Brown Bears and Banter - 10 days in Alaska with my son

[Peter Connan]

Some really lovely photos @pomkiwi

[pomkiwi]

@offshorebirder They are impressive and fascinating in equal measure. They give the impression of being very aware of everything around them - the best comparison for time spent with them is I can find is with time spent with elephants.

[pomkiwi]

@Peter Connan I will use my 1000th post to thank-you 

[pault]

Great stuff! Super photos of the groups with the bears as well as the bears themselves up close. 

 

 

[pomkiwi]

Adolescent Bears part 1

 

On one of the afternoons when it was fairly wet only two of us went out with our guide. A pair of bears aged 4 or 5 years (brothers who had been pushed away from their mother a couple of years earlier) approached us whilst scouting for any larger males:

 

 

(The other group were with a mother and cubs).

Our guide suggested we move down the creek a little and sit with our backs to the bank hoping that the bears would walk between us and the water.  As we sat there the bears worked their way along grazing on the grass:

 

First one bear came past and gave me the once over:

 

A few seconds later his brother followed:

 

It was a very special moment and at times the animals were only a metre away - the photos above were mainly taken at 80mm focal length. We stayed silent and they appeared comfortable with us.  Still checking for other bears this one reminded us that he stood nearly 2m tall with a set of impressive claws.

 

Once they had moved closer to the river we all agreed that it would be fun to do that gain and the three us moved 30m upstream.

Once more they approached:

 

They walked past but this time it felt as though we were getting a rather more detailed appraisal:

 

They browsed within touching distance:

 

Then it got rather interesting. One of the bears got up on top of the bank about 10m along from us - he was now above us and behind us but completely out of sight. His brother standing just in front got up to check out where he was (this photo was taken at 80mm and was as much of him as I could fit in my viewfinder (I've cropped out some trees to the right in order  to avoid distracting you from his claws - they held my attention)

 

I had some idea what might happen next and sure enough the other bear appeared on the bank just above my right shoulder looking straight at me:

 

I felt somewhat vulnerable at this point but he came down the bank beside me close enough to touch and maintaining eye contact.

 

 

He then proceeded to graze a metre or two in front of me giving an occasional glance as if to ensure he still had my full attention (he did). A small amount of i-phone footage gives an idea of this experience - listen for the sound of the grass being ripped up.

 

All in all we spent about 40 minutes with these two - probably the most intense wildlife encounter I've ever had. I smiled for a couple of hours afterwards and my heart rate stayed elevated for as long!

Edited August 24, 2018 by pomkiwi

[TonyQ]

What an amazing experience with the bears so close. I am sure your heart rate was elevated!

Superb photos.

( the video link does not seem to work on my iPad)

[pomkiwi]

@TonyQ Thank-you. There was a more scary moment a bit later in the trip that I will recount in the next post. This was OK but intense and only got a bit worrying when one of the bears disappeared and I had no idea what he might choose to do next. I think that the fact we sat still was very helpful.

I'm sorry about the video, it plays OK through the site on both my Mac and my i-Pad so I'm not sure what is going on.

[offshorebirder]

I am agog at your ultra-close Brown Bear encounter @pomkiwi!    Jealous too!

 

Sounds like your guides had very good awareness and judgement to position your party along the creek so the immature bear brothers would stroll past. 

 

 

[pomkiwi]

@offshorebirder The great thing about Silver Salmon Creek Lodge is that the guides know the individual bears pretty well. The bears are used to humans being around and generally pretty tolerant. On this occasion we were only two plus the guide and we had been there for 3 days; as such I think that the guide had worked out that we were likely to do what we were told and stay fairly relaxed.

We did not attempt anything like this in a bigger group (although something similar but unplanned did happen on our first day that I will post later).  The guide also confirmed that he would never try anything similar at any other location than SSCL.

 

Throughout we let the bears control the sighting - we moved away from them and stopped where they had a good gap between us and the creek; had they wanted to avoid us they had lots of time and space to do so. I think that if we had just walked directly up to them so close they would either have turned tail or reacted aggressively.

 

As it was they were very comfortable with us and hopefully they ended up even more confident that the humans at SSCL are to be trusted.

[pomkiwi]

Adolescent Bears part 2

 

Although most of the bears we came into regular contact with were relaxed there was one young male who was the exception. 

 

When we first saw him on a wet evening he seemed to want to avoid us (we were in the ATV on the track). He turned and bared his teeth (reading since i have come back suggests that this may be a sign of anxiety):

 

Before settling and giving us a lovely photo opportunity:

 

The following morning we had a flood tide pretty much up to the track. We were able to walk up and down the track in front of the lodges and neighbouring cabins provided we followed some clear rules. Firstly do not approach the bears. If any do approach then back off slowly, never running (running animals = prey). Avoid eye contact at that stage but if they approach closely then stand tall, look at the bear, talk firmly with arms upraised. Sounds simple really.

