In dawned another beautiful day on our last full day here. We took a packed lunch and stayed out the whole day - we started with Perry and Angela, who was unshackled from the lodge for a day, and swopped boats at lunchtime and finished with Chris. This enabled Perry to go with the other group to lift the crab pot they had set yesterday. We had a sweepstake on the number there would be in the pot - last time there were 44 - we guessed in the thirties - but Margaret was spot on with 15! They were able to keep 6 - so dinner was crab - which we passed on!
Back to the wildlife - as it was peak low tide we started a little later as the boats were high and dry - but a first stop at Tiny island meant we were sure to see the cross fix foraging and watching a bear emerge from the forest and walk across the bay - in total we saw a record 18 different bears today. Our next bears were Uno and her cubs foraging and eating berries on the shoreline (today's photo.) We then went to the marshy area and saw a female and 3 cubs - play fighting- and a female and two cubs running across the bay they were in the distance - Perry manoeuvred the boat so we could get off and try to get closer but by the time we did they had disappeared but we had s good sighting of a bald eagle sitting on the edged if a rocky outcrop. We then joined the other group on the marsh who were watching the big old male - we saw yesterday - grazing and dozing.
Lunch called - so we swopped boats and headed to a tiny cove - it was really warm out of the cool wind.
After lunch we found several line bears some we had seen on previous days and some new ones - all were either sitting and eating the sedge grass or leaning into bushes, reaching up as high as they could to enable them to grab and eat the ripe berries - of which there are plenty. There has been a real berry explosion in the warm summer sunshine. We also saw harlequin ducks, kittiwake and two puffins on our way back to the lodge.
The crab feast - well watching it was entertaining as people grappled with crab-legs and nut crackers - some were bathed in crab meat and juices - one piece even landed on my shoulder. It was a somewhat noisier dinner than usual and that's saying something!