Guide Photos

Awesome sights on a daily basis!

Each day our guides see something new, it never gets old for these guys. Check out some of their photos from guiding bear and whale watching excursions.

Humpback whale diving

Humpback coming HB under Boat

I am sure that this is not an over active imagination.  The first photo shows a humpback whale starting a dive not far from our boat.  The closeness to the kelp bed and the number of years fishing in the area I know that the water is no over 60 feet (20 meters) deep so the whale cannot dive that deep. In the second photo just to the left of the bow light one can see several small patches of white on the humpbacks pectoral fin as it passes beneath the bow. If you strain hard enough one can see an outline of the whale; we saw it in real time I just hope the camera has captured the image.

 

 

 

Orca breaching

orca

Books on whales and dolphins are full of pictures of breaching mammals. It is hard to imagine the number of hours it took and pictures, which were taken prior to digital camera to get one good photo. Spending three to four months each summer working for Grizzly Bear Lodge with many of those whale watching I know that a breach is not that common.  The breaches that occur do not come with a five minute warning in fact most good photos are a result of “right place right time” with allot of luck added.

Grizzly bears grazing

Grizzly Bears Grazing

As the tide comes in and access to the protein from turning over rocks is gone this grizzly bear and cubs turn to sedge grass. The grass along the shore of the river estuary is more than a meter (3 feet) high so these cubs are in their second year; first year cubs would be lost in the grass. The sedge grass is 25% protein much richer that other grasses and the best plant proteins available as berries are not yet ripe.  Most of a grizzly’s springtime is spent in search of food as fall and the salmon approach this changes.

Black bear ready for hibernation

Fat Black Bear

Not the sharpest picture but it was taken in mid September to show a black bear with enough fat to hibernate. This bear is big enough to challenge a sub-adult grizzly.  Several years ago there was a large black bear that did just that for the first part of the viewing season in the Glendale River estuary, the main area for observing grizzly. The first part of the season is mostly mothers with new and one year old cubs and some three and four year old grizzlies.  The black bear mentioned managed to claim its part of the beach until one of the breeding male grizzly appeared and that was the last we saw of the black bear. It is interesting to note that the bear in this picture does not have access to the salmon rivers because of the grizzlies so its bulk is from grass, beach protein and berries.  Once the berries appear in June they last through the fall.  There are a variety of berries including; huckleberry, salmonberry, blackberry, salal berry, thimbleberry, and elderberry all within a short walk from the lodge.

Killer whales (orca) passing astern

orca por passing
Click to enlarge then click again

The overcast day may not seem too appealing unless you think about taking pictures from a boat.  On bright days it is necessary to have the sun at your back or the reflection off the water will make picture taking difficult if not impossible. Marine mammals often change their direction of travel without notice and do not always cooperate in getting the boat in the right position. On a dull day their cooperation is not necessary. Again the motor in the picture is to provide an indication of the nearness of the orca pod.

 

Lunch visitor – Harbour seal

Harbour Seal

Not quite as dramatic or exciting as the previous post and the humpback whale visiting but still unique.  Another day and a picnic with a visit from a harbour seal. This is the only time I have had a seal intentionally come this close.  Harbour seals by nature are very timid and shy away from boats. However this one appears small and therefore young and may have not learned to fear boats. The advantage of sitting quietly and having lunch in an area with allot of marine wildlife.

Lunch visitor – Humpback

Humpback whale closethumpback in kelp

Click either photo to enlarge then click again

Picnic lunches on the whale watching tour can be interesting. I normally take a bathroom break around eleven of eleven-thirty in Telegraph Cove on Vancouver Island.  Guests have time to have a coffee or hot chocolate and walk the boardwalk to visit the shops or museum. The stay is as long as you wish to make it, as we are not on a tight schedule unless it is your last day and then we need to be back at the lodge for the plane by three o’clock. Lunch is back on the water and this day it was at Bold Head in Blackfish Sound.  We had tied to a kelp bed and were watching the whales in the distance when we had a visitor. As the pictures show a humpback came into the kelp to roll and play close to the boat (maybe twenty feet – eight meters) off the bow. I took the picture with a guest’s head in the shot to give perspective as to the distance. The whale stayed close for at least twenty minutes until another boat came into the area.  It was a memorable experience.

 

Killer whales pass under the boat

Orca passing

As I have stated many time in this blog one of the most effective whale watching techniques is to do nothing.  Drifting while eating the picnic lunch we are often visited by humpback whales, steller sea lions, and harbour seals.  The orca (killer whale) is by nature curious and a stationery boat off to one side of a traveling pod is frequently a thing of interest. This photo demonstrates this philosophy as an orca passes beneath the boat and then returns to join its pod.

Lunch visitors – sealions

sea lions visiting
Click to enlarge then click again

A raft of sealions in the water on land they would be a colony. Steller sealions are the largest of all sea lions and they have an appetite to match. These giant pinnipeds are carnivores and hunt fish, squid, octopus and rarely smaller seals. They are found off northern Pacific coasts from Alaska to California. In the past few years more of these sea lions are remaining in our viewing area all summer rather than continuing their trek from California to Alaska in the spring and then rejoin their south bound relatives in the fall. The area adjacent to Stubbs Island near Telegraph Cove BC is a popular haul out area for this small summer colony numbering up to three dozen mammals.  On a calm day we will tie to the kelp and have lunch and often visitors.

My morning perspective

spirder view of lodge
Click to enlarge then click again

Some mornings I may have too much time on my hands.  We rise at 6:30 start coffee, finish setting the breakfast table and load our boats with the picnic lunches and check for fuel. The guests are called at 7:00 and we depart before 8:00 for the day’s activities.  Sometime in there I noticed the spider web on the scales used to weight the salmon, in the background the lodge. I think artist license rather than boredom.