North West Canada 2011

After a day flight from Heathrow to Vancouver lasting just under ten hours the only way to combat the need to go to sleep was to get outside in the sunshine.  From the hotel we walked down to the waterfront and took in what was a lovely summer's day in the beautiful city of Vancouver on the Canadian west coast.  We had visited here before, back in 2000 when we were here to take a cruise up to Alaska.  This visit was the start of a Canadian adventure taking in Vancouver, Vancouver Island and the inlets of the north west British Columbia coast.

The waterfront is littered with high rise glass fronted buildings that provided a wonderful study of reflections.

Reflections of Canada place, the cruise ship terminal.

The head office of the Vancouver Sun, reflected in a neighbouring building.

It wasn't just the buildings providing the reflection the still waters of the various marinas were also a canvas for some impressive reflections.

We found a wonderful restaurant called Lift.

Here we had a light dinner and enjoyed the sunshine.

The jet lag finally got the better of us and we returned to our hotel, passing a Lego model of the animal we so wanted to see on this trip.

The following morning we up early and set off to catch the ferry from Vancouver to Vancouver Island.  Covered from head to toe in emerald rainforest, Vancouver Island lies just off Canada’s west coast. Far from the cityscape of Vancouver, just over the water, the island has retained a landscape wild enough to sustain black bears.

We were spend time in the capital, Victoria, then travel to the mid west coast of the island, Tofino and then back to Campbell River on the east coast where we would fly into British Columbia to spend the final part of the holiday on an old logging ranch, now catering for bear and whale watching.

It was another lovely day and it was a calm ferry crossing.

We found our hotel in Victoria, settled in and then went out to explore and to take our first whale watching trip.

Whilst not finding the one whale we had hoped for, the Orca, we did have sightings of a Humpback Whale.

And a Minke Whale

Plus a lifer for me, Rhinoceros Auklet.

The following day we headed to Port Renfrew, about two hours to the north west from Victoria.  An opportunity to take in the rugged coast line of the island and the cloud forests and huge conifer forests that cover the majority of the island.

Port Renfrew is not a very busy place, it has a population of just under 200 people, but is known as the trail heads for hikes into the Pacific Rim national park, an area not accessible by road.  We made our way to the beach, a typical north west beach of rocky areas with sandy beaches between littered with driftwood of all sizes.  The day was overcast wit drizzle in the air which added to the dramatic nature of the location

If you love rock pools this is the place to be.

Huge forests of kelp eased the swell of the tide.

While in the pools themselves there was some interesting finds.  Here Red Coral, yes on temperate waters

And plenty of crustaceans and molluscs

And a fossilised Trilobite.

In the sandy areas waders could be seen.  The Least Sandpiper.

The smallest member of the sandpiper family, no bigger than a sparrow. This is the sandpiper most likely to be seen on small bodies of water inland. On sandy riverbanks, lake shores

They are widespread and common in North America, and numbers are probably stable.  

There were several Least Sandpiper and in amongst them, slightly larger was a single Western Sandpiper.

In the pines at the back of the beach there were several flocks of Crossbills, or Red Crossbill as they are know in North America.

The following day we spent the morning in the Butchart Botanical Gardens, these gardens have been designated a National Historic Site of Canada and they were well worth the visit.

We also managed to find an Rufous Hummingbird.

In the afternoon we were booked on another whale watch in to the area of the Puget Sound.  Victoria is a beautiful city with wonderful views of the surround mountains.

This time we were fortunate to catch up with the resident Orca pod, one which has been studied for years.  As a result the whales can be identified and aged.

This female is known as K27 or Ballena a female Born in 1994.  Identified by the distinctive mark behind the dorsal fin.

And these two males, first J27 a male born in 1991 and known as Blackberry, the tall dorsal fin distinguishing from the female alongside.

And L41 otherwise known as Mega a male born in 1977

This male is known as K26 a male born in 1993 and known as Wave Walker

And here with his sister Calypso or K36 a female born 2003

There are several pods around the area K and L pods, Orca society is complex within each pod, they establish complex social hierarchies, with females at the top. In pods of resident whales, offspring will stay with their mothers in the same pod for their entire lives. A single pod often has multiple families living together, with each family spanning as many as four generations.

