The rain continued overnight and was still falling as we had
breakfast so there was absolutely no point in heading to the viewing platform or hide so instead we went out in boats into the estuary in the
hope of seeing bears. Some of these photos were taken on my phone hence the different colouring.
Much to our delight A&A wanted to team up with us again and our skipper was Tom, one of the lodge owners and quite a scary, gruff, character (the other owner Marg is the "people person").
The forecast was variable so we decided to make use of the quilted onesies and other protective gear on offer.
There were specific instructions as to how to get into the boat without tipping it up and whoa betide anyone who didn't follow them to the letter!
There was a serious landslide a few years ago not far from the lodge.
The water was beautifully calm as we set off, offering superb reflections.
Mostly all the photos in this post are landscapes showing the ever changing scenery, cloud and light.
Apparently it was unusual for a Bald Eagle to be hanging its wings out like this.
Geese flying in the wrong direction of course.
Playing with the water and reflections.
Another Bald Eagle, this time in a slight better position to photograph.
And I managed to get it in flight.
There were quite a few dead salmon on the river banks, I'm not sure if they'd been abandoned by bears or washed up when the water level was higher and then stranded.
The group in this boat were convinced they'd seen a bear, but Tom was very sceptical.
Harbour Seal clearly a little unsure of us!
This Bald Eagle is a juvenile, hence the dark feathers on its head.
Back to the lodge after about 3 hours meandering around on the water and we only got wet twice.
After lunch we were shown a
collection of skulls, including Brown and Black Bear, plus Cougar. We then
watched a few videos of Grizzly Bear activity filmed at the Lodge over the
years, some of it on camera traps. The BBC and National Geographic are just two of the big names to film there but of course they spend a whole lot longer that we did getting their fabulous footage.
For the evening session we boarded the bus and headed for the open platform, pretty confident that there wouldn't be much activity It wasn’t raining when we arrived, but the river was clearly much higher than during our previous visit. A mother and two cubs appeared and shared a salmon but the light was so poor these are the only half decent shots I got.
We both managed to get a bit of video footage.
After a while the rain started again and so we retreated to the covered hide but failed to see another bear.