Bears, Bears, Bears

The miserable rainy weather continued and the wind and waves in the ocean were ugly, so we headed northwards in the protection of Peril Strait.  We had a lot of quiet time with all those rainy days, though at one point I dressed in my foulies and went out in the kayak despite the pouring rain.  As we headed north into Chatham Strait the weather started to ease and dry out a bit – some relief!  Pulling into an anchorage one day we remembered that it has a big stream that was probably full of salmon right now… meaning that we were likely to see bears too.  20160815 0737 pavlov bear 39 chase r

20160815 0735 pavlov bear 41 chase r

20160815 0692 pavlov bear 27 fish r

This is the time of the year when the best food is available to the bears, and they have a short time to eat as much as they can before the long winter sets in.  For the bears, a salmon stream is all about survival so we make sure we stay far enough away so we don’t alter the bear’s feeding behavior.

We sat for hours over two days, watching as many as 7 bears feeding in the stream.  Low tide seemed best, with mothers (sows) teaching their cubs to fish or sharing their catch.20160816 0901 pavlov sow 2yr cubs 2 r20160816 0979 pavlov sow 1yr cubs fish 3 rAt one point, a sow with cubs got into a fight with another sow.  The cubs retreated to shore and the two sows stood their ground, growling, baring teeth, and snapping at each other.  I will confess that the growling made my shutter finger shake!20160816 0913 pavlov sow fight 7 r20160815 0700 pavlov bear 26 teeth close rThere was so much action in the stream that it was hard to know where to focus the cameras – the bear running after a fish on the right, the sows fighting in the middle, or the cubs sitting on the shore.  These two cubs are 2nd year cubs, meaning that they were born in February-March of 2015.  20160816 0935 pavlov 2yr cubs sitting funny rWe also saw 1st year or spring cubs, born during hibernation this past winter.  20160816 1053 pavlov 1yr cub close rOne of the days we were watching for a while and the tide had fallen quite a bit during that time.  With so many bears in the stream and the bear pecking order re-sorting itself as various bears came and went, a good-sized bear started moving towards where I was sitting.  She was moving slowly, catching and eating a fish along the way, but she was getting closer.20160815 0875 stella face 2 rI took the photo when she was close enough, just before I had to wave my kayak paddle and talk to her to get her to move off.  She wasn’t threatening in any way, but a bear is a bear.  It seems that I was probably in the way of a path she wanted to take to get to a lower part of the stream, and she was looking to see if she could pass by.  Yes, it took a while for my heart rate to slow down.  I had bear spray at hand in case the situation changed.  People come to that particular spot to view the bears so they are exposed to humans sitting quietly nearby at this time of the year.

Our butts were pretty sore from sitting in the kayak or on rocks for two long days watching the bears, but it was worth every second!

7 thoughts on “Bears, Bears, Bears

  1. Hi Robin,

    I’m Beth, Bill and Mary of Harbour Reach’s daughter. I’ve been following your blog after my parents told me about it – your photos are absolutely stunning, but I was particularly struck by this recent post of bears. I can’t wait to see what you come up with when visiting the polar bears!

    Best,

    Beth

  2. Just beautiful! Makes me sad that we won’t be up your direction this year. Heading up to the San Juan Islands in late September, so hopefully get some good pictures going there of the Orcas. But nothing like these amazing shots! Hope to see you in the lower states soon.

    Shannon

  3. CCA friends just sold their 53′ Sunnfjord gray/blue trawler, Drumbeat, to people in Pelican. Maybe you’ll run across it!

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