Bear Diaries 2011 Part 12: BIG Bear! A Day Trip Encounter

Remember John Candy's quote from the movie, The Great Outdoors... "Big Bear... Big Bear chase me"? We'll luckily for me this Bear didn't chase me but boy was it BIG!

I came across this Bear last Saturday on a day trip my wife and I took out to Manning Park, BC which is about 2hrs away from my house. I have driven through the park four times in the past but never had the chance to stop and explore. It was high on the to-do list for 2011 and I am glad we got the chance to go last weekend.

Manning Park is also Grizzly Bear territory but I imagine they are still high in the mountains at this time of year. All the Bear warning signs were Grizzly icons. I am planning a 3 day hike in the area around late August time/early September which should be really cool. If I recall it's a 60K loop and will be real wilderness camping so that should be sweet. At that time of year the Grizzlies will be in the low ground enjoying the Salmon run (phew).

This Bear is really solid looking and has a big thick coat which looks like it is moulting now the temperature is rising. Look at the eyes though, this Bear has those big piercing haunting eyes that were the stuff of nightmares when I was a child after reading the Bear Attack books my Dad would bring back to us in the UK from business trips to Seattle. I was photographing this Bear about 10 meters from the car and at one point the Bear stopped and just stared directly at me. That was the time to leave message. I didn't want to find out what he was thinking. Bear, "Hmmm I wonder if that photographer will taste better than this grass?"

I have one more week with the Bears until I go on vacation. The trip will include lots of photography opportunities as I will be visiting the worlds largest single island Artic Gannet colony (approx 150,000 birds on one rock), White-Tailed Sea Eagles, and Puffins galore.

When I get back it will be berry time and there will be Bears everywhere. Hopefully I can post once more before I go. Until then, enjoy the images and thanks again for following.

Techs: 400MM @ F5.6 // 1/500 // ISO400 // Exp Comp -1/3

Canon 7D with 400mm F5.6L

Image © J M Douglas|Photography 2011

 

 Techs: 400MM @ F5.6 // 1/500 // ISO640 // Exp Comp -2/3

Canon 7D with 400mm F5.6L

Image © J M Douglas|Photography 2011

Until next time, Sweet Dreams!

If you enjoyed this blog please feel free to share this link with friends and family:

http://jmdouglasphotography.blogspot.com/

For more information on Black Bears visit: http://www.bear.org/

Bear Diaries 2011 Part 11: Youth Gone Wild

Finally the summer evenings are starting. It doesn't get dark here until about 9pm now so that means I have lots more time to watch the bears on my evening bike rides. We just had a long weekend thanks to the Queen. Today is Victoria Day so I celebrated it by going kayaking with friends and then having a nice lunch in an area called Deep Cove.

So what has happened since my last post? Well on Friday night I came across this adorable little bear as it was eating the grass at the road side. I stayed on my bike and judged the Bear's response to my presence from afar and it didn't seem to mind so I put my mtn bike down and got my gear set up. The art to wildlife photography is to avoid disturbing your subject and apart from a couple of glances the bear didn't mind me being there. In fact the bear only looked at my twice in ten minutes, the first time being when I turned up and got my camera out and the second being when a guy on a bike turned up on the other side of it and this is how I got the images below. The bear lifted its head to check us both out and then carried on eating.  However. this moment was ruined when Mr numb nuts arrived family and all in his big SUV and then proceeded to get out and approach the bear with his point and shoot. God knows what goes through some peoples heads. I give bears space on the simple logic that if one decided it didn't like me and wanted to attack me their is nothing I could do to fight back. If the bear had attacked him then the next day there would be a mass bear cull and it would be ruined for everyone. Don't be selfish Mr numb nuts and if I see you again I wont keep my opinions to myself.

At a guess I would say this bear was a 2 or 3 year old and probably separated from its mother last year. This little bear was skinny but has it such an adorable face and beautiful glossy coat.

