Author: jo

Today was our bear watching tour, booked for lunch time so Keith and I left the kids first thing to go and have another look for sea otters while the teenagers chilled. Around the other side of the peninsular we saw another sea lion mooching about off Tonquin beach and more excitingly a hairy woodpecker shouting its head off just above the tree line.

After a quick late breakfast we headed off to our tour. Funky red flotation suit applied and we were off! We saw two harbour seals from the pontoon before we even got on the boat which boded well. Then the first of many, many bald eagles perched on a dead tree on the water line. Next was a group of about 14 harbour seals pulled out and galumphing about. They weren’t worried about us but weren’t impressed by the bald eagle shouting overhead and a few galumphed back into the water. They did have a few pups which weren’t shiny and smooth but still had visible fluffy fur

We next travelled at pretty high speed across an inlet for about 20 minutes, pausing half way after Mila spotted a sea otter grooming itself at least half a mile from any land. I expected they would stay near land but apparently not- born, live, eat, mate and die in the water so land unnecessary. Derek told us it was an older one as it had a silver grey head. It carried on rolling around and grooming itself without really paying much attention to us. It did get a bit close accidentally and disappeared under the boat to pop up on the other side and carry on! A bucket list moment for me so I was very excited.

Next Derek wanted to find us a bear to see so he asked us to help spotting them along the shoreline. The tour was planned to coincide with low tide as then black bears come down to eat soft shelled crabs, shellfish and anything else they can forage. Seafood counts for about 15-20% of their diet on Vancouver Island. We had a lot of distance with no luck but then suddenly the Dutch/German tourist at the back of the boat shouted that he had seen one. His directions were rubbish (even in English!) but Derek found it and got us a bit closer. It was an adolescent black bear that went back above the tree line almost immediately. We hung around for a bit hoping but then Derek took us round and we started to head back.

The Dutch/German tourist struck again with another shout and we got an even better sight of an adult female flipping rocks right on the edge of the water and eating whatever was underneath. She kept looking at us so could clearly smell and hear us so we didn’t go too close but it was very cool. Derek radioed in to tell the other tour guides where to come and all the local boats descended on our location. Just behind us as we watched the bear was a harbour seals by itself nursing an injury on its neck which was bleeding. The rest of the herd/pod (Google says either) was on the far side of the island being sociable. Poor lonely seal.

Derek was worried we would be late back so we said goodbye to the bear and started motoring back. The boat was a lot of fun and we waved at multiple eagles and the same sea otter on the way back to Tofino.

Bear tour – 10/10 would recommend.

Our first walk today took us into some “Twilight-esque” forest. Totally different plants than we have seen before and an almost prehistoric feel to the undergrowth. Very little sounds apart from the crashing waves on one side and the traffic noise on the other, but in the middle everything feels muted.

I have never seen lily of the valley outside of a garden so that was interesting… I thought they were hostas to start with.

I didn’t see any birds in the forest but we did hear some. The rest of the family got sick of me stopping and shushing them.

At the end of the boardwalk, we popped out onto Combers Beach – no one surfing on this one so presumably rubbish waves or too dangerous, it wasn’t clear which. We almost immediately got flown over by a bald eagle who tried to catch something and failed and was totally unmoved by the helicopter. We also saw a flock of what I think were sandpipers scurrying along next to the water.

Our next walk was on boardwalks again, this time called a rainforest. I am not sure I could spot the different in the flora or fauna but it was a nice walk. The weird thing was the noise the many ravens were making. Merlin was convinced it was ravens but it was very odd. They sounded like they were imitating other birds. I think they can be trained to something close to speech so I presume it is possible but it sounded very strange. One sounded like bubbles popping!

A walk into town meant we glimpsed a raccoon ( spotted by Mila obviously!) but it dashed off too fast for a photo.

Our last trip of the day was to Meares Island to do a tall trees hike. We needed to get a water taxi over to the island which was good fun and we got a fleeting glimpse of a sea otter before it dove into the water and hid.

The plants were similar although the trees were bigger as the island had never been logged:

The birds were much the same too with the red crossbills apparently happy to eat Douglas fir cones as well.

We saw the Stellars Jay and a few more not Al sounding ravens but the little birds were high, quiet and well hidden – when the canopy is 40m above you, they are going to be tricky to spot!

There was evidence of some kind of rodent but we didn’t see any. We did see the famous banana slug which was disgusting and massive. Ooh and a load of teeny crabs on the shoreline of the island.

Finally we were treated to some exhibitionist behaviour from Diego during supper and afterwards as he publicly caught, tore apart and swallowed fish right in front of the marina. The waiter said he was there regularly and didn’t seem impressed but we were!