Here Orca from J Pod

And K Pod.

Both pods are known as "resident" pods and typically will hunt fish and remain loyal to an area, the other type of pod is known as "transient", these Orcas are more likely to hunt sea mammals and true to their name wander the waters to hunt.

The one behaviour that I wanted to see was that of spy hopping, when the Orca pulls itself out of the water to view the surroundings, on this day I captured two examples.

We had one more day in Victoria and we headed east to explore the beaches around Cordova Bay Long Beach and Sidney.

Sidney harbour, part of a quiet town, with a bustling population of just over 11,000.

Sidney is known as a booktown with 12 book stores in this small town.  Sidney is the northern most town on the Saanich peninsula.  The area has lots of wonderful empty beaches all littered with drift wood.

From Sidney we travelled back to Victoria.  At about five miles to the north east of Victoria is the Mount Douglas Park which provides a 360 degree lookout of the area around Victoria.  It was a beautiful day and the views were amazing.  Looking north over the pine trees of the park towards Cordova Bay

We approached Victoria from the coast road which had some more wonderful views.

Our time in Victoria was at an end, but not before a lovely dinner outside in Victoria, time to enjoy the sun and drink.

Our next stop was Tofino, another small town, this on the western coast about halfway up the island.  It is though the last accessible settlement on the west coast.  Getting there involved heading north on route one to Nanaimo, then turning west to follow route four across the island to the town of Tofino which lies at the centre of Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island’s Pacific coast, poised between the crashing surf of Pacific rollers and towering rainforests inland.

On the way we stopped at a unique Old Country Markey, where the roofs of the building are covered in grass and there are Goats on the Roof, in fact the market is probably better known as Goats on the Roof.

Later we stretched our legs again at a park with incredibly tall sequoia trees, found amongst moss covered branches and water falls.

After driving through endless pine forest it turns north and at coast level, alarmingly along the highway there were signs advising on actions to take in the event of a Tsunami.  Eventually we reached the town of Tofino and our hotel on the beach, the Best Western Tin Wis

And the view from our hotel room., Mackenzie Beach

The next day it was into Tofino and a whale watching trip.  Tofino sits at the southerly point of the Pacific Rim National Park and there are plenty of inlets and open sea.  We were hoping for another good day following our last trip out with the Orca.

First encounter was with a female Humpback and youngster.

Here the adult appears to have her fluke over the young whale.

A little away a Humpback using its fin to slap the water, considered to be a means of communication.

You are never to far away from rocks and Harbour Seals were hauled out.

In the kelp around the rocks, everyone's favourite the Sea Otter.

My first ever Grey Whale.

Grey whales have a hump and a ridge of sharp bumps along their backs, instead of a dorsal fin. They are a type of baleen whale, which means they filter food from the water through special bristly structures in their mouths. Gray whales stay close to shore and feed in shallow water. 

There are two species of sea lion found in these waters, the largest the Steller Sea Lion.

The Steller sea lion is the largest member of the family Otariidae, the “eared seals,” which includes all sea lions and fur seals. 

Adult males are much larger than females. Adult males may be up to 11 feet long and can weigh up to 2,500 pounds. Adult females are 7.5 to 9.5 feet long and weigh up to 800 pounds. 

Adult males are further distinguished by long, coarse hair on the chest, shoulders, and back. An adult male’s chest and neck are also more massive and muscular than a female’s. Both adult males and females have light blonde to reddish brown coats that are slightly darker on the chest and abdomen. The light coloration is still visible when the body is wet.

The other common sea lion is the Californian Sea Lion

There were plenty of birds about, the pick being:

The squat, greyish Rhinoceros Auklet is a close relative of puffins, although it doesn't sport quite such a fancy bill. Still, its name refers to the single vertical horn that sticks up from its orange bill—an odd accessory that turns out to be fluorescent and may be used for visual communication. These seabirds are fairly common along the Pacific Coast of North America, where they hunt close to shore for small schooling fish, pursuing them by "flying" underwater with strong wingbeats.

