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.

Black Bear Island Hopping

black bear crossing

When you come to Grizzly Bear Lodge all tours that leave the lodge are by boat because we are on an island which is one of several hundred in the area at the mouth of Knight Inlet. If you click on “Google Map Of Itinerary” at the top of this page, then click on the green square in the lower left corner and this becomes a Google Earth Map. It is then possible to zoom in to view the number of varying sized islands. The point of all this is to show that if a bear wants to move around in the area at some time it must swim. This bear is not a particularly fat bear or you would see more of it’s back out of the water but they are interesting to follow as long as you stay back to one side so as not to prevent them from going ashore. However at times we have blocked them from shore when that shore happens to be our island.

 

 

Grizzly Cooling Off?

mating grizzlies

Spring grizzly bear tours from the Lodge are looking for bears along the shore of Knight Inlet but mostly in bay and estuary of the Glendale River. The grizzlies come to the shore for the protein rich sedge grass and to turn over rocks for the crabs, clams, barnacles, amphipods and other tiny invertebrates. The male grizzlies come in late May and June, as this is the mating season and also the reason that this female is in the water. A male grizzly kept moving along the shore as this female stayed in the water for close to an hour until he moved back up the beach. The August 1st posting shows this determined male.

 

Visiting Killer Whales / Orca

Visiting killer whale

Some orcas do not believe in the 100 meter (yard) distance set out in the Whale Watching Guidelines. But this was a good day because the warden that oversees these guidelines was near us and watched the orca approach and circle our boat. Talking with her after it moved back to it’s passing pod she thought that we must have been sitting over a school of salmon and it came to fish. The reason is interesting but the experience is what the guests will remember. The days whale watching tour from Grizzly Bear Lodge spends most of its time in the Johnstone Strait adjacent to Vancouver Island where we normally observe orca, humpback whales, porpoise, dolphins, harbour seals, Steller sea lions, bald eagles, a variety of sea birds and frequently black bears.

 

 

Grizzly Bear Lodge Sunrise

Grizzly Bear Lodge Sunrise

Cannot guarantee a beautiful sunrise every morning but most mornings are overcast due to the moderating effect of Knight Inlet. Knight Inlet is the largest of the major inlets in the southern part of British Columbia’s West Coast. It is 111 km (69 miles) in length and about 2.9 km (1.8 miles) wide on average. This area of the BC coast tends to become overcast in the evening and clears before noon but it is rare to see the stars at night or a morning sunrise. For picture taking the overcast is better than a bright sun when you are in a boat with the reflection of the water.

 

 

Close up Grizzly

Grizzly Bear Head

A close up photograph on a grizzly bear is interesting but it does not show the true majesty of the bear. If you need a comparison check the photos in “Grizzlies June July August” and “Grizzlies September October” at the top of the page.

 

 

Black Bears on the Beach

Black Bear

Finding black bears on the beach is a cooperative effort that includes the guests and guide. If you notice the top half of the beach is in a dark shadow and that makes bears hard to spot when you are running the boat and scanning the beach. All the eyes in the boat need to be on the search for black bears to be successful. It may be the guides “job” but we will gladly take all help and are willing to stop to check even if it is occasionally a rock or log because most of the time it is a bear.

 

 

Grizzly Spotting

Click to enlarge then click again
Click to enlarge then click again

This is the case where the grizzly is doing the spotting. We were in a skiff in the Glendale River estuary on a morning grizzly bear tour from the lodge. The tide was starting to rise so we were just starting to move up the river when this large male grizzly walked out of the sedge grass toward our boat. As the photo shows its head was up and it was on a mission we were just hopping we were not the mission. It passed or skiff about 30 meters (yards) away and paid us little interest it was then we realized it must be smelling the small yacht in the bay cooking bacon for breakfast. The wind must have shifted because it soon returned to eating the sedge grass and rolling rocks.

 

 

Branded Steller Sea Lion

Steller sealion brand

This Steller sea lion was branded at Forrester Island in Southeast Alaska that is the “F” in the brand. Branding occurs at several places along the west coast of North America as part of project to discover the reasons behind the mysterious disappearance of sea lions and what it could mean for the ocean ecosystem. Since 1980, the world population of Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus) has dropped from around 300,000 animals to fewer than 100,000, and it is still declining. Possible causes include increased incidence of parasites and disease, predation by killer whales, nutritional stress through competition with man or other species for food, or nutritional stress caused by natural and/ or human-induced changes in the abundance, quality and distribution of prey. Other factors that may be contributing to the population decline include meteorological changes (i.e., frequency of storms), pollution and toxic substances, entanglement in marine debris, and incidental and intentional take by man. Whether the decline is caused by a single factor or a combination of all of the above is a matter of scientific debate.

 

 

Grizzly bear zoo

Grizzly wants in

One of the viewing platforms we use in the fall has a ramp that is covered with a metal cage. For some reason the juvenile grizzlies use this as a back rub and are curious that we are in the cage and they are free. This is like being in at “zoo” except we are the ones in a cage.