Grizzly Bear and Wildlife Tour Blog

We offer an exceptional fly-in lodge for Grizzly Bear Watching and Whale Watching in British Columbia.

Learn about What’s happening at the Lodge, view our British Columbia’s Wildlife Report, read our Grizzly Bear Watching Blog and Whale Watching Blog. Learn more about a Day on the River Blog, see Our Tour Guide’s Photos & Blog and  Photos from Our Guests.

Whale Watching Safari – 1 of 5

lunge feeding
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flat lunge feed
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For additional photos use the “Categories” “Whale Watching” on the right. Also select “Google Map of Itinerary” under “Pages” to locate the whale watching area. The boat ride to the area of Johnstone Strait between Vancouver Island and mainland BC, where most of the whales watching take place is about 45 minutes long. If there is a low tide in the morning we normally see black bears on the beach and harbour seals on the small islands. There are four whale watching companies operating from Vancouver Island in our area.  We are in radio contact and this cooperation makes locating the whales much easier. If orca or humpback whales are in the area someone will find them and report their location.  The above photos were taken near Bold Head located in Blackfish Sound adjacent to Johnstone Strait. The first showing a humpback whales lunge feeding which in when a whale comes up beneath a ball of herring and tries to capture the whole herring ball in one mouth full. The second is another lunge with the white pole in the left of the photo being the antenna of our boat. This provides some perspective as to how close we sometimes are to the feeding whales.

Grizzly Bear watching on the Glendale River – 7 of 7

river lunch
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We are normally back to the float for a picnic lunch around 1:00 but that may vary depending on the tide. If the high tide is later in the morning then we have an earlier lunch and return to the skiff do we can go up the river. If the guest have had enough of the grizzly bears and lunch we start to head down Knight Inlet for the forty kilometer (25 mile) ride back to the lodge on Minstrel Island. The an hour and quarter boat trip may take two or more hours some times due to the afternoon winds and the desire for a comfortable ride but most often because of the side trips to enjoy the scenery of the inlet and to look for more black bears and dolphins. …..tomorrow starts a Whale watching safari.

Grizzly Bear watching on the Glendale River – 6 of 7

grizzly walking river bank
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Continuing up the river we saw several grizzly bears that I was not able to photograph but the guest got some great pictures. We came to one bend in the river and there were two sub-adult grizzly bears slowly coming down river. I pulled the skiff to one side of the river and they came down the opposite bank. This took about fifteen minutes as the bears were fishing for salmon as they worked their way past us. These pictures are not really clear as I was holding the boat while waste deep in the water and using one hand to focus but I can assure you that the guest got some great pictures and memories. The comment was that “I wouldn’t want to be any closer.”  I agreed.

 

 

 

 

Grizzly Bear watching on the Glendale River – 5 of 7

eagle on the river
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On this grizzly tour Angus had taken guests to the viewing stands and my guests were on their second grizzly tour so after dropping Angus and guests at the landing we took the skiff up the river.  Moving slowly up the Glendale River as the tide was low (the picture posted on Feb. 7 were from the afternoon or high tide) and at time I was in waders and moving the boat by hand, which has the advantage of being very quite. There were many dead salmon along the edge of the river and bald eagles were enjoying a free meal. We came close to this eagle and watched it for about ten minutes, which gave me time to get out my small Pentax (an optio, 6.0 megapixels with three times optical zoom) I mention the details of the camera to show how close we were ….more tomorrow

 

Grizzly Bear watching on the Glendale River – 4 of 7

salmon tail in grizzly mouth
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The other side of the viewing stands from yesterday’s posting shows a grizzly bear enjoying a meal. The time of the spawning season determines how much of the salmon the bears eat. When the salmon first arrive and the bears are the hungriest they eat the complete salmon and the same occurs at the end of the season when they want to get as fat as possible. In between these times grizzly bears are selective in their eating habits often catching only female salmon for their eggs. Also only eating the skin with its layer of fat, which is desirable, as is the brain. This bear is about 20 meters (60 ft.) from the viewing stands and has one interest and that is food.

