Guests being ignored
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.
Surf scoters departing
Large flocks of surf scoters while wildlife viewing are common in Knight Inlet as well as the area of Johnstone Strait where we spend our day’s whale watching. The abundance of food for these ducks in the form of herring is shown in the difficulty that they have leaving the water. They appear to be running on the water while trying to build up enough speed to become air born but it is common to see the ducks abort a take off and go for the dive to get out of the way of approaching boats. Maybe this is why airlines are so careful when calculating their payload, as they would find an abort with a dive rather uncomfortable.
Humpback whale dive
Is a good lens to get a close up picture of a humpback whale about to dive? The tell tail sign of a humpback whale about to dive and provide a opportunity for a picture of its tail is the thrust of its back higher out of the water as it noses down for a deep dive. A long telephoto lens is not a necessity as we normally have lunch with the whales. On our whale-watching safari, after a short bathroom break in Telegraph Cove on Vancouver Island, we head toward Bold Head an area frequented by humpback whales. Once there we cut the motors and drift while we have a picnic lunch. At this time it is not uncommon to have the whales come close enough to eliminate the need for long lenses in fact I have had guests comment that they could not get the whole whale in the photo. An excellent whale shot captures by UK’s Lynn Morris.
Great Bear Rainforest heron
A misty morning in the Glendale River estuary and Lynn Morris captures a great blue heron the safest way. Our wilderness tours leave the lodge by eight in the morning for the hour and quarter run along the shores of Knight Inlet with a constant lookout for wildlife. Wildlife seen like the ever present bald eagles, frequently black bears, often pacific white-sided dolphins and on the rare occasion killer whales. Most days the run up the inlet is fog free and the few days there is fog it clears part way up the inlet. This appears to be a day with a low mist coming down the inlet and adding to the mystery and excitement in a grizzly tour. Heron are normally seen wading shores, in the river, walking on kelp beds or the lodges log breakwater looking for food on pilings less common. Even thought they do nest in trees I still find it hard to accept when I see this long legged bird sitting in a fir tree along the shore.
Pink salmon in the Glendale River
The reason the grizzly bears travel over a hundred miles through the Great Bear Rainforest of BC to the area of the Glendale River is the number of pink or humpy salmon that return each year to the man-made spawning channel. This photo by Lynn Morris shows the abundance of the salmon during the peak of the run. The travel distance was documented about ten years ago when ten bears were fitted with radio (GPS) collars to determine their den area to see if proposed logging would do any harm.
Grizzly bear eating salmon
This grizzly bear is not being selective eating this pink salmon. Looks like the “whole” fish is to be devoured not just the eggs or the other high fat body parts. The closer it is to the end of the salmon run and therefore hibernation the more likely it is that all the salmon is eaten. It comes down to numbers; the number of days left to put on sufficient number of pounds to survive the winter. Fat brown bears are more selective and this bear’s belly is a little to far from the water meaning that it does need to add some bulk.
Steller sea lion visit
Steller sea lions spend time on the small rocky islands near Telegraph Cove on Vancouver Island. The sea lion travel from California to Alaska and back each summer. In May and September these islands provide a resting point in their journey, at times there may be as many as two hundred sea lions in the area. In the past few years close to a dozen of the Steller sea lions have begun to spend their summers in the area and not travel north. The “resident” sea lions have become a nice bonus to our whale-watching safari as Lynn Morris’s photo show how they appear to be posing for the camera.
Grizzly Bears sharing
This photo by Lynn Morris shows two grizzly bears, each eating salmon, and not being concerned with the closeness of the other bear. The abundance of pink salmon means that there are few disputes over fishing rights and those are settled without bloodshed. It is estimated that there are close to fifty grizzly bears in the Glendale River valley during the peak of the pink salmon run in September. The number of salmon means that all are able to obtain enough food without risking injury by fighting. A dispute normally means that one bear will just move up of down river to another fishing area and still be able to catch enough salmon to satisfy it’s hunger.
Humpback whale fluke
Lynn Morris from the UK provides these photos showing a humpback whale diving and showing the underside of it’s tail. The unique pattern on the tail is used to identify individual whales the same as the dorsal fin and saddle patch is used to identify the orca. The lodge’s whale watching safari area of Bold Head in Blackfish Sound normally contains eight or ten humpback whales, which feed on the herring in the area. The same herring attract the salmon, which in turn are the main attraction for the orca. It is not uncommon to be watching orca and whales at the same time, remembering these are the resident or salmon eating orca.
It is a keeper
