Today our group headed to Carter Bay, as a return to the spirit bear area the others went to yesterday was precluded by strong winds and would have to wait until later in the week.
As we arrived and got into our rather flimsy zodiacs we saw a mother grizzly and two cubs playing on the edge of the river. We had to move very slowly and watch from a distance as they were not as used to humans as the bears in Mussel.
When the bears finally made their way into the bushes - not to return - we went to see if we could get to see the waterfall we could hear - but the current was too strong for the little engines on the zodiac - at the point where we were just standing still we gave in and drifted back down the river - we did however see golden eye, merganser and bald eagles as well as some young gulls - one stayed unusually still as we passed so guessed it was probably ailing as the behaviour was so unusual!
We stopped and alighted on the bank before leaving, for a much needed group loo break, and saw an old bear 'stomp trail' where they have walked and left their scents for years - it had great big deep footprints - and is in essence the bear telecom trail!
In the afternoon we went to Gorilla creek - the weather today had more sunny intervals which was great and as we settled down on the bank in Gorilla creek to wait for bears we were lucky enough to have a large sunny interval.
The sun facilitated some to have a snooze which was given away by occasional bouts of snoring!
The bears didn't come but watching the salmon in their dying moments and their interactions with gulls was a really interesting natural phenomena. The glaucous gulls were actually eating and pecking at the fish before they had died - often taking the eyes which were clearly the highly prized parts. ( today's photo.)
I also had time to learn the difference between the 5 gull types- glaucous, glaucous winged, mew, bonaparte and herring gulls.
When we made our way back to the boat the tide was out so we walked across barnacle crusted shores - there was a lovely rainbow across the river.
Back on board we sped off for the lodge - we didn't make it though as our boat hit a log and bent the prop so we had to be rescued by another boat! While waiting for the boat we sat through an enormous hailstorm -it was amazing and the weather changed minute by minute - dry, torrential rain, hail and cloudy - another experience in itself and it mattered not we were later back.
After dinner Mark gave us a talk on bears and a quiz 'nature calls' on sounds in nature - it was very hard and based on his upcoming radio programme.