Black Guillemot

Common Murre or Guillemot

Black Oystercatchers

Back on dry land we spent the afternoon exploring the beach and rock pools.

Beautiful colours in this sea anemone

Ochre Star

A Sun Star.

At the end of the day, sunset over the beach.

The next day we spent it touring the various beaches along the Pacific Rim and in some places an excursion into the rain forest that covers much of this area.

The forest were damp and green from the constant drizzle, ferns could be seen in the strangest of places, here they were hanging from a branch like a hanging basket.

Ferns and moss

Off shore there were groups of Surf Scoter.

And overhead several Ospreys

The only animal found in the forest was the interestingly named the banana slug due to its resemblance to a ripe (or overripe, in the case of spotted individuals) banana. It’s one of the slowest creatures on Earth, moving at a maximum speed of six and a half inches per minute. The gastropod has one lung, one foot, and no spine.

The slug is native to the dense, moist forest floors of the Pacific Northwest, ranging from Central California to Alaska. One subspecies, the Pacific banana slug, can grow up to 9 inches long, making it the second-largest slug in the world.

Some more beaches

Its not me 

Back in Tofino, the sunset was the best yet and for the first time we witnessed others coming to the beach to watch the sun sink in to the Pacific.

Specific areas of the Pacific Rim park are only accessible from the sea, so on our final day in Tofino we had booked a trip to the Hot Springs Cove, located in Maquinna Marine Provincial Park, this idyllic setting is located 27 nautical miles northwest of Tofino, or roughly one and a half hours. Home of the Hesquiaht people, this area is also home to a natural hot spring that bubbles up from a crack in the earth. The springs are located at the end of a boardwalk forest walk. The simmering sulphur water flows as a gentle brook and then cascades as a waterfall into five natural interconnected pools.

Getting there from Tofino is half the fun as most of the tours include whale watching, bird watching and any other thing worth seeing. So it was back to the dock with the tide rising and some wonderful weather.

The crystal clear water showing off some spectacular sea life

A little way out of Tofino and we came across a group of Sea Otters.

Sea otters are a keystone species, meaning their role in their environment has a greater effect than other species. As top predators, sea otters are critical to maintaining the balance of nearshore ecosystems, such as kelp forests, bays and estuaries. Without sea otters, sea urchins can overpopulate the sea floor and devour the kelp forests that provide cover and food for many other marine animals. By maintaining healthy kelp forests, sea otters also indirectly help to reduce levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, a prevalent greenhouse gas, as kelp absorbs and sequesters carbon. 

More on the otters later, next up was a close encounter with a Grey Whale.

Unlike any other large whale, as their name suggests, Gray Whales are grey in colour, although more marbled than plain grey, they have a relatively small, narrow head, which arches distinctively between the blowhole and snout. The body is robust and have flippers which are small and paddle-shaped. Instead of a dorsal fin there is a low hump with ‘knuckles' between the hump and the tail. Gray whales usually also have huge amounts of barnacles and whale lice attached predominantly to the head and body.

Gray whales are the most coastal of the large whales, rarely venturing more than 20 – 30kms offshore. They are found predominantly in shallow coastal waters of the north Pacific Ocean.

The larger eastern north Pacific population summers and feeds mainly in the shallow waters of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas, and the north western Bering Sea; a few also summer and feed along the Pacific coast from Vancouver Island (Canada) to central California (US). The population migrates in autumn along the coast to winter breeding grounds on the west coast of Baja California (Mexico) and the south eastern Gulf of California.

Gray whales undertake one of the world's longest migrations, making a yearly round trip of 15,000-20,000 km. Although the two remaining populations of Gray Whale, Eastern and Western, were thought to be relatively isolated from each other, recent data shows that at least some of the whales in the western population actually migrate all the way round the rim of the Pacific and down to Mexico.

Our first view of the Hot Springs.

The dock at the cove

We spent a couple of hours around the cove before boarding the boat for the return journey and more Sea Otter.

Sea otters often float at the water's surface in forests of kelp, or giant seaweed, and entangle themselves to keep from moving in the rolling sea.

