Kodiak 9/17 - Bears 01

After watching the sunrise and moving around a bit, we drove down down to the Buskin River (very near their house). This area is a formal state park and is a popular fishing location. You walk from the parking lot down a wooded semi-steep embankment to the river. The river makes a bend at this point so you can see two directions. People were already up on the bank as a mom and three cubs had taken over the area pushing the fishermen out of the water. There is a small rock island in this bend that had two of cubs lounging after their salmon breakfast. Breakfast was so good, one of the cubs decided he looked good with some salmon "eye shadow" for the morning!

You can see a bit of what was keeping them entertained in this photo. The cubs were playing with fishing gear left behind following a hurried move away by the fisherman. The bears come in relatively quickly and all you can do is keep your distance. If you are fishing in the river, you don't always have a path back to where you laid down your gear so you get to watch your expensive rod case become a bear toy.

This photo makes the cub appear to be questioning his sibling whether he had indigestion or if he just over ate.

Upon closer inspection, you see the above photo was the start of a massive head shake with the blur of the neck. As typical, lighting was a bit low and I had to use lower-than-preferred shutter speeds but sometimes, things work out. You see the forehead-centered circular motion of the eye-rolling head shake while keeping the rest of his body surprisingly still. The gull in the left of the frame shows you what gulls do. The gulls follow the bears as they know there will be tasty scraps.

Thanks,

Doug White

https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/