No matter where we are going at Sailcone’s Grizzly Bear Lodge, the guides are always keeping their eyes open for wildlife. This could be a Black Bear on the way to view Grizzlies, an eagle family or in this case a group of Pacific White Sided Dolphins. These dolphins are common in our area and it is not unusual to spot them in large groups. They are incredibly intelligent and often come to us for a closer look.
Felix Rome (a photography student who helped us out this summer) took this photo of a pacific white sided dolphin. It is a very cool capture and quite unique. https://felixrome.smugmug.com/
Grizzly Bears are very comfortable in the water. When the salmon are running they spend a great deal of time in the river often swimming across it multiple times. They are also excellent long distance swimmers easily swimming across Knight Inlet, which is approximately 1 mile wide. Thanks to Britt for the picture
This young Grizzly Bear is standing in the river estuary likely looking for salmon. Tides play a huge roll in these shallow river estuaries. At high tide the water will be right up to the sedge grass in the background covering the area where the bear is standing. At this time the water is deeper and the salmon are able to pass through the lower river easily. When the tide is low the fish are much more exposed and bears will take advantage of this as they struggle up the shallow riffles.
Salmon are the lifeblood of our coastal ecosystem. Their journey back to their home rivers to spawn is often not an easy one. The salmon return to the same river which they were born years prior. How they know where they are going remains one of life’s great mysteries. The lucky few return, spawn and then all pacific salmon die after spawning, providing nutrients to the river and forest. This is a coho salmon leaping over the falls on the wild river trip.
The humpback whales come to our area for one reason and that is to feed. They feed heavily on krill and small fish such as herring. In this photo you can see that the humpback has done what is called a lunge feed. This is where they come straight up with their mouths open and try and consume as many fish as possible. The small fish you can see jumping are herring.
Thanks to Felix Rome for this great shot of the river at night. Felix stayed up there and helped Rick this summer while working on his photography for university. I think he has a pretty nice office.
https://felixrome.smugmug.com/
The Grizzly Bears aren’t the only ones who enjoy the abundant salmon run. Birds such as eagles, Great Blue Herons, Gulls, Kingfishers and Mergansers are often seen in the river areas. What isn’t eaten by the animals is flushed into the estuary, providing food for other marine creatures such as crabs, sculpins, cod and Halibut. Finally the rotten fish is distributed into the forest by Bears and other animals providing natural fertilization to the forest floor. These wild salmon truly are the backbone of our coastal ecosystem.
Our spring grizzly bear viewing is done by boat. One of the highlights of the early viewing is getting to see the young cubs when they are still very small. The cubs are born in the den in the winter and usually weigh only about one pound. They rapidly gain weigh through their mothers rich milk and eventually by feeding effectively on their own. This is Grizzly Bear Lenore and her cub of the year. This particular cub should be on her own next spring.
People come to the lodge for the wildlife, but the scenery in the Great Bear Rainforest is second to none. Often after a moderate rain (liquid sunshine) we are greeted with many temporary and permanent waterfalls crashing down the steep hills into the inlet below
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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