Feeding seagulls are important to guides on whale watching tours. The feeding gulls signal that there is a herring ball near the surface. The herring ball up as a defense to the diving ducks that feed on the herring. This ball rotates to the surface and attracts the gulls, which in turn attracts your guide to park the boat in the area and to wait for the humpback whales that feed on the herring… more tomorrow
The grizzlies in our grizzly bear viewing area tend to avoid eye contact as it is seen as a challenge. In this case the eye contact on the part of the bear is a challenge in that we were to close. We were in the skiff on the river and this grizzly appeared suddenly out of the bush onto the grassy estuary and started walking toward the boat. It took a few minutes for us to drift down the river past the bear as were unable to go up river because of the low tide. The bear paused as we went by and we made sure not to stare directly at the bear.
Every day on the whale watching safari trips that leave Grizzly Bear Lodge is different. On the day of this picture we were sitting several hundred meters (yards) off shore as a pod of orca were passing. The whale watching guidelines specify that you are to be two hundred meters from the shore if whales are in shore of your boat or one hundred meters in open water. The regulations are in force by an organization known as Strait Watch and on this day they were less than seventy-five meters behind our boat. One of the whales in the pod turned from the shore and surfaced beside our boat, swam around the boat and then under the boat and resurfaced on the other side. Strait Watch came over after the orca had moved on and were interested in our pictures, they thought that the orca was fishing under the boat and became curious as dolphins are by nature interested in their surroundings. The reason is not as important as the great pictures.
This is the case when a three-year-old grizzly bear cub is being told that it is time to be on your own and not to keep following mother. Cubs generally stay with their mother for two years, although they will stay for three or four if the sow does not become pregnant in the fall of their second year. Pregnancy triggers a reaction in the sow through which she drives the cubs off and hibernates on her own in preparation for giving birth to new cubs the following spring.
Some first year grizzly bear cubs that appear on the shore in May and June are not fond of getting in the water. When they need to follow their mother as she swims along the shore at times it is necessary to leave the cubs behind to force them into the water. This cub and mother were on a point when the tide came up behind them and the point became an island and the cub was not happy about getting wet to get back to the shore.
Great photo of a young bald eagle. Young because eagles start to get their whites heads in their third year and are normally fully white by the end of the fifth year. Regarding the yellow beak I found an interesting story on line from Senior Naturalist Dave Erler that is worth reading:
“Not long ago a Squam Lakes Natural Science Center trail visitor observed the immature and adult Bald Eagles housed at the Raptor Exhibit and asked me a great question. Why does the adult Bald Eagle have a yellow beak? I pondered for a moment before responding. I recollected from the ornithology course I took in college that the outer covering of a bird’s beak was composed of keratin, which is similar to keratin in mammal nails or claws, reptile scales, and bird feathers. I also explained that the yellow color in bird beaks, ceres (the fleshy portion at the base of a raptor’s beak), and feet are caused by pigments called carotenoids. After sharing this information, I explained that when I first came to work at the Science Center some three decades ago, most of the raptors in our collection had very dull color in their ceres and feet. This prompted me to contact a veterinarian I knew who worked with raptors. The vet explained to me that the carotenoids in bird beaks have a slightly different composition of proteins and glycine than is found in other animals. The yellow color is influenced by both diet and hormones. The vet suspected the dull color was the result of a vitamin deficiency, possibly vitamin E. On the vet’s recommendation we began to use a vitamin supplement formulated for hawks and falcons. After a few months, there was a marked improvement of the birds’ ceres and feet, indicated by a brighter yellow color.
After sharing all this information with this gentleman, I could tell by his glassed-over eyes that I had missed the intention of his question. So I asked him if his question was really, “What is the function of having a yellow beak?” He nodded yes. Realizing I had already bored him senseless, I simply stated it probably indicates to other eagles that the individual is fully mature and healthy, important factors if you are trying attract a mate and hold a territory. That answer was sufficient and he wandered off leaving me to wonder why I don’t have a yellow beak.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
Just like that another season has come to an end. We are grateful for all the wonderful staff and the guests this season. It was an excellent season and we are already looking forward to next May.
One of the highlights of the season was all of the new cubs out. It was awesome to see so many new cubs of the year and that is great news for our bear populations moving forward. We had great spring viewing and this continued through summer. On our river trips we started to see salmon arriving in August and enjoyed some great shoulder season viewing. The fish at the viewing platforms were a little late showing up this year, but viewing during late September at the platforms was great and the estuary viewing remained strong throughout the season.
Out in the whale watching world it was another year that saw large numbers of resident Orca who remained in the area right into October. The Humpback viewing was also great with large numbers feeding in Blackfish Sound. It is so amazing to have these magnificent animals back in our waters in such numbers.
Over the winter and spring we will be doing some repairs and maintenance. We rebuilt the front deck last spring, utilising cedar cut on site. We will continue with some siding, rooms improvements and hopefully a floating sauna ready for the start of our season.
2026 is already looking like a very busy season for us. We only have limited high season availability so please book early to ensure we have space for your group.
Looking forward to seeing you next year
Angus Reid
Visit our Blog