Festival of Wildlife in Canada - Diary 2007
Chris Breen: Monday 17th September
We arrived into British Columbia yesterday evening after a swift flight from Heathrow to Vancouver. From there we were whisked off to the comfort of the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel for the night.
Pre-dinner drinks and an opportunity to re-kindle friendships from previous Festivals - and of course to enjoy a glass of crisply chilled Canadian white wine. After a weary dinner we saw a montage of images from previous Festival that Alison had set to music before retiring for a well-earned rest.
This morning we awoke to a sunny Vancouver. Some of the group walked in Stanley Park, some of us went on highly illuminating tour taking in the Totem Poles and Prospect Point. We were also made startling aware of the huge amount of damage to the park with its loss of some 10,000 trees in the storms of last year.
Off then to Gastown before transferring to the airport for our flights to Bella Bella. Bella Bella is probably not the most exciting place to stop over but it was where we boarded the aircraft to King Pacific Lodge. Five float planes, 41 people, and the start of an amazing adventure in one of Canada's most remote locations. Our reception to the lodge was wonderful - being greeted with a glass of champagne seemed only fitting.
Chris Genovali and Chris Darimont spoke before dinner about the Great Beat Rainforest, dinner was freshly caught salmon, accompanied by Canadian wine and our post dessert fiesta was presented by Mark Carwardine on the Private Life of Humpback Whales.
Chris Breen: Tuesday 18th September
What a day! Everyone was up from breakfast well before 6am and the lodge was humming with excitement.
We were breakfasted and out by 7am on various boats going to a set of different locations. Bear-viewing, whale-watching and looking for Stellar's Sea-lions (stinky! like an unclean Billingstage Market!). The boat I was in saw a sleeping Humpback Whale, immediately followed by a male and female Orca. The male Orca is well known to the researchers here, known by the large chunk that has been taken out of the top of his long, tall dorsal fin.
It didn't stop there, as we stepped off the boat, we were greeted by a small family group of River Otters.
For one of the groups at Whalen Lake the highlight of the morning was a Wolf - was this the hightlight of the entire trip? We certainly weren't expecting to have this on our list for the trip, so this was a very special sighting. In good light, for 2 or 3 minutes. A rare treat.
What else has been seen today? Mark took a group to the platform at Riordan. He saw three Spirit Bears - one was waiting for him and his group as they walked up to the platform. As they were leaving, their way was blocked by a Black Bear.
David had a small group at Cameron Cove - Bald Eagles and the eirie calls of the Ravens.
Nick was out whale-watching - and saw numerous Humpbacks. He says that they have the worst hallitosis of any mammal he has got close to - apparently, their breath smells of three week old fish guts mixed with rancid cabbage.
Our day continued with a spectacular and very special dinner with the Hartley Bay community (consisting of 200 or so people) at which the entire community turned out to wecome the Festival into their area - Orcas, Eagles, Ravens, Wolves. (One of our groups saw all of these today). We were presented with a beautiful elders blanket - with the Spirit Bear emblem embroidered on the back.
Chris Breen: Wednesday 19th September
Wow, what a day....
Off to Cameron Cove by boat first thing this morning and saw a bear within minutes of geting off the boat. Albeit a fleeting glimpse, but it was exciting all the same. Of course this was followed by another bear out in full view, feeding on the shoreline. Oh, and then there was the bear hauling a salmon out of the river whilst we were sitting at the viewing point - which of course was immediately followed by another right in front of us that proceeded to jump into the water and grapple with salmon, after salmon, after salmon. Not a bad start to the day.
Back to the lodge for coffee and home-made biscuits and then a talk from Jannie Wray who runs CetaceaLab (www.cetacealab.org), about Orcas and Humpbacks.
Jonathan and Mandy ran a one-hour painting workshop on the deck before lunch, whilst David and Mark held a photography workshop nearby.
This afternoon we saw a Humpback breaching and then playing in the water and lapping his pectoral fins on the water before fluking and going into a deep dive. It then started to rain, so we decided to head off to the Stellar's Sealion colony before returning to the lodge - but we were rudely interrupted by a radio call saying that three transient Orcas had been seen, so off we went to find them, and needless to say we did - and we had beautiful sightings of an adult female and two calfs, one so young that its white patch was still pink.
Nicks group went out and saw Spirit Bears (we have had spectacular sightings everyday so far). David's and Mark's groups saw Orcas, Humpbacks and bears.
Isabel Ashworth: Thursday 20th September
Set off for Cameron Cove this morning for a spot of bear viewing. Cameron Cove gives you a real feel of what raincoast forest is like and it's a really tranquil spot. Even before we disembarked, we spotted a black bear in the distance so we knew we were in for a good morning's viewing. We slowly meandered up the estuary and stopped to take a closer look at the many salmon carcasses lying about - some were the remnants of bears making the most of the bounty and others had been killed by wolves as only the heads were missing and fang marks were clearly visible in the side of the fish.
