Springtime brings several varieties of swallow to the BC coast. Early May last year I was able to witness the arrival of a whole flock of barn swallows and watched as they darted around looking for the perfect spot in which to build their nests and raise their young. Here you can see at least one couple was successful.
Springtime is the best opportunity to see mountain goats on the BC coast. Throughout the year you can often see them high on the mountainside but at this time of year they will descend to almost the waters edge in search of the first green shoots of spring.
Hopefully spring is just around the corner and one of the ‘sights to see’ on the BC coast is the herring spawn. It happens fast and if you blink you can miss it, but when you come across it there is a distinctive aroma to the air and the sea is turned a beautiful turquoise colour.
Here, a river otter is swimming amongst the greeny blue waters of a March time herring spawn hoping to catch a fish or some nutrient rich herring eggs.
This is a spirit or kermode bear that I got to photograph a little while back in the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest. You can see more spirt bears in the spirit bear gallery. These very special bears are actually black bears born white. They are not albino, they do not have pink eyes and often retain their black noses too and are born out of a recessive gene that must be present in both parents, it is not unusual to see a white mom with black cubs or a black mom with white cubs. This bear had been chasing salmon on a river when he heard a movement behind him, which turned out to be another spirit bear. It is estimated that between 2 – 400 of these bears remain in the wild on the BC coast. This was the guy selected by Canadian Geographic, as mentioned in my 2011 Newsletter if you haven’t already seen it.
Recognize the pose? (See Day 2)
It is now late fall and the young bear has clearly also made it to the feeding holes when mom hasn’t been there. He has grown well and as long as he can find a good spot to den for the winter he should have little problems. Back in the summer we all feared if this little guy was going to make it to the winter, I am glad to say he has and let us hope that right now he is sleeping safe and sound on a high mountainside somewhere and that we will see him again, if not this spring, then some time soon. And who knows, maybe late this spring, Mom may well return with a new cub or two…
Today is the penultimate day for our grizzly bear cub story and as fall arrives it is clear the cub has learnt well from his mum. He looks healthy and is developing into a handsome sub-adult bear. He has clearly been feeding well and now, with the arrival of the salmon, is putting on the pounds he will need to get him through his first hibernation on his own. Although mom would have taught him the best spots in which to feed, if he arrives and she is already there, she continues to chase him away.
During my recent trip to photograph the snowy owls, a couple of other firsts occurred during the day also. Whilst out on the marsh with the owls, swooping in came a northern harrier. This beautiful bird of prey often winters in or migrates thorough this coastal region and enjoys being out on the marshes looking for small mammals too. We saw several throughout the day and when one perched on an adjacent field fence post he became the perfect model for the many photographers gathered near by.
To finish the day off, we called in to a sanctuary area set up on the north western end of the marshes and here we found a first for us, roosting in the trees were four or five black-crowned night herons. These not so common, creamy white & grey small herons are also visitors and residents of BC’s southern marshes. What a treat to finish off the day.
More of the birds from this day’s trip, including wood ducks, sandhill cranes and a barred owl, can be seen in the ‘other birds’ gallery.
Later the same day, after we saw mom and cub part, she was seen mating with one of the large males that had come down on to the estuary the day before. The little grizzly cub sat and watched for his mom, but for the first time she did not come looking for him. Instinct told him he had to move on and he began feeding on his own around the estuary. He continued to feed throughout the season, but if he saw his mom he would often try to approach her only to be chased away quite sternly. This may have seemed harsh, but quite often early in their separation, mom was seen in the company of a large male, who would not have taken lightly to the presence of the young cub.
Early this morning the mother grizzly bear was acting very strange around her young son. Eventually she started charging at him, pushing him away. He would run, stop and look back. If she had stopped he would start to approach her again, she would charge once more. He would run, stop and look back again, very confused. What was going on? Why is mom chasing me so aggressively? To the observer it was a very heart wrenching event to witness. We knew it was only nature taking it’s course. But nevertheless seeing mother and cub grizzly bears part for the very first time, having seen them grow together for the last two and a half years really does pull at the heart strings. For those of us watching, we wondered and feared what would happen to the little bear cub now that he was all alone.
Today mom has a very telling look in her eye, she seems to know what she has to do and the look says it all; ‘it’s time son, it’s time’. Later this day I saw mom and her cub curled up together in the late spring sun amongst the grass were I saw him for the first time back in 2009. There was no indication of what was about to happen early the next day, they looked just like they had for the last two and half years – tightly bonded mother and cub, where mom would risk life and limb and do anything to protect her small charge.