They are also the only otters to give birth in the water. Mothers cuddle their young while floating on their backs and hold infants on their chests to nurse them. They quickly teach them to swim and hunt for themselves.

Good numbers of Tufted Puffin could be seen in rafts on the water.

And Steller Sea Lions on the rocks.

We were then told that there was a pod of transient Orca close by and that they were hunting seals on the nearby rocks, fortunately we were able to take a detour and were able to watch the behaviour of the Orca as they tried to pick off a seal.

Probably a good time to catch up a bit on the various Orca societies.  Around British Columbia, the two different ecotypes of Orca that you may see are known as the Residents and the Transients

Each population is genetically unique and they do not mate with one another. In fact, genetic evidence has revealed that the Transient and Resident orca populations have not shared a common ancestor for at least 750,000 years.

Orca are the only known species to have genetically segregated populations due to social and cultural differences and not because they are separated by a geographical barrier. In fact, Resident and Transient orcas can be seen in relative close proximity but they will never engage in social interactions.

Different diets are a major distinguishing characteristic between the two types of orcas.  Residents eat fish and a small amount of squid. They are selective however with salmon and in particular Chinook, making up about 90% of their diet. 

Transient Orca, on the other hand, are the mammal hunters.  They have evolved to be excellent predators of seals, porpoises, sea lions, dolphins and even other species of whales. Different Orca populations have evolved to be expert predators on different types of prey, which reduces competition between the populations and allows them to utilise the various species of prey that their environment provides.

Residents are a small population divided into several pods.  These pods are made up of multiple related matrilines that are more closely related to each other than they are to matrilines of the other pods.  All the pods socialise with each other and mating occurs between the pods. When you are born into a Resident pod, you will remain with your mother and extended family for the rest of your life whether you are male or female.  This creates large family units and very tight bonds between members.

The social structure of transient orcas is a bit looser than that of their fish-eating cousins.  Because Transients hunt mammals who have keen senses to detect their predators, they can’t travel around in huge groups because their prey would easily detect them. Instead, they travel in matrilines- a female and her offspring.  If the family unit becomes too big and their hunting success starts to decrease, adult daughters and any offspring they may have to tend to split off first. If there are no adult daughters, then the oldest son in the group will part ways from the family unit, but males tend to try to remain close to their mothers for life.

Transient killer whales are slightly longer and heavier than Resident killer whales, but this is hard to identify on the water.  What is more obvious is the tendency for Transient orcas to have a sharply pointed tip to their dorsal fin whereas Residents have a more rounded tip to theirs.

The Orca cruised around the rocks and we were able to watch as they carefully explored the Kelp and little bays.

We didn't have time to observe what was going to happen, but it was a wonderful experience to be able to watch this different behaviour.

Our last evening at Mackenzie Beach turned out to be the best, people started to gather well before sunset.

Bringing with them all sorts of items.

As the sun slipped away to the west and into the Pacific the scenery became more and more spectacular.

Tofino was special, one of those settlements difficult to get to where people come to get away from the challenges of life, take the opportunity to relax wind down and enjoy the outdoors.  I would love to come back one day.

So the adventure continued and in the morning after taking in a wonderful early morning vista we were off heading east towards the town of Campbell River.

Leaving Tofino we had a brief glimpse of a Black Bear as it scampered across the road at a distance in front of us.  Our luck with bears had not been good and this was my first ever sighting.  While living in the USA at the start of the century we tried several times to see them, but failed every time.  Would this quick glimpse be a start to a change in fortune?

We re-traced the road back to the east coast of the island and then turned north.  Just outside Nanaimo we stopped to visit the Englishman River Falls Park which features two stunning waterfalls cascading along the descending riverbed into a deep canyon.

Campbell River is classified as a city on Vancouver Island with a population of just over 35,000, walking around in the afternoon it felt like a larger place with strip malls and large stores.  There was a wharf from which there were more interesting water reflections.

and some interesting sea weed, this is Bull Kelp.

And a wide water front.