Our walk into Vancouver at lunch time was rewarded by cormorants and seals (harbour I presumed but I am not sure) in the estuary by the mariner.

Then we popped out to see Stanley park after a particularly fabulous bowl of ramen for dinner as we had heard that Beaver Lake at dusk was a good bet. The park was only a 10 minute walk from the hotel (it would have been 5 but I forgot my phone and needed it for Merlin!).

I will admit to being pretty unimpressed when we got to the first lake (lost lake) as it is almost entirely covered in pondweed. There were a few dragon flies and red eyed ducks, but not a lot else. It didn’t seem very healthy and was very overgrown with rushes at the edges so you couldn’t see in at all.

Without much expectation, we walked through into the forest and got a surprise – redwood trees! Lots that have been cut or fallen, but some younger ones are still standing. It almost looks as though someone thought it would be a good idea to plant them but they are not native and now they are being steadily removed again. We saw a grey squirrel straight away that posed beautifully for Keith. Another squirrel then started doing bird impressions and tricking me into trying to ID it with Merlin. It turned out to be a Douglas squirrel which are only found pretty locally to Vancouver. They live happily with grey and red as they have a slightly different diet.

As we walked through the woods and around Beaver Lake, Merlin found me some new birds that I hadn’t found before:

We sat down right in front of the beavers lodge and watched the ducks and dragonflies doing their thing. There was quite a bit of noise from the road, passing seaplanes and people on bikes but when they all went temporarily quiet, the bullfrogs started singing and it was so loud! It didn’t last more than a few minutes and we couldn’t spot any of them but it was very cool.

We kept still and quiet for about 20 minutes while people walked and cycled past, seaplanes whined overhead and the ducklings chirped to each other and then we were rewarded… I thought I had seen something moving the reeds about 100m from where we were sitting, then suddenly there was a big beaver swimming towards us from the reeds. It was very aware of us and twitched it’s backwards facing ears at Keith’s camera clicking. It turned around and nearly swam back to the reeds but then changed its mind and swam up to the front of its house and dove under the water, presumably to go inside. I was very pleased to have seen it!!

By this point the light was failing so we made a beeline back to the hotel and the resting teenagers.

Mila was very annoying today… She sat in the bubble car reading her book with headphones on and then occasionally looked out the window to say – “ooh look deer!”, before going back to her book. I saw nothing, even though I stared out the window the whole time! Grrrr

We did all see a bald eagle on an island in the river after dinner – identified by Keith – look how far he has come!

We used our down time to play a few games of cards and eat and eat and eat and listen to detailed journey logs and “how to guides” of almost everything you could imagine. There was a coach load of be-lanyarded Americans, quite a few of whom were travelling solo, desperate to share their wisdom/conversation/jigsaw puzzle expertise… One man in particular (whose wife was conspicuous by her presence in a different car) talked without pausing for breath about the 198 countries he had visited and how he stored his photos. I felt very sorry for the Quebecois couple that he had ensnared and tricked into sharing their home address. Hilariously they started off too cagey for him, so once he had pinned down the locale, he got it up on Google maps and asked them to point!!!

The cabin was usable when the chairs were up and like the intro to an episode of casualty when the beds were out. Elbows, heads, backs and knees were all sacrificed in the process of getting into the toilet, getting dressed and undressed, climbing into the bunks and climbing out. I have no idea how the aged and mostly stick wielding Americans got into those bunks.

The toilet was an offense to every sense… smell, sight, sound, pressure and confinement were all issues.

Overall, the train journey was enjoyable but I would only repeat it in a bigger cabin and don’t think I could manage Keith locked up like that for four days!!

What a busy wildlife day!!

We had seen big soaring birds walking along the main road in Jasper, but only as silhouettes against a very bright sky so identification was pretty tricky.

Our tour guide was quite a character but she was very knowledgeable and did deliver!

She started by showing us the elk we had stumbled across on the way into town. They were split across the road but they didn’t seem upset by our presence. This was a maternity herd so we did see a calf that was still slightly spotty.

Our next destination was to see the big horned sheep at a location we had already seen them, but they were shy and didn’t put in an appearance. She told us all about them anyway.

We then drove out along the river (not a lake but a knee deep flood plain), where we saw a man wading much further out than looked sensible before she explained. On the right hand side of the road, she stopped to show us a beaver lodge that had been in use for 70 years and then we drove along the edge of an enormous beaver made lake. She said she hadn’t spotted one for 4 years so I might have to let that one go!! We did see their dam and discussed how parks Canada have to keep water flowing to prevent the highway from flooding.