I had watched a mother and two cubs go past and taken some photos. I followed them at a distance before they turned into the woods. At that point I noticed the bear from the previous evening on the lawn of the neighbouring lodge. At this point I was 70 or 80m away - the picture below was taken with my 80-400 lens fully extended:

 

I turned and started to walk slowly back along the road towards SSCL. I turned to look back and saw him coming out of the driveway on to the road and heading puposefully in my direction:

 

I continued to walk away slowly on the edge of the flooded meadow trying to watch him out of the corner of my eye. At that point he started to run and I turned, took one photo (this at 180mm):

 

 I then made myself as big as possible and held out one arm whilst telling him firmly to go away. He got within about 5m and turned, huffed and scuttled into the trees.

 

An interesting encounter and one that took me a little while to settle down from. However the overriding impression was of a youngster trying his luck and seeing how far he could push me. I was pleased I had done a bit of reading on bear awreness and how to behave as well as listening to what we had been told at SSCL - all agreed that it is important that young bears don't learn that they can bully humans

Edited August 24, 2018 by pomkiwi

[pault]

Wonderful experiences and great pictures. Love it.

 

With Windows 10 I had to download that video and play it with a video player that reads odd formats better than most. Worked okay but the downloading corrupted the file a little. It played beautifully on my iPhone8 but I had to wait quite a while for it to fully download before it would play ..... just so you know. 

[pomkiwi]

@pault Thank-you for your comments and for the video update. I think it is a big file - all I did was export it from photos onto my my hard drive and upload it It is in .mov format I believe.  My first video contribution to ST and almost certainly my last as I much prefer still photography.

[pomkiwi]

Younger Females

 

As above we saw a few single female bears but they tended to keep away from the other bears to a great degree.

The first one we saw was drinking from the creek:

We saw her later in the day scanning for threats and showing off her claws:

Later in the week we watched her on the beach before she settled on a log for a well earnt rest:

 

On another occasion we went for a hike across some meadows and saw a heavier female who was again constantlt watching for other bears:

 

 

There was a younger male who caught her scent and ran away:

 

She stood up and it was impressive to see how quickly she could move from all fours to upright:

 

 

We were told that a bears vision is roughly the same as a human and that thry look around to confirm what they have already identified from their sense of smell.

[pomkiwi]

A break from bears

 

In which we visit a puffin colony and have a lot of fun catching them in flight.

 

 

We were offered the opportunity to spend the afternoon in a boat travelling up the coast to a puffin colony. In the end the lodge sent two boats out with around 8 passengers in each which gave us lots of room to move around. We also stepped ashore for 40 minutes. Fortunately it was flat calm.

 

The puffins crowd on to any almost flat surface although there is lots of pushing and shoving with some sliding off:

 

Landings are remarkably controlled given the speed of approach:

 

The welcome home was touching:

 

The roosting birds are prey to eagles and if one appears the whole colony departs:

 

They willoften fly out in groups but follow an eliptical path before returning singly:

 

As well as the orned puffin pictured above we saw a lot of common murres (or guillemot)

 

Some black oystercatchers:

 

As well as horned puffins we saw a few tufted puffins:

 

Most of our time however was spent trying to follow individual horned puffins:

 

All in all a thoroughly enoyable afternoon and one that developed my photography skills!

[ld1]

@pomkiwi This is such a fabulous report. All these bears and then you start dropping puffins on us like it’s no big deal - who knew you could even see Bears and Puffins in one place! Silver Salmon Creek Lodge is creeping up my to do list. Puffins remind me of being a child and I

know I can see them here in the U.K.

but not with Bears! 

 

Edited August 29, 2018 by ld1

[pomkiwi]

@ld1 Thank-you for your kind comments. Alaska in general and SSCL especially were a great experience. For me one of the real bonuses was that we were never hurried - we could spend hours waliking around with one set of bears and even the boat trip lasted nearly 4 hours with nearly 2.5 hours spent at the colony. I would recommend a stay at SSCL but it isn't cheap (I think 3 days would have worked as well as 4) and fills up rapidly - I know that 2020 was already looking busy back in July.

[Dave Williams]

An excellent report! Interesting to compare your bear experience with mine in Estonia but I had the security of a wooden hide! I think you had much better photo opportunities though.

The clarity and detail of the bear on the lawn 70-80m away and with your lens at 400mm has me wondering which body you were using?

The video shows perfectly on my iMac incidentally and to clearly hear the grass being torn suggests it was very, very close!

[pomkiwi]

@Dave Williams Thank-you! We were very lucky in that we had 12 hours a day (if we wanted) to view bears (more if you include the occasions they wandered past and through the lodge) which gave a huge variety of photo opportunities. We didn't spend much time on the beach which would have reduced the number of photos of bears chewing grass; they also were not fishing in the river as the salmon had not yet arrived.