We entered the forest and marvelled at the back drop of beautiful hues of green everywhere - trees dripping in soft coloured lichens and moss. Before long we reached our spot and settled down to see what would come our way. Almost instantly we saw leaves shaking across the river and out popped a very rotund black bear! He spent some time picking his way up the river and was then joined by another black bear. The two of them gorged on the dead salmon lying around the place and also fished some out of the river right in front of us. Spectacular!
Almost as soon as they disappeared a younger bear emerged from the forest and launched himself into the river in an attempt to catch salmon. After much enthusiastic splashing and flailing around he succeeded and took his prize off into the undergrowth to have a quick snack. A few moments later he re-emerged and climbed up the bank just below where we were sitting and spent a few minutes meandering around the fallen trees and undergrowth just a few metres from us.
All too soon it was time for us to make our way back to the lodge after a great morning's viewing. We spent some time watching the salmon spawning in the shallows of the river and then slowly wandered back to the pick up point. Suddenly, another black bear launched himself off the river bank into the stream after salmon just feet from us. We all stopped as he grabbed a fresh salmon and disappeared back up the bank and into the forest - or at least that's what we assumed! After five minutes or so he popped his head out from behind some reeds and then nonchalantly descended a fallen tree trunk down into the stream and wandered up the river just feet from us, catching yet more salmon as he went. Nick had been messing about trying to get some shots of all the fish carcasses and the bear walked within feet of him - he could have reached out and touched the bear! What an incredible sighting!
The afternoon was spent visiting the Cetacean Lab where Janie and her husband told us all about their whale research which was fascinating. Obviously a very dedicated couple. We then headed off whale watching and were treated to some spectacular sightings. We switched off the boat engines and sat back and waited to see what would happen. Before long, we were being circled by three different Humpback Whales all blowing and fluking in alternation. Suddenly in the distance we saw a whale performing tail slaps, a very rare sighting. We quietly headed over and were treated to a repeat performance at slightly closer quarters. One of the boats from the Festival had to back off as they were getting wet! This whale was really showing off and was full of energy and we counted a total of 13 tail slaps in one go! Once this performance was over we were treated to some pectoral fin displays and more slapping. Really a great afternoon.
Chris Breen: Friday 21st September
Last night after dinner, Jonathan and Mandy conducted the auction (brilliantly), during the course of which we raised a staggering £16,000 for wildlife charities such as www.davidshepherd.org, Raincoast Conservation Society (www.raincoast.org), David Back's 'Horny@50 campaign (www.artillery.co.uk/horny@50), and the local community at Hartley Bay. I was delighted to have been the successful purchaser of the Chief's Blanket which was designed and produced specifically for the Festival.
It was an early start for everyone in the morning - this, our last morning at King Pacific Lodge. A beautiful home-cooked breakfast was followed by us clambering into our red floatation suits and heading down into the boats to begin our activities. Some people heading off to Cameron Cove bear-viewing, some up to Whalen, and I was heading off with a few people to Ryordan - the platform which has produced so many Spirit Bear sightings over the course of the last week. An hour by boat and a couple of Humpback Whale blows to keep us entertained along the way.
We arrived at Ryordan and clambered over the rocks to the path and then headed down to the hide. Amazingly there was a Spirit Bear ambling through the bushes as we walked down the slope to the hide. Actually not everyone saw it, and it was only a fleeting glimpse - but it created an exciting buzz all the same. We were on the hide for only 20 minutes or so and a second Spirit Bear appeared up river. He was fishing and moving around - in this case quite far away, but still a beautiful sighting of these amazing honey-coloured bears.
The rain set in, the river rose, and Marven our Git'gaat bear guide told us that this made the Spirit Bears very angry as they find it difficult to fish in the river when the water lever is high - they prefer just being able to scoop the fish out rather than charge around after them. So, on this occasion the Spirit Bear spirited itself away in the woods, not to be seen again. The Black Bear on the other hand graced us with his presence, and caught a fish, and wandered off to eat it in peace and quite away from prying eyes.
Sadly it was time to go, so we packed up our kit and headed for the boat to return to the lodge for lunch - more Humpies on the way back.
There was a certain amount of pre-lunch activity to be attended to. A group photo on the deck at the front of the lodge followed by a Triathlon Challenge undertaken by Alison, Mel, Nick, Wolf Chris, and me. We had a three-legged race along the deck, then had to adorn full floatation gear and run around to the boat jetty. Having done that, we had to remove our floatation gear and (ouch!) dive into the icy waters to swim back to the lodge. A sterling effort on everyone's part - and we raised 675 Canadian Dollars for wildlife conservation into the bargain.
We waited for our various flights out of the lodge and then arrived into Vancouver for our final dinner at the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel.
Tomorrow we go our separate ways, Mark is taking a whale-watching group to Vancouver Island, Nick is headed to Nanuk for Polar Bears and the rest of us are heading home.
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