We failed to see the goats on a cliff a bit further up, even though we all squinted at it for a while. Again, she told us all about how their hooves work so they can climb ridiculously steep rocky slopes.

We then did a (nearly) emergency stop on side of the highway to see some white tailed deer, but we only really saw their white tails as they bounced away to hide.

All the way through the tour she talked about the fire last year and the long lasting effects. In summary, it was bad because a lot of the trees were already dead as they had been infected by pine beetles, so they burnt really fast. Pine beetles only die if the temperature stays below -30 for 3 weeks continuously, and that hasn’t happened for two years, so the problems continue. They are also getting unusually hot summers so the normally cool ground is warming up and all the virus and bacteria are damaging the trees. It is not expected that the 37 thousand hectares of fire damage will ever look as it did before. This is not necessarily a negative as the trees were too thick to encourage the plant growth required to sustain a large population of wildlife.

She also talked about the effects of the fire on Jasper. The town was evacuated in the middle of the night as the fire started at around tea time. Everyone hiking on the maligne trail was given a free helicopter ride out. 2000 families lost their homes and while there is some temporary housing, a lot of people choose to leave instead. There are “help wanted” signs in practically every shop window.

We turned off the highway onto the maligne lake road and started our ascent to maligne lake. This was on our list of hiking destinations so we were interested to see what we would see.

Our first spot was a pair of mule deer, identified by their enormous donkey ears. They were a bit shy but Keith snapped them before they disappeared.

Then we pulled over at the end of the lake to see if we could spot the hoary marmots that normally live there. I was very disappointed when we didn’t see any, but we did hear some interesting noises and a fellow British binocular wearer spotted a bald eagle sitting in a tree further down the lake. We all hopped back in the bus to get closer.

Closer, we could see the nest, an adult and an all brown juvenile. Keith got an amazing shot of the adult and flight shot of the baby. If that wasn’t exciting enough, someone then spotted a hoary marmot wandering across the pebble beach below where we were standing and then another one sunbathing on a rock. I tried to get the bald eagles to sing for me, but caught a northern flicker instead. I didn’t manage to see it or get a photo which was disappointing as they are very pretty according to Merlin!

It took a while for everyone to have their fill of the eagles and the marmots, but then we were back to the bus. It didn’t feel like we had gone far when we stopped again at an osprey nest. The guide said there were two chicks but we could only see an adult head poking out the top.

We continued up the hill and drove across a bridge at the end of the lake that was teeming with gnats and (I worked out on the way down) masses of barn swallows. I watched a fat brown bird bigger than the swallows begging from an adult. I wondered if it could be a cuckoo chick, but subsequent googling has said they are not found here. Maybe just a fat chick then?

We had a comfort break in the (now empty) car park at the top of the lake. Wonderful flushing toilets instead of the normal open pit… Gulp! The guide showed us antlers of elk, moose and big horned sheep and then silicon footprints of both grizzly and black bears with a claw attached. A bit sobering to be honest. While we were passing them around, three more mule deer wandered out of the forest and then wandered away again.

Back to the bus and back down the mountain road, the guide talked about the bears and how to survive a “down and dirty fight” with either type. To be avoided. Another road based drama as she accelerated in response to a pair of moose (not meese, mice or mooses) crossing the road ahead of us. We arrived in time to see their haunches disappear into the trees, but she reversed expertly (with beeping) until the female could be seen through the trees. It was very tricky to get a good view/shot as she was eating with her head down and kept moving behind yet another tree, but Keith did his best out the door of the bus.

We saw the same (probably) mule deer in the same layby on the way back down and then surprised the guide by also spotting three buck elk split across the road a bit further down. The guide said that the male elk normally stay away from the female herds until at least mid august when they start getting more interested, but recently the local guides had noticed that the males were already identifying interesting females and following them around. Another potential consequence of global warming.

After some epic sunset photo opportunities, we completed the trip down the mountain and back to the hotel.

Highly recommended as an experience but you should be warned in advance that she may not remember to collect you, she will potentially deny any knowledge of you having been on her bus after a stop and she absolutely will not check you are back in before she leaves!!

3 x deer
Tall stork/heron thingy x2 by brook, mostly white- great blue heron
Eagle? Fingers on wings, white head, white band on tail- decided on bald eagle for this one having done lots of image comparisons!
3 x goats
Big bird – White underside, dark on top, large wings small head and tail, seen at bridge- not sure, could be osprey as near water but wasn’t too big so could have been the red tailed hawk

2 ravens- noisy buggers! One adult one begging juvenile, in the car park at a rest stop
1 deer
1 male elk – 5 tines, caused our only traffic jam in the parkway as tourists stopped to take photos.

