Killer whales and humpback whales are often seen during our wildlife tours. There are resident whales and transient whales that can be seen feeding and playing in our waters.
A very action filled photo with a humpback whale lunge feeding on a ball of herring. One can see the herring being sprayed out of it’s mouth and seagulls coming into pick up the wounded herring. But it is really hard to picture this as a whale feeding whereas tomorrows post is more sedate….
This first year bald eagle is flying high over the area on Knight Inlet’s Glendale River where we watch grizzly bears from viewing platforms. The eagles are in the area for the same reason that the bears come to the river – salmon. The spawning cycle of the salmon attract grizzly bears, black bears, eagles, seagulls and wolves to the river valleys. Wolves are seldom viewed but the rest are in abundance. In this case the eagle is looking for a salmon carcass to scavenge as this is much easier than catching you own.
These two photos show some thing that is pretty obvious but if you are much further away it is hard to tell what is making the white water. Pacific white sided dolphins may travel in pods of twenty-five to over one thousand. In either case they seem to like playing with a moving boat. After guest spend time with the dolphins it is hard to make their day get any better but we keep trying.
This is another photo provided by our guests from a posting in December 19 to 21 of 2015 (can check the sidebar and go to Dec. 2015). An eagle had been reported in the water, far from shore, swimming toward the beach. By the time we got close enough to get it out of the water it was in rough shape. We managed to get the eagle quite dry and to a safe place on the beach. When we checked later it was gone so we assumed it made a recovery.
Unlike humpback whales the tail slapping of killer whales seems to be a playful activity of the Northern Resident Whales we watch. It can occur when they are close to your whale watching boat even if their are no other pods of orca in the area. The underside is mainly white in contrast to the black from the top of their tail. This behaviour is less frequent than with the humpbacks.
Their is no consensuses amount the scientific community for tail slapping or lobtailing by humpback whales. The reasons range from communication to feeding habits. In our viewing area of the Johnstone Strait it seems to occur more often on days with a little chop on the water. The reasons is not as important as the fact that it happens three or four times a week and is always spectacular. And even more attention getting is that it is often accompanied by breaching.
Reporting a pectoral fin as an orca dorsal fin will lead to several days of radio talk about ones eye sight and value as a guide. The best policy is to make sure one see the “complete mammal” before reporting.
Humpback whales have extraordinarily long pectoral fins, nearly one third the length of the whale. The length and shape of the pectoral fins facilitate the graceful movement humpbacks are known for, even allowing the whale to swim backwards and turn on a dime. These long pectoral fins are where humpbacks get their scientific name Megaptera novaeangliae or “big-winged New Englander”. On foggy mornings they have been reported as killer whale dorsal fin as will be shown in the next posting….
Low tide after a rain and the bald eagles come out of the trees to dry. On these small rocky outcrops eagles get sun from all sides and it is easy to turn to take advantage of the warmth. In a tree it is warm on on side and damp on the other.
Our visit to Grizzly Bear Lodge
Please click on the above link to view a guest’s trip in PDF format.
Just like that our season has come to an end. I would like to thank all of our wonderful guests and staff who made this year a huge success. I am happy to stay that all of our team is planning to return next season. We are actively taking bookings, with dates starting June 1 2025. Hope to see many of you next season.
The wildlife viewing this season was awesome. A couple highlights that come to mind was the shear number of salmon in our local rivers, as well as the abundance of Resident Orca. With salmon returns being so strong this year, we were happy to see bears in excellent condition. By the end of our season most of the bears had packed on a lot of weight and were getting very “picky” about what parts of the salmon they would eat. Hopefully this will translate into more cubs being born this winter. Another positive was the weather conditions. We had enough rain to keep our fire risks low and it made for some excellent wild berries. The bears took full advantage of this, with the berry season extending far past its normal conclusion. This did mean that we had to work hard to find bears during our summer season, (as they were often feeding on the berries deep into the forest), but moving forward it is excellent that they had such an abundant food supply. The Humpbacks also didn’t disappoint, with great numbers and a few new calves returning with their mothers to feed. After a slower year for resident Orca sightings, this season was one of the best that I can remember. In fact as Im writing this the A62 and A23’s are still being spotted in the area by dedicated biologists. Strong numbers of Chinook and Chum salmon are providing them with a steady food source. There are a lot of positive signs and we are hopeful that 2025 will be another great season.
Over the winter and spring we will be doing some repairs and maintenance. We plan on having a new cedar front deck built in time for the 2025 season, as well as new ceilings and paint in parts of the lodge and rooms. Theres always projects on the go.
Felix, Julien, Ryan, Zack and Myself all look forward to welcoming guest in June. See everyone soon.
Angus Reid
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