Pretty much all the photos in this report were taken using a Nikon D500 and 80-400mm lens (a 16-80 lens was used for some of the landscapes). The full settings: 400mm, 1/320 sec (hand-held), f/6.3, ISO 4500.

 

I am extremely happy with this body both in terms of its image quality and ability to hold focus - it was remarkable as I tracked puffins moving across rock faces and coming close to other birds. It does sometimes seem to produce images with more noticeable noise than my now sadly departed D7200 but I am pushing it harder on occasions and in any event it is very easy to correct later.

 I'm also very happy with the images from 80-400mm lens (some comments on the internet suggest that I have a good copy) and love the fact that it is really easy to use hand-held. Although tempted by the 200-500 I would miss the portablity and will probably continue with my current approach - if it's too far for 400mm then it's time to sit back and enjoy the expereince without the camera.

 

The munching bear was probably around 1.5 away - if I'd leant forward I could just about have touched him.....

[pomkiwi]

Family Time - Mothers and Cubs

 

Prepare for an overdose of cuteness.....

 

There were two mothers we saw. One with cubs around 18 months of age and the other with cubs a year older and close to being pushed out.

 

Our first close encounter was down by the creek when we had spread out to get photos of the three crossing. For some reason the sow changed her mind and came through the group passing within a metre of me.

 

Followed by the cubs who seemed a little more suspicious:

 

They then stayed in some lovely light by the river:

 

We spent a lot of time watching them feed, relax and play. The bald patch seen on one of them is not mange - it is just shedding its winter coat.

 

The older cubs were very active and seemed to enjoy sparring on the beach:

 

We were also able to witness some quieter moments including nursing:

 

After all the warnings I had rread about the dangers of approaching mothers and cubs I was amazed how relaxed these family groups were with our presence.

[elefromoz]

@pomkiwi, thanks for posting this great report. Alaska is a great place to visit and Ive always yearned for a return visit and have looked at SSCL over the years after reading nice reviews. I did find it a bit nerve wracking just hiking the local trails around towns in case of a surprise Bear encounter when we were on our own. I think Id be much more comfortable with a guide for sure. You seemed to have got lucky with the weather, in fact just getting in on your scheduled flights is lucky, I see sunshine. Beautiful photos, oh and well done for standing your ground to 5 meters to a charging Bear, bluff or not. 

[xelas]

On 8/30/2018 at 12:10 PM, pomkiwi said:

if it's too far for 400mm then it's time to sit back and enjoy the expereince without the camera.

 

Works OK for mammals but not for birds . But you are a lucky guy as you have probably already pre-ordered 500 PF lens?!

[pomkiwi]

4 minutes ago, xelas said:

 

Works OK for mammals but not for birds . But you are a lucky guy as you have probably already pre-ordered 500 PF lens?!

 

Ha-ha. My next priority will be a second body as the D7200 has died. Even then I'm not certain I want a 500mm prime - I appreciate the benefits in terms of quality but I am really only an opportunistic birder and as such really love the portability of the 80-400 and the range of opportunties it gives for composition. I'm sure if I had unlimited funds and the use of a butler to carry my bags around the world the the 500 PF would be for me......

[xelas]

Just now, pomkiwi said:

I'm sure if I had unlimited funds and the use of a butler to carry my bags around the world the the 500 PF would be for me......

 

Time to read some tech specs, @pomkiwi. The 500 PF is 1480 gr (w.o the foot ... and who needs a tripod at 1,5 kilo?!). The budget is another issue, but still within reach at cca. USD 3600.

 

Another body like a full frame one? If not, D7200 (which you know well) is still very much a valid option, specially for a second body. Mine is heading towards 100k clicks but it does its job just good enough for us.

[pomkiwi]

Heading Home

 

All too soon we headed to the beach for the last time to wait for our plane. A lone bear was running across the beach - in a hurry to go clamming?

 

A short flight over Cook Inlet provided more scenic views:

 

On the way home we stopped off at Russian River and hiked up to the falls an beyond. There were some big bears around looking for opportunities to feed on salmon. Once again we practiced our fish in flight techniques:

 

 

We hiked above the falls a way and the signs of bears around made us somewhat cautious as we knew that an encounter here could be very different form those we had just enjoyed. In the end we saw a good size bear crossing the river 70m away from where we were relaxing from lunch. 

 

A really special moment - all the better for being completely unpredictable. 

We drove down to Anchorage and the folowing morning flew south to Seattle enjoying lovely views (sit on the left side going south). Time for a couple of final beers in Seattle airport before Matt headed back to Brisbane and I got on my plane to London.

Edited September 3, 2018 by pomkiwi

[pomkiwi]

Reflections

 

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Alaska. I think I was surprised by how remote it felt and by the evidence of wildlife everywhere we went.

 

 

Silver Salmon Creek Lodge is a special place and it was a real treat to spend so much time so close to bears. I have become fascinated by them and theire behaviours - I have a lot to learn.