Whale Watching

We’re not all about the bears, whales are abundant here too!

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.

Eagles on tour

eagle waiting
Click to enlarge then click again

“Bald eagles are believed to mate for life. A pair constructs an enormous stick nest—one of the bird-world’s biggest—high above the ground and tends to a pair of eggs each year. Immature eagles are dark, and until they are about five years old, they lack the distinctive white markings that make their parents so easy to identify. Young eagles roam great distances. Florida birds have been spotted in Michigan, and California eagles have traveled all the way to Alaska.” A quote from National Geographic.  In our viewing area eagles are common on the whale watching and grizzly bear tours until the salmon have arrived in the rivers in mid-August.  At this time the eagles move to the rivers and are less common on whale watching days bur still enough for good pictures.

 

Orca watching tour

orca watching
Click to enlarge then click again

A pod of orca (killer whales) passes close on one of the lodge’s whale watching tours. One big plus of viewing the marine “wildlife” in our viewing area is the absence of many other boats.  The southern resident orca near Victoria on Vancouver Island has thirty-one different companies each with several boats observing them on a daily basis. In our area, on a busy day, there may by nine boats in the area and not all watching the whales at the same time. This picture shows two boats in the background but if you take time to check other picture in the blog you will not find many with boats in the background.  In fact I get more complaints about the lack of other boats to provide a perspective for photos than I do about the presence of boats.

Humpback whales fluking

whale diving
Click to enlarge then click again

An excellent photo of the top of a humpback whales fluke. It clearly shows the scares left by barnacles as well as hole from an old injury. The whale watching tours from Grizzly Bear Lodge has viewed many more humpback whales this summer than in previous years. Viewing each year has improved from an average of four or five whale’s five years ago to twelve to fourteen whales this past summer. The abundance of herring (humpbacks main food) in the area men the whales are spending the summer s in our viewing area rather than traveling to their normal feeding grounds in Alaska.

Spring Black Bear visiting the lodge

black bear at lodge
Click to enlarge then click again

Grizzly Bear Lodge is located on Minstrel Island, which is located about 32 kilometers (20 miles) from the mouth of Knight Inlet.  The black bears in the area are good swimmers and move from island to island in the area. It is common to view black bear on Minstrel Island, in this case not too far from the Lodge. In early spring before there is more activity with the guests the bears are more common but as the Lodge becomes busier the bears tend to stay away from the lodge area but are still on the inland.

Resident Orca Family

killer whale fins
Click to enlarge then click again

The Northern resident orca we view on tour from Grizzly Bear Lodge live in large family groups called pods, with multiple pods making up a population or community. The pods consist of related matrilines, with each matriline often containing 3 or more generations. The head female or matriarch leads each pod, as orca is a female dominated species. The matriarch tends to be the oldest female in the extended family. Her experience and knowledge guides the pod, and the matriarch teaches younger whales about everything from parenting skills, feeding tactics, and navigation through the vast territories that they cover. The pods in our area may be as small as three orca or more than fifteen.

Bald Eagle Fishing

bald esgle with salmon
Click to enlarge then click again

Grizzly bears are not the only fishers in the area of Grizzly Bear Lodge that have their own style of fishing. Eagles are often seen picking fish off the surface of the water as we travel up Knight Inlet to the grizzly bears or to Johnstone Strait to view the whales. However in most cases they are grabbing herring or small fish not necessarily a salmon the size that the eagle in the photo has caught. A fish this size often means a swim to shore by the eagle.  Yes eagles do swim but not by choice.  It normally occurs when the salmon caught is too big to lift out of the water and they use their wings to swim to shore. If they are observed from a reasonable distance they will swim with the fish in their claws however if approached to close I have seen them release the catch and fly away. This is a rare photo and should not be expected on a daily basis even though there are many opportunities for eagle pictures on each tour from the lodge.

Black Bear Evening Tour

black bear an beach
Click to enlarge then click again

Your first evening at Grizzly Bear Lodge normally involes an hour plus boat ride to find black bears.  This is after you have been shown your rooms, eaten fresh caught crabs or prawns, had a talk about the lodges night light because we are on a generator etc. The black bears are often the hardest wildlife to find as the first requirement is a low tide so there will be a beach and even with a low tide if there are an abundance of berries (black berries, huckle berries, salmon berries, thimble berries, salal berries …) they do not come to the beach.  Often the black bears are viewed on the tours to find whales or while on the trip up Knight Inlet to view the grizzly bears.

Humpback whale lunge feeding

lunge feeding whale
Click to enlarge then click again

Great photo of a humpback whales lunge feeding but not completely successful. Your guide does not look for herring which is the main food of the humpbacks in Grizzly Bear Lodge’s whale watching area rather we look for seagulls.  The diving ducks feed on the herring, which form a tight ball to avoid being eaten.  The herring balls are forced toward the surface by the ducks and this attracts the gulls, which attract the guides.  We position the boats near the gulls and herring balls and wait for the humpback whales. Not all quests manage to get a photo as the waiting game does predict the exact time the lunge will occur but the experience is better than the picture.

Whales by Braille

misty orca
Click to enlarge then click again

Many mornings in August and September start with a low layer of fog over the area surrounding Grizzly Bear Lodge. This fog is short lived as it normally burns off by noon.  The boat used for whale watching is equipped with radar and all the guides have a personal GPS with routes programmed to allow them to navigate in the fog. Whale watching is not a “solo” experience as we are in radio contact with two or three others “whale watchers” and share our search. Unlike Victoria on the southern tip of Vancouver Island a busy day in our area may involve eight boats watching whales in a rather large area while Victoria may have fifty boats in a similar sized area. This photo is of a male resident orca that passed beneath the boat as surfaced in the fog.

Whale Watching Safari

whale tail
Click to enlarge then click again

This summer we were fortunate to have several humpback mothers and calves remain in Grizzly Bear Lodge’s whale viewing area.  The calves, at times, became very active often repeating fluke (tail) slaps ten to fifteen times in a row. These would frequently occur as a backward slap, meaning the top of the fluke would be hitting the water. The calves would also roll and twist and try to through their tails sideways out of the water. This photo taken by Angus shows how close the whales do come to boats (in this case my boat) while they are playing.