Did you know: From growing up reading so many Bear attack books I found it hard to believe Bears get a lot of their nutrients from vegetation (I always believed they lived off campers and fish). At this time of year the vegetation is fresh and therefore highly digestible because many of the nutrients are in fluid form (think lettuce). As the vegetation matures it becomes less digestible but luckily for the Bears the berry crop is just around the corner so they can exchange their greens for desert. The Bears diet over the season goes from vegetation, to berries, to salmon. Not bad going really. The local Bears wake to a smorgasbord each year because at the bottom of the mountain there is fresh vegetation for them to eat while their stomachs are still weak from hibernation and then its berry time followed by Sockeye Salmon, followed by nap time. We humans complicate life so much.

Techs: 400MM @ F5.6 // 1/320 // ISO1250 // Exp Comp -1/3

Canon 7D with 400mm F5.6L

Image © J M Douglas|Photography 2011

Techs: 400MM @ F5.6 // 1/320 // ISO1250 // Exp Comp -1/3
Canon 7D with 400mm F5.6L

Image © J M Douglas|Photography 2011

Coming up next: A larger encounter on my first trip to Manning Park, BC 

A taste of things to come...

If you enjoyed this blog please feel free to share this link with friends and family:

http://jmdouglasphotography.blogspot.com/

For more information on Black Bears visit: http://www.bear.org/

Bear Diaries 2011 Part 10: The Bear Cub and Mum

It was very wet this evening so I took the car out to go see if I could spot a bear or two. After only a few meters of driving down the logging road I spotted a bear I hadn't seen before. I always get excited when I see a bear for the first time and it was only after I turned the car around that I discovered this bear was not alone. This bear was a mum and her cub was high up in a tree. The cub must have climbed the tree for safety when I drove past and a few moments after I turned the engine off it climbed down making little noises calling to his mum. An awesome experience. This cub was small so it must have been born this winter in the den.

Did you know: Black Bear cubs are usually born sometime in January in the den during the hibernation period. The cubs are totally dependent on their mum and weigh less than a pound at birth. Black Bear litters usally range from 2-4 cubs.

I am thrilled to have the opportunity to capture photos and stories of the different Bears that live close by. Although I have seen some old faces and new faces it has been quite recently as I haven't seen the sow and cub (the bear who likes to stand up) from previous blogs for over a week now. Hopefully they are ok and I guess they will be back shortly once the berries start coming out.

Until next time, thank you for following.

Before I leave you I want to share these valuable lessons learnt:

1) ALWAYS go out with the camera and lens attached, never wait until you come across wildlife before you set up. It's the times you least expect seeing something that catch you out. Like I said it was bucketing down with rain so I thought the bears would seek shelter. I thought wrong.

2) NEVER forget to adjust your aperture. We spend so much money on a F2.8 lens and then to forget to knock it down from F5.6 is just plain STUPID! I was so used to using my 400 F5.6 that when I went out with my 70-200 F2.8 I overlooked the aperture. Talk about being a dummy.

Sometime you have to act quicker than you can think with photography so make sure you check and set up your equipment first to avoid panic. I missed out on some potentially awesome shots when this sow and cub were only 5 meters from my car door walking along the log.

Anyways sometimes it's worth just watching events such as this without staring through a view finder. That's difficult logic for a photographer to grasp sometimes :)

Techs: 200MM @ F5.6 // 1/50 // ISO2500

Canon 7D with 70-200mm F2.8 L IS

Image © J M Douglas|Photography 2011

Techs: 70MM @ F5.6 // 1/20 // ISO2500

Canon 7D with 70-200mm F2.8 L IS

Image © J M Douglas|Photography 2011

Techs: 200MM @ F5.6 // 1/50 // ISO2500

Canon 7D with 70-200mm F2.8 L IS

Image © J M Douglas|Photography 2011

Techs: 200MM @ F5.6 // 1/50 // ISO2500

Canon 7D with 70-200mm F2.8 L IS

Image © J M Douglas|Photography 2011

See you all next time!