But we were not here for the delights of Campbell River, we were here to visit Knight Inlet Lodge, which lies in the southern reaches of one of the last intact temperate rainforests on earth, the Great Bear Rainforest the home to Indigenous peoples, ancient forests, and hopefully wild bears

In order to get there we would be taking a Floatplanefrom Campbell River to the Lodge and a  chance to fly on a classic DeHavilland Turbine Otter.  These aircraft can carry 14 passengers or up to a 2600 pound payload, bags are loaded in the floats and all we had to do was enjoy the scenery and the ride

So it was the next morning we left the car and most of our luggage at the airfield and waited for our lift to arrive.

I was fortunate to sit in the co pilot's seat and this allowed me great views as we headed towards the lodge.

The Great Bear Rainforest is one of the largest remaining tracts of unspoiled temperate rainforest left in the world. The area is home not only to ancient, immense trees but to grizzly bears, whales, wild salmon, and a myriad of other wildlife. The 6.4 million hectare region features western red cedar, some as old as a thousand years, and gigantic Sitka spruce among others.

Knight Inlet is the longest fiord on British Columbia’s coast, right in the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest, and offers spectacular scenery, with steep mountains rising out of the ocean, thundering glacier-fed waterfalls, and towering rainforest, all home to the grizzly bears for which this region has become known as well as eagles, wolves, cougars and many other terrestrial species. The protected waters of Knight Inlet are home to whales, seabirds, seals, and an array of other marine life.

The floating lodge that would be our home for three days was an assortment of five modern floats containing eighteen guest rooms, dining room, lounge, interpretive centre, and support buildings.  Located in Glendale Cove it was as remote as we could expect.  We disembarked the plane and grouped together on the main patio area.

As we were being briefed the guides pointed out a Grizzly Bear on the rocks, known as Peanut this bear comes close to the lodge but was not seen as a threat.  Bears do exist.

After settling in I was able to ge a little closer and some better shots.

Later in the morning we were taken around the cove where more bears and other wildlife were about.

Belted Kingfisher

A Great Blue Heron

A female Grizzly known as Bella with one of her cubs feeding in the meadow.

Bella with both cubs

One of the cubs

Bears do exist.

Great Northern Diver, or as the Canadians know it the Common Loon

Blue-winged Teal

After lunch we were out onto the sea and a tour of Knight Inlet in a large ship.  It did require warm suits in case of any accidents.

As we cruised up the inlet we were joined by a large pod of Pacific White-sided Dolphin.

Pacific white-sided dolphins are made up of three colours: dark grey on top, white on their sides and underneath, and a lighter grey stripe along each side.  Their distinct colouring makes them easy to identify.  They are the biggest species of dolphin in the North Pacific.

They can be found in super pods, which are when there are over 2,000 in one group, these have been seen on many different occasions and there have even been reports of a pod that reached 6,000!

As the dolphin became a little bored with us and drifted away we could take in the beauty of the scenery around the inlet.

Sheer rock faces

Cathedral Rock

Waterfalls from glacial melt

Distant Glaciers

Sunset approaching.

The following day after an early breakfast we were off for a whole day's wildlife viewing around the inlet and out into the Johnstone Strait at Robson Bight between Vancouver Island and the Canadian mainland.  This shows the route we took.

Our transport was a comfortable fast boat with all the necessary technology and a very entertaining guide and skipper and a very friendly Swiss family joining us.

Our first stop was for a better view of a young Black Bear foraging along the shore, it appeared as interested in us as we were of it.

This was a young bear, not yet reached sexual maturity, they reach this They reach this at the age of three years and attain their full growth at the age of five years

American black bears have eyesight and hearing comparable to that of humans.  Their keenest sense is their sense of smell, which is about seven times more sensitive than a domestic dog's.

A little further along we cam across an adult Black Bear.

The American Black Bear to give it its correct name consists of only one species and 16 subspecies. Its colour varies, however, even among members of the same litter.

Black bears that are actually brown in colour are most common in western North America. They are sometimes called brown bears, but the true brown bear (also called the grizzly bear in North America) is much larger.

