watching trips to the Johnstone Strait area. Not as common is a sea lion with a “flasher” hanging from its mouth. A flasher is an attracter used when fishing for salmon to give a lure action. In this case there must be an angry fisher who lost their lure to a sea lion. The sea lion likely took and swallowed the bait attached to the flasher and now has it hook caught inside. Hooks are designed to rust out in a few weeks and it was not long after this photo the flasher was spotted on the rocks without the sea lion attached.
Spring Grizzly Bears Graze
An important part of a grizzly bear’s diet is high protein sedge grass. This grass grows in coastal meadows that are flooded with salt water every high tide. Sedge grass stalks are spiky, wide and stiff but the sedge grass is up to 25% protein, and this is the reason why grizzly bears prefer eating it to other grasses. The spring a grizzly bears diets consist of approximately 70% of sedge grass to replenish their lack of proteins during hibernation. Diets shift with the seasons, as summer approaches the berries start to replace the sedge grass and fall brings the salmon into the Glendale River.
