Grizzly Watching

The common loon has a unique eerie call that echo across lakes and bays of the northern British Columbia coast. Once you have heard this call it will never be forgotten. In the summer adults are regally patterned in black and white. The Canadian one dollar coin is called a “loony” because of the engraving of a loon on the coin. Belted Kingfishers spend much of their time perched alone along the ocean shore searching for small fish. These ragged-crested birds are a powdery blue-gray; males have one blue band across the white breast, while females have a blue and a chestnut band. The kingfishers are common around the lodge but very hard to obtain a photo of one, as they tend to fly quickly along shorelines giving loud rattling calls. The “common” loon is less common when one wants a photo. Loons are in most of the small bays we pass through but last summer it took two guides five days for a guest to get a good photo of a loon which was an important part of his “bucket list” for his trip to the lodge.

This Common Merganser is an adult female it is a large, heavy-bodied diving duck with a long, slender orange-red bill and a chestnut brown head with white chin patch. The photo was taken in the mouth of the Glendale River were families of these ducks are common in the spring. The bald eagles are abundant along the coast and will often hunt ducks. It is interesting to watch the eagles in action. It takes two eagles to constantly dive at the ducks until they tire and spend too much time on the surface were they can be caught by the eagle. One of our guides and guests saw an eagle catch a blue heron that was not paying attention. The eagle caught the heron on floating kelp and managed to get it to shore about ten meters (yards) away. Bald eagles can lift up to half their body weight, around 1.8 to 2.3 kg (4 to 5 pounds). Although blue heron are a large bird a national geographic website says that the blue heron is 2.1 to 2.5 kg (4.6 to 7.3 lbs.) so it is possible to lift the heron a short distance.

Many of the lodges guests have an interest in birds and ore often better at identifying the great variety of water fowl than their guide. The next three posting will provide photos of some of those more easily photographed. The great blue heron as a common sight in the coastal water of British Columbia. There is normally a heron on the small breakwater in front of the lodge the morning as well as along the shores on all the tours. This photo was taken on the Glendale River while watching the grizzly bears. The cedar waxwing started to appear around the lodge several years ago as were are in their summer or breeding range.