All posts by Lodge Guide

Black Bears on Tour

Black Bear Knight Inlet

 

 

BB cubsI recall these black bears because for most of the season it was hard to get photos of black bears.  All our guests had good photos of grizzly bears but photos of black bears were much harder to obtain. These three bears, mother and two cubs, were on a rock face on the shore of Knight Inlet on the return trip from watching grizzlies all morning. They were on the shore scraping muscles off the rocks and we followed them along the shore for the better part of half an hour as they moved in and out of the bush as they worked their way down the shore for better patches of muscles to eat. Paul and Sheila took the larger photo while the smaller one was from my camera to show there were three bears.

Grizzly Bears Cubs

Grizzly Bear Cubs

If the number of multiple births in a grizzly bear population is an indication of the health of it’s population then the bears of Knight Inlet are healthy. Twins are common, triplets frequent and even the occasional quadruplets can be seen the viewing area of Grizzly Bear Lodge. This photo from Paul and Sheila Williams from the UK was taken from the viewing stands on the Glendale River. The stands are used by the Lodge after August 24 and through to mid-October.

 

Sun Rise Over Knight Inlet

Sun Rise over Knight Inlet

Grizzly Bear Lodge is located on Minstrel Island approximately 25 kilometers from the mouth of Knight Inlet on the West Coast of British Columbia between the BC Coast and Vancouver Island. This is important because the location has its own microclimate, which involves a cloud cover, which moves in most evenings and burns off by noon the next day. This all makes the sunrise shown in this photo by Craig and Pat Brown from USA rather rare.

 

More Grizzly Bears make Interesting Pictures

Grizzlies play fighting

Play fighting between grizzly bears is a daily occurrence. The first and second year cubs are trying to assert their dominance and cubs will fight with their mother to improve their skills and strength. This behaviour makes for great photos and interesting viewing. The fighting will turn to feeding in seconds nut once the stomachs are full it becomes necessary for the cubs to burn off calories not realizing they should be saving them for hibernation.

 

Glendale River Grizzly

 

Grizzly Bear Fishing

The spring and early summer grizzly bear tours from Grizzly Bear Lodge take place on Knight Inlet’s Glendale River and in the river estuary. After an hour and fifteen minute boat ride up the inlet we transfer to a sixteen foot skiff which permits us to travel in the shallow water of the estuary and up the river at lower tides. As this photo shows the first sighting of a grizzly is normally from a distance and as the tide rises we are able to move closer. The next two posting of the pictures provided by Craig and Pat Brown from USA will show the improved viewing as the tide rises.

 

Humpback Whale Lunge Feeding

Humpback whale

The waters between Vancouver Island and mainland British Columbia are alive with herring, which are the staple in the food chain. Diving birds and ducks feed on the herring and forces them into “herring balls” which are a tight mass of swirling herring from the size a basketball to the size of a small boat.  The duck force them to the surface where the seagulls and eagle dive into to feed.  As a guide I try to locate these balls by watching the gulls, then position the boat near the gulls and wait for the humpbacks to come and feed. If all work as planned then we get a photo such as the one above with a humpback whale taking in a mouthful of herring.

Visiting Sealions

Stellar Sealions

Most days on your whale-watching safari we find steller sea lions.  Although most pass through this part of BC’s coast on the way to and from Alaska in the spring and fall some do stay all summer. If we eat our picnic lunch in the area around Vancouver Island’s Telegraph Cove the sea lions often come to check us out so their picture is added to the bucket list.

Running grizzly on the Glendale River- 3 of 3

Grizzly Bear Running

This grizzly took an interest in something at the waters edge and ran in that direction. I had to move the skiff to the opposite side of the river as it ran by the boat approximately ten meters of thirty feet way. This bear did not even look in our direction but ran into the water and started to swim back and forth along the shore of the bay. We still do not know what prompted this behaviour but the bear stayed there for about twenty minutes before moving further along the shore and we proceeded up river and saw several more grizzly bears.