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.

Grizzly yawning

Tired grizzly
Click photo the click again to enlarge

This grizzly bear on the Glendale River has it’s mouth stretched wide open in mid- morning yawn. Yawning can be a sign of stress for a bear, or it can be, simply, yawning. In this case a yawn is a yawn as this bear had been resting on the side of the road near the viewing stands we occupied when it got up, yawned, and moved to the river to resume fishing for pink salmon.

Why you want a guided tour

Non Guided

Too close

This was a late August trip to the Glendale River on Knight Inlet.  The tide was rising so we were up the river in the lodge’s eighteen-foot flat-bottomed skiff.  Using the skiff permits us to travel up the shallow river and gain closer access to the grizzly bears feeding on the sedge grass in the delta or estuary. On this day a “tourist boat” was anchored is the river mouth and they were up rive in their zodiack and much too close to the grizzly wanting to cross the river. We tried to get the zodiack to move back without much luck.  Fortunately the bears in the area accept the small boats as a fact of life and tend to ignore them but I prefer to give them a little more room.  The etiquette of grizzly bear watching is not to get so close that you prevent them from going where they want and behaving in a natural manner.

 

 

 

 

Bald eagle

Bald Eagle

An almost white headed bald eagle. The Hancock Wildlife Foundation site states “Bald Eagles are not bald at all, but have a white head. Hundreds of years ago the English word for WHITE was BALDE and the word piebalde meant mottled with white, so the eagles with white heads were called Balde Eagles.” I use this quote to mention the Hancock Wildlife Foundation so if you are interested in bald eagles Google their name to arrive at their site where they have live webcams of an eagle’s nests.

Grizzly cub like mother

Grizzly cub turning rocks

Grizzly bears in the spring and early summer spend much of their time on the beach in search of food.  Turning over rocks in the inter-tidal zone provides “food” high in protein. Food made up of crab, clams, muscles, barnacles, amphipods and other tiny invertebrates. In this photo mother is eating the muscles growing on the log and possibly some of the seaweed while the cub is trying very hard to turn over a good sized rock.  This is a July photo and the mother is still growing new fur that was rubbed off during hibernation.

Orca dive Set 1 of 2

orca divingorca tailorca tailOne of my favourite sequence or photos provided by Rob White from Australia.  I told him I had to have a set of the photos and was so happy when he obliged with an email. The sequence shows an orca aka “killer whale” passing close to the boat and a guest with a good eye and a fast finger.  I have never seen another set of photos like this and I have had many guests over the past twelve years.

 

 

Killer Whale?

Underwater orcaSitting and waiting is often one of the best strategy during a whale-watching safari. Orcas like their cousin dolphins are curious and will often approach a boat if it is stationary and quite.  This orca is on its side looking at the boat as it passes by if it weren’t its dorsal fin would be visible above the surface. Not an every day occurrence but often enough to get good pictures.

 

Unhappy grizzly cub

Grizzly cubThis photo taken in late September shows a seven month old grizzly cub waiting for mother to provide lunch. It would be lunch as our time on the viewing stand on the Glendale River is between ten and noon.  Mother cannot be to far away because at this age the cubs do not leave their mother side for very long. Mother will be close by fishing for the pink salmon that have come into the river to spawn. There are several rocks in this part of the river that are favourite perches for the hungry cubs.

 

Blackfish in green water

Orca and glacial waterBlackfish, aka Orca, or more commonly, killer whale – a creature that inspires awe in BC boaters. “Blackfish” is what the coastal Kwakwaka’wakw band (First Nation’s peoples) the original inhabitants of the Northern Vancouver Island area in British Columbia called the orca.  In fact one area most frequented by the orca is known as Blackfish Sound.  However, this photo was taken in Knight Inlet as indicated by the colour of the water. Knight Inlet is fed by fresh glacial water and this “floats” on the salt water.  The rock flour, or glacial flour, consists of fine-grained, silt-sized particles of rock, generated by mechanical grinding of bedrock by glacial erosion. Those rock particles or glacial milk refract the green spectrum of the sun’s light so it appears green.

 

Black Bear Cubs

Black bear family
Click to enlarge then click again

A common saying at the lodge is “black bears are where you find them” meaning that on all tours whether for grizzlies, whales, or the extra day at the river we are always looking for and finding black bears.  In this case it was a June trip up Knight Inlet for a morning run to the grizzly bears that Glen took this photo of a black bear and her triplets. Twin cubs are common triplets less so but not rare. These cubs are likely three to for months old being born in their den February. Many of the black bears is the area have come to accept boat traffic and do not necessarily run for the nearest tree as this mother indicates by her stroll along the rocky shore.