Grizzly Bear watching on the Glendale River – 3 of 7

salmon in river
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The drive to the viewing stands from the finger of land where we leave the skiff takes fifteen minutes through the treed hillside along the river. The posting on January 1, 2014 shows a google map of the river and the location of the spawning channel with the viewing stands. The photo in this posting shows the number of the salmon in the natural river on one side of the stands on the other side of the stands at the entrance to the wier and spawing beds the salmon are even more abundant. The Department of Fisheries closes the entranc to the spawning channel once 80,000 pink salmon have entered the remaining (400,000 or more on a good year) salmon spawn in the natural river.

 

Grizzly Bear watching on the Glendale River – 2 of 7

knight inlet view
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knight inlet mountains
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When we go to shore to drive up the river we land on a finger of land that was an approach to a dock once used by a logging camp. The first photo is the view looking out of the Glendale River estuary and up Knight Inlet. The River is about half way up Knight Inlet which means the Inlet extends for another 72 kilometers (45 miles) to the head. The second photo is looking into the mouth of the River as you can see the stern of the skiff from yesterdays posting. This photo was taken at high tide as the tops pilings you can see may be 5 meters (15 ft.) out of the water at a low tide.

Grizzly Bear watching on the Glendale River – 1 of 7

river tour boat
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As mentioned in the February 5th posting the tour to the grizzly bears leaves the lodge at 7:30 or 8:00 and starts with an hour and quarter boat ride up Knight Inlet. During this ride your guide is constantly looking for bald eagles, black bears, pacific white-sided dolphins, orca and once you are closer to the Glendale River grizzly bears appear along the shore. In the spring and early summer the grizzly viewing is along the shore of the Glendale River estuary while after August 24th is from the viewing stands on the River. Upon arriving at the River mouth we tie to a large float and transfer to a skiff to go ashore for the ride up to the viewing stands or to use the skiff to view grizzlies along the shore or up the river. The skiff shown above is about 2.5 meters (8 ft.) wide and almost 6 meters (18 ft.) long and designed to have a very shallow draft to permit river travel at low tides.

For additional photos use the “Categories” “Grizzly Watching”  on the right.

Pacific White-sided dolphin Airborne

airborne dolphins
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The pacific white-sided dolphins are seen quite often on both the grizzly bear tours and the whale watching safari. These dolphins are present in First Nation’s middens dating back 2,000 years, but they were rare in B.C. during the 19th and 20th centuries. Starting in the 1980’s, Pacific white-sided dolphins started to become more abundant in inshore waters and inlets along the B.C. coast. It’s possible that their long absence was related to a change in ocean temperatures and a shift in their prey distribution. Dolphins travel in groups throughout their lives. We usually encountered groups of 50 to several 100 animals, although some groups have been seen with 1,000 or more individuals in our viewing area. As the photo demonstrates these dolphins are energetic and quite active and are frequently seen leaping, belly flopping, and somersaulting. They are strong, fast swimmers and enthusiastic bow riders, often staying with moving vessels for extended periods.

Grizzly missing salmon

grizzly snorkling
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Great photo of “the one that got away”. Grizzly bear watching from the viewing stands on Knight Inlet’s Glendale River takes place after August 24th. This photo was taken from the finger stand, which overlooks the holding pool where the salmon wait before going into the spawning channel. In this case the grizzly was about seven meters (21 feet) below the stand at the edge of the pool. The water at this point is about a meter and half (4-5 feet) deep and it is really hard to catch a salmon in deep water most of the fishing on this side of the stand is picking up dead or wounded salmon that have drifted into the pool.  The other side of the stand is the natural river, which offers better fish but not as easy catching. It appears that this bear was trying some river fishing techniques without much success.