Khutzeymateen

The scenery of the Khutzeymateen inlet and estuary is completely alien to a person from the prairies.

What?

This, our first bear of the trip, was a male splashing around in the water having a good old time, eventually he climbed the bank and gave us this look.

Sea of Green

Our first bear continued to "play around" and decided to climb and walk this log which was surrounded by sedge grasses, it seemed just for the pleasure of it.

Closer look

Our first bear approached our zodiac and gave a curious look as though we were the new guys on the block, and we were. (Maybe too much anthropomorphism?)

Scenic Cruise

First sighting of a bear or as in this case, a group of bears, was usually through the binoculars of our guide Chris or leader Terri, first photos start way out with the landscape playing a predominant role in the overall scene.

Twins

Floating along the shoreline in a zodiac provides lots of opportunity for close ups (using telephoto lenses), these two presented lots of photographic opportunities over the length of our stay.

Keeping close

Cubs stay close to their mother who has to divide her attention between staying alert for the potential danger of a male bear, eating, and keeping an eye on the humans floating by.

Resting place

A male bear uses a floating log to rest his head while swimming in the estuary, something it looks like he has done before.

Male bear wading

As the tide rises the estuary floods and the bears first wade then swim between the various grassy areas

A closer look

A male bear wades close to the zodiac

The swim

Eventually the rising tide obliges this male bear to swim to change locations within the estuary

Dripping wet

A male bear emerges from the waters of the estuary onto the wooded bank after a fairly long swim.

The slope

At low tide bears use the exposed banks to travel up and down the inlet.

Walking the log

A male bear navigating the exposed banks if the inlet

Scenery

A mother bear and her cub absorbed by the scenery

Common Mergansers

A brief distraction as this pair of mergansers take flight

Abstract

A rocky shore in the inter tidal zone makes for an interesting abstract. Taken with a telephoto lens at an angle so not quite to the exacting corner to corner sharpness standards practiced by true landscape photographers (though they don't come here!)

Keeping watch

It was interesting that one of the cubs from this family stayed very close to its mother while the other was more adventurous, sort of.

Grazing

Grazing the sedge grasses is an almost continuous occupation for the mother bear as she is needs to eat for three, though the cubs supplement their diet with the verdant grass too.

Evening

The mother bear finds an isolated spot from which to keep watch as the sun falls below the mountainous skyline in the late evening.

Curiosity

A mud spattered face looks curiously at the photographers in the zodiak.

Family portrait

Mother bear seems quite relaxed as she moves her family along the shoreline in the estuary.