Photo time 8/25/2015 10:58 Most guests do not come to see the salmon in the coastal river of British Columbia rivers even though it is impressive. They come to see what comes to eat the salmon…
Tag Archives: Bears
Keeping an eye on the watchers
Our lodge is located on Minstrel Island not far from the mouth of Knight Inlet, which is the longest inlet off the East Coast of Vancouver Island in mainland BC. We are a 45-minute float plane ride from Campbell River. The spring and summer tours from the lodge find the grizzly bears foraging for food along the shores of Knight Inlet. As your guide will often say “Bears are where you find them.” And this means that you start looking as soon as you leave the lodge. This fine example of a grizzly was in the estuary of the Glendale River, which flows into Knight Inlet. Grizzlies in the estuary frequently pause their activities to survey their surroundings. The bears are always on alert even though they tend to ignore our presence they still know we are present.
Perspective 2 of 2
The same two grizzly bears in yesterday’s post passed directly beneath the viewing stands. Again my camera does not show a true distance, as these two bears were less than 4 meters (12 feet) from the lens. I missed the photo when one of the bears stood on its hind legs and most of the guests complained that they had on the wrong lens.
Perspective 1 of 2
As a guide I am always looking for different photos for the blog and this is one of them. A photo of a guest taking a photo of grizzly bears from the viewing stands. The lodge uses the stands on Knight Inlet’s Glendale River in the fall after August 24th. The grizzly bears come to the river because of the abundance of salmon that come to spawn in the man made spawning channel. The bears often walk down the natural river by the stands and then move into a large pool where the salmon wait before moving into the spawning area. NO the bears are not that far away it just seems that because of my camera but who will really care after viewing tomorrow’s post.
Black Bear Floating High
If this was a picture from the spring there would not be much more than the bear’s head out of the water. As the season progresses and the bears put on more fat more of their back appears. Our viewing area is comprised of many islands so it is not unusual to find bears moving between islands.
Good Day 1 of 4
This day started with a black bear on the beach in Clio Channel behind the Grizzly Bear Lodge. It was a very obliging bear in that it did not mind us getting good photographs. My goal when watching any wildlife is “to leave it as I find it”. If you cannot do that you are disturbing the flow of nature and the economic sense is that it will not be there the next time one wants to watch.
Grizzly Family
This is to be a grizzly bear family that is together for it’s third summer. It is one of the cubs that caught the salmon the mother is on the right. Not sure what has her interest as we were sitting in our skiff about forty meters in front of the cub with the salmon. Actually the guests were in the skiff I was sitting on the bow of the boat holding it in place on the river. The grizzlies did turn and cross the river to eat the salmon but also came back to catch several more while we watched from front row seats. The only time we got their attention was when I stood up to move the skiff away from their fishing area and the mother stopped and looked our way. I sat down and she went back to fishing. We are part of the background as long as we play by the rule – Do not move.
Interesting and Tempting?
The sedge grass is about a meter (yard) tall and with the rising water the grizzly bear is likely standing in water up to its belly. Footing along a river bank is quite slippery and more so in water while the deer is one leap from solid footing. But even on dry ground we frequently see grizzlies and black tailed deer feeding side by side. The chance of a grizzly bear catching deer is so low it is not worth wasting the energy trying.
A Very Rare Bear Photo
This photo provided by a guest is the only time I have seen a grizzly bear nursing in such an open area. Often they will be in the taller grass or in the driftwood up the beach where photos “suggest” that they are nursing. This is pretty clear and the guests know it was special as we reminded them often enough.
Grizzlies in the Water 2 of 2
I neglected to mention that these two photos were taken in mid-June, which is the peak of the mating season for grizzly bears on the coast of British Columbia. The female swam along the shore and the male walked the shore. This lasted for several hours with the female swimming and walking the beach and all she wanted was food while the male had other ideas.
