Grizzly Bear: Close-up video ...

Grizzly Bears: Two of the better photos ...

 

Grizzly Bears !

Among many highlights of the whole trip, easily the best day was a boat trip out of Telegraph Cove, Vancouver Island to view grizzly bears. We had picked up our tent trailer and taken the ferry to Vancouver Island and headed to the north of the island. The day of the boat trip was overcast with drizzle, and we were informed once boarded, that typically this was ideal weather to view grizzlies. In hotter weather they retreat into the dense forests. Unbelievably, once on the viewing 'pontoon' in the estuary, we saw a minimum of 26 individual grizzly bears, including cubs, within an area of no more than a square km ! The salmon run to date had been poor, and the grizzlies were feeding in the marshy areas. Just magnificent animals, and as good a few hours as anything I have experienced. The boat trip got better, as on our return trip we found a single black bear feeding on the shoreline below the dense forests. This sounds like I am making it up, but this was followed by a sighting of a transient orca pod. We followed at a distance for some time, and at one point two of the orcas tried to wash harbour seals off a small rocky island, one of them spyhopping to get a better view. Interesting fact is that the transient orca pods feed on mammals, whereas the resident orca pods in the area feed on fish, mainly salmon.

Swift Current, SK to Richmond, BC

Made it safely with 3 days of solid driving, ~ 16 hrs of driving each day. A solitary pronghorn close to the road was a highlight for animal sightings while we drove. Beautiful drive through the mountains with rain and sun and a spectacular rainbow. Four National Parks ... Banff, Yoho, Glacier and Mt Revelstoke. Heather and Carol fly into Vancouver this morning. We collect our tent trailer later and start getting organized to head to Vancouver Island via ferry tomorrow.

Thunder Bay, ON to Swift Current, SK

A good days driving and we are ahead of our planned schedule. Crossing time zones provided for extra hours of daylight driving. Interesting driving watching the changing landscapes, and around Swift Current, a number of large pans provide birding opportunities to investigate on our return trip in ~ 2 weeks time. Unfortunately not a single moose or deer to be seen from the road since Toronto, but many, many warning signs ?

Driving Toronto to Vancouver and back again !

Our 4 week trip started today making it to Thunder Bay, Ontario in 16 hrs. Lots of roadworks causing some delays. Sean, a good friend from South Africa arrived yesterday. The two of us are driving to Vancouver in 3 1/2 days, meeting the wives who fly in to Vancouver on Fri. Lots of overcast weather today, but still some spectacular scenery on the northern shores of Lake Superior.

Procyon Wildlife Volunteering

With a quiet summer regarding system engineering projects, I have been volunteering one shift a week at Procyon Wildlife early Monday morning`s. The 4-5 hr shift flies by as we are usually very busy, feeding and cleaning cages. I am really looking forward to August, when I am told many of the raccoons will be old enough to be released back into the wild, as close as possible to where the orphans were found.

'When one tugs at a single living thing in nature one finds it attached to the rest of the world' John Muir (Maybe not an exact quote!)

Leucistic American Robin, Lake Aquitaine, Meadowvale, Mississauga

An unusual bird sighting early in spring, a leucistic American Robin with some white feathers resulting from a lack of melanin pigment. Not great focus on the photo - taken from the 9th floor of an apartment building !