8 female elk plus one juvenile- right outside Jasper

Very pleased to have finally spotted some raptors!

The big shock of today was the amount of fire damage evident during the last part of our journey. The lady at the front desk of the hotel reckons the temporary accommodation (they are shipping containers essentially) will be in place for another 5 years while they rebuild. Her mum is living in one and she said the major issue is the restriction on water supply as struck delivers once a week!!

We saw a grizzly bear! It was eating berries and nibbling on the bark at the base of some mini silver birch trees at the side of the road (bow valley parkway). The ranger wasn’t happy about its proximity to the road and the idiot tourists so he shouted at it and it trombled a bit further away. He also shouted at the tourists to get back in their cars. He was polite but exasperated and lost sight of the bear while dealing with the people. He looked relieved when more rangers turned up to help.

We then saw a red napped sap sucker (which finally explains all the damage to trees we have seen) flitting about a rest stop off the same road. We tried to ID it at the time but ended up having to do an image search once we had WiFi again!

We then saw some big horned sheep by the side of the Trans Canada Highway. Both them and  their horns are genuinely big. There are signs on the side of the road warning about them so presumably they hang about in approximately the same place most of the time.

We nearly saw some eagles (got told they were usually there!) and I did see a big raptor briefly but we were concentrating on the terrifying instructions for white water rafting so we didn’t get an ID. We did see lots of ravens in the same place though.

Many more chipmunks and ground squirrels obviously.

An amazing day for wildlife today!

Not a great variety of birds today, but I did spot a juvenile great horned owl at the side of the path. It was snoozing on a branch and even treated us to a few head bobs while we watched it. We shared our spot with a few other hikers as well.

We did see an astonishing number of different plants and I enjoyed using seek to identify them. The app has clearly had an upgrade since the last time I used it as it was really fast, even with no internet. Keith took some great photos of the prettiest ones.

I also saw quite a few fungi in the forest areas, but only managed to ID one from the photo Keith took.

We also saw a huge number of small mammals, including chipmunks and ground squirrels and witnessed idiot tourists feeding them. Because of this they are very brave and run up to your lap if you sit down to eat. Very cute and fun to watch and take photos of, but essentially a problem to manage the population if hikers don’t respect they are wild.

I saw a mouse/vole sized rodent on the path but wasn’t quick enough to get a photo or ID. Research hasn’t really helped so it will have to stay a mystery.

The surprise of the day was that we didn’t see a single raptor hanging in a clear sky and with the number of pine siskins and chipmunks/squirrels I would have expected a few. We did speak to some Dutch Merlin users who said they had seen something big, but didn’t get a chance to ID it.

The disappointment of the day was that three young American hikers in the queue at the tea house had just seen and photographed a porcupine, but we didn’t manage to get a glimpse!

Today was a pretty good bird day. Merlin (bird identification app) did a great job at hearing tiny well hidden winged things in conifers. I got very annoyed at one point today as it kept telling me it didn’t know what a very loud chirruping was. Pretty sure in retrospect that it was a ground squirrel so outside of its remit!

I watched a flock of tree swallows (shouting loudly enough to be identified) mobbing and in turn being hassled by a small raptor. I am fairly confident it was a merlin, but only based on size and aerobatic feats as it wasn’t at all close and I couldn’t get a lock on it with the binoculars as it was too fast.

Aside from the birds we had a great time watching the ground squirrels who were surprisingly brave around humans and kept popping back up out of their holes to see if we had gone away yet. Mila gets bonus spotting points for shouting “deer” many times after spotting the seemingly solitary animals just off the road. We all saw the herd of Elk- and the tourists trying to get closer and trespassing on a restricted access area- but we chose not to stop thinking we could return. Sadly when we did they had moved further away from the road, but the new binoculars came into their own finding them lying down probably a kilometre away. A park warden told us that it was a maternity herd and they had just given birth. The males wander off on their own at that point apparently. Just saying.

What was really surprising today was how little we had to travel outside the town to experience a little bit of wilderness and the animals that live there. With that in mind I have borrowed bear spray from the hotel for our hike tomorrow…

Apparently related to the grey not the red, the black squirrels in Toronto have adapted to retain more heat when it is cold. I imagine they suffer a bit when it is 27 degrees like today.

Although shy of the dog that really wanted to chase it, they were not at all bothered by us and wandered really close.

Although Toronto did not offer us bears- only squirrels, sparrows, pigeons and seagulls, we did get an awesome thunderstorm on our first night which gave us an excuse other than jetlag to be awake for a few hours in the early morning.