Next we came across a Humpback Whale, a young animal and it was a sleep

Unlike humans whose breathing is involuntary while we sleep, whales’ breathing is voluntary. So, to sleep, whales (and dolphins) will engage in what is referred to as hemispheric sleep, where they shut down only half of the brain, and close the opposite eye. The other half of the brain that stays awake is at a low level of alertness to watch for predators to protect their young or other obstacles in the ocean. The alert half of the brain also helps the whale be conscious of the position of their blowhole to surface of the ocean to easily take a breath when it’s time. After usually two hours, whales will reverse the alert half of the brain so the other hemisphere can rest.

We drifted alongside the whale from a safe distance to see if it would wake up, but it didn't seem to doing so anytime soon, so we moved on.

Turnstones and a Harbour Seal

A Harbour seal hauled out on a rock

And some more dramatic scenery around the inlet.

Our boat navigated the waters and inlets, heading towards the Johnstone Strait, a deep and narrow glacier-carved passage located between the east coast of Vancouver Island and the British Columbia mainland, extending roughly from Telegraph Cove in the north to Rock Bay in the south.  Johnstone Strait is home to the largest resident pod of killer whales (orcas) in the world, with a population of approximately 200 whales and are best found around the waters of Robson Bight.

Just after entering the Strait we came across a large pod and the best orca experience of the trip, in fact ever

There was a lot of activity, tail slaps, breaching and fins being rolled over the young Orca and we were able to listen to the interaction on a hydrophone, an underwater microphone.

Young males, the distinctive tall dorsal fin

The pod interacting, these are females

Female and calf

Probably a young male and female.

More females

More interaction, tail slaps.

Followed by my two favourite Orca photographs I have taken.

We were at the furthest part of out journey and were now starting to move back, a strange mist was drifting over the water but this seemed to ne a prelude to the cloud lifting and the sun coming through.

With the sun coming out there was an increase of sea bids on the water.

A small group of Wilson's Phalerope

Rhinoceros Auklets

 We had a brief view of a single Minke Whale, identified by the sickle shaped dorsal fin, the Minke Whale is the smallest baleen whale.  The name is a partial translation of Norwegian minkehval, possibly after a Norwegian whaler named Meincke, who mistook a northern Minke whale for a blue whale.

Then a pair of more interactive Humpback Whales

A Humpback lunge feeding, this is where they lie on the side and lunge into the bait ball.

We also had the opportunity to observe a bait ball, the thought was the fish were being attacked by tuna from below, above the gulls were going crazy.  It was all over quickly and you could see dead fish and scales in the water, while the gulls and auks settled back down.

Our journey back to the lodge was past some more amazing scenery.

An incredible day, one of my favourite ever wildlife watching.

The next day it was all about the bears.

Another beautiful day dawned.

We crossed to the land and boarded a bus that took us through the forest to a stream where a flat bottomed boat was tied up.  Our guide then retrieved the boat and we boarded and were led across the stream to the other bank.

Above us was a viewing platform and we climbed the steps to have an excellent view of the river and surrounding mountains.  We were here to see if the Grizzly Bears would appear and we didn't have to wait long.

It came closer.

It wasn't the height of the salmon run yet but there were sufficient fish to attract a good number of bears.

They were quite happy to come close to the platform and must have been able to smell us.

In North America there are two subspecies of brown bear (Ursus arctos): the Kodiak bear, which occurs only on the islands of the Kodiak Archipelago in Alaska, and the Grizzly bear, which occurs everywhere else. 

Grizzly bears are large and range in colour from very light tan (almost white) to dark brown. They have a dished face, short, rounded ears, and a large shoulder hump. The hump is where a mass of muscles attach to the bear’s backbone and give the bear additional strength for digging. They have very long claws on their front feet that also give them extra ability to dig after food and to dig their dens.

A distraction from the bears was an adult Bald Eagle not far from the viewing platform.

Then the female known as Bella appeared with her two cubs.

Cubs are vulnerable where there are gatherings of adult bears and they quickly and purposely moved through without stopping.

There several bears around now and every so often a little confrontation would break out, but not come to much.

One large male walked towards us, passing underneath the platform.

and then along the bank of the stream towards the other bears.

