As I mentioned in my previous post (September 17), we were on Vancouver Island for a nature tour to see whales and bears. Our second marine adventure took us from the east coast of Vancouver Island to the British Columbia mainland. We traveled there to see Grizzly Bears, because they don’t live on Vancouver Island. I’m going to go a little off the blog mandate to tell you about them (as well as some bird sightings).
Our guides met us at the dock and drove us to one of the nearby rivers. Salmon were returning to their spawning grounds, which were bringing bears out of the bush. We waited in an enclosed tower for 30 minutes for the first Grizzly to show up. After it had hunted in that spot, it ambled upriver. Our guides loaded us back on the buses and drove us to a river bank where the bear was expected to show up. We had a total of five Grizzly Bears show up to fish in the shallows. They were only 30 metres away from us. When one female ran from a male who wanted her catch and headed towards us, our guides unhooked their cans of bear spray, just in case it was needed. Fortunately, she turned aside before she reached us.
Female Grizzly Bear carrying her catch, running from male
The other creature attracted to the salmon runs are Bald Eagles. They were everywhere we visited on our trip. As we were driving back to the dock, we saw a pair of juvenile Bald Eagles squabbling over a fish. While they were distracted, an adult flew in and grabbed their catch. The two stopped fighting, looking around for the missing fish. If birds could have human emotions, those two looked puzzled.
Bald Eagle
Our third and final marine tour was to travel around the waters off Tofino. We were looking for coastal Black Bears, which we did see. Again, I was looking for birds. I added to my trip list Black Turnstone, Western Gull, and Short-billed Gull (pictured at top of blog). The latter was a lifer. I find it ironic that my two lifers on the trip were gulls, because they are my least favourite birds.
Black Turnstone
There were a few other birds that I added to my trip list from other spots: Pacific Wren, Violet-green Swallow, and Rufous Hummingbird.
Rufous Hummingbird – male
Our trip was a fun adventure, in a beautiful part of our country. I wish I had hired a bird guide to take us out after the tour was over. But, that will have to wait for another trip. By the way, we ate lots of salmon, just like the eagles and bears.
Note: Photo of Grizzly Bear by Leslie Kinrys. All other photos are from Wikipedia Commons, an online source of copyright-free photos: Short-billed Gull by Dick Daniels; Bald Eagle by Andy Morffew; Black Turnstone by Alan Vernon; Rufous Hummingbird by VJAnderson.
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