Throughout the summer and autumn, grizzly bears build up fat reserves by consuming as much food as they can find. In late autumn or winter, the bears find a hillside and dig a hole to serve as their winter den. When inside the den, grizzly bears slow down their heart rate, reduce their temperature and metabolic activity, and live off stored fat reserves. 

In order to leave the platform there had to be no bears, so it was a case of waiting until the area around the stream was empty, like this.

We came down and quickly got in the flat bottomed boat and the guide pulled us across the stream.  However when we reached the middle of the stream there was some noise in the bushes at the edge of the stream and suddenly a Bear appeared in the water in front of us.

The bear came running towards us scattering water everywhere.  My thought was the camera, and the shot, but in hindsight I wondered what I would have done had it continued to rush the boat. 

It didn't and stopped and walked off

We finally reached the shore and the guide said we should make our way to the bus.  I turned around to help Helen and she wasn't there, she was already in the bus!

The afternoon was spent around the estuary and at the lodge.  Bella and the cubs were foraging along the coast line and meadow once again.

When the cubs are two and a half years old, they typically separate from their mother.

Bonaparte's Gulls were feeding in the cove.

We opted out of kayaking and stayed on the lodge, with almost all the guests gone others came out to play around the lodge, little claws would appear between the wooden slats on the floats, then a nose with whiskers, otters.

What we thought was another otter came along one of the rafts, it was smaller though.  It was in fact a mink and took a fish.

The breakwater was clearly a favourite fishing place.

The mink was also quite adept at catching fish from the rocks.

Around the lodge there were several nests of Barn Swallows.

Something was changing in the Cove, glacial melt was changing the appearance of the water as it moved through the inlet.

It was our last evening at the lodge and we ensured we made the most of it.

There was time the next morning to spend some more time around the lodge before we boarded the float plane back to Campbell River.

As we arrived for Breakfast we were told that Peanut was showing well behind the lodge.  I took the opportunity to get some final bear action before we left.

Grizzly bears are omnivores. The most eaten kinds of plants are fleshy roots, fruits, berries, grasses, and forbs. If grizzly bears are on the hunt, their prey can include fish (especially salmon), rodents like ground squirrels, carrion, and hoofed animals like moose, elk, caribou, and deer. They are especially good at catching the young of these hoofed species. 

Grizzly bears are mainly solitary and territorial, except for mothers and their cubs, or when a plentiful food source is discovered. Grizzlies can run pretty fast too, reaching speeds as fast as 35 miles an hour for very short sprints. They are also good swimmers. Cubs can climb trees to evade danger, but they lose this ability as their front claws grow longer. They can live to be 30 years in the wild, but most die before age 25.

In the trees around the lodge there were a pair of Bald Eagles.  They were calling to each other in the pines behind the Lodge.

The plane finally arrived and it was time to leave.

As we took off we circled around which allowed good views of the estuary and the lodge itself, surrounded by full glacial melt

Here the point where the glacial melt meets the fresh water in the estuary of the cove.

A beautiful view of the Knight Inlet.

And more small islands

We landed at Campbell River and after picking up bags and car we headed south to catch the ferry to Vancouver.  A wonderful view of Vancouver from the ferry and the snow covered Mount Washington in the background.

WE had dinner at Lift once again and the night in the hotel we had used when we arrived two weeks ago.  With a late flight the next day back to London we were able to spend some time around Vancouver and elected to go into Stanley Park.  Situated on a peninsula at the north-western edge of downtown Vancouver, Stanley Park is one of the city's main tourist destinations, attracting approximately 8 million visitors each year. Featuring lovely beaches, miles of well-maintained paved and dirt trails.

We walked all the way around the outside of the park.  Highlight of the walk was an encounter with a female river Otter and here two cubs.

The two cubs.

Clearly happy to play.

The adult female with what looks like a butter fish.

Chased by the cubs to feed.

After lunch we headed to the airport where we boarded a BA flight back to Heathrow, thankfully upgraded as well.  Canada is an amazing country and this had been a wonderful trip, finally managing to break the bear hoodoo and alsoto get to see so many marine animals with Orca being the highlight.  All that and the amazing scenery of Vancouver island and Knight Inlet, it was truly an incredible experience.