If you enjoyed this blog please feel free to share this link with friends and family:

http://jmdouglasphotography.blogspot.com/

 For more information on Black Bears visit: http://www.bear.org/

Black Bear Diaries 2011 Part 9: Time to go it alone - life without mum

Do you remember these two cheeky looking brothers from Part 3? 

If not click here to read Part 3: http://jmdouglasphotography.blogspot.com/2011/04/bacl-bear-diaries-part-3-introducing.html

On Thursday night I was riding my bike down a forest road and happened to come across these two cubs for the second time this year. Sometime between April 22nd and now momma bear has kicked these two yearling cubs out of home and they are now exploring the world on their own. I got talking to a local guy and his daughter as we watched these two cross the road and enter a clearing. He kindly offered me the use of his flat bed (back of truck) so I could get a decent vantage point. As you could see these guys were close and not at all that bothered by our presence but even so it's good to respect the boundaries of wildlife. You can see these two have certainly gained a few lbs since the end of April and it will be interesting to see how they get on now mum isn't looking after them.

As we watched them they just went about their business eating the sage grass and eventually disappeared into the forest. I couldn't believe how much ground bears can travel. In what seemed like a minute or so since they vanished into the bush we again spotted them on the other side of the steep ravine.

Did you know: Eventually the time comes in a cubs life when momma bear decides her job is done and they are now ready to survive on their own. Studies have show that this happens when the momma bear is ready for breeding and the cubs are one or two years old. Once out of the careful care of their mum siblings may stay together for a period of time before eventually going their separate ways. A time will come when the male siblings will be old enough to compete for females and territory so they wont want to be hanging around each other.

I wish these two guys the best of luck and hopefully I encounter them again through summer and fall.

Techs: 400MM @ F5.6 // 1/60 // ISO1250

Canon 7D with 400MM F5.6 L

Image © J M Douglas|Photography 2011

Techs: 400MM @ F5.6 // 1/160 // ISO1250

Canon 7D with 400MM F5.6 L

Image © J M Douglas|Photography 2011

This is the little brown/black one. He is skinnier than his brother so hopefully he can put on enough weight this year to make it through his first winter.

Techs: 400MM @ F5.6// 1/125 // ISO1250

Canon 7D with 400MM F5.6 L

Image © J M Douglas|Photography 2011

If you enjoyed this blog please feel free to share this link with friends and family:

http://jmdouglasphotography.blogspot.com/

For more information on Black Bears visit: http://www.bear.org/

Black Bear Diaries 2011 Part 8: The Lone Ranger

Welcome to the 8th chapter of Black Bear Diaries 2011. I can't believe it's been three full weeks now since my first bear encounter. How time flys. I hope you have enjoyed following the diary so far and stay tuned because there is plenty more to come. It's not even berry season yet!

In the last blog I mentioned I had seen a lone bear (possibly a male) on two occasions and last Thursday evening I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to sit and watch the bear. The medium sized bear was grazing on the protein rich sage grass and I sat watching it for about half an hour until the rain got too heavy and eventually forced me to pack up and call it a night (My camera is weather sealed not water proof). The mother and cub featured in previous blogs was very wary of this bear and took off when it came within about 50 meters of her and the small cub. This leads me to think it may be a male but I am not 100% certain. I am still new to studying bears.

This bear has such a unique look with the big ears, black and brown fur, and bushy neck fur(It almost looks like he has been taking hair styling tips from Gene Simmons, the frontman from the band KISS).

Did you know: Bears with black and brown/redish fur are known as Cinnamon bears.  The Cinnamon Bear (Ursus americanus cinnamomum) is a sub species of the American Black bear and native to Western Canada as well as a number of states in the US.

This bear could possibly be an offspring of the large Sow featured in Black Bear Diaries 2011: Part 3.

Worth watching: Stephen Herrero, a University of Calgary professor emeritus, discusses a new study of fatal black bear attacks in North America. (New York Times).

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2011/05/10/science/100000000812441/stephen-herrero-on-black-bear-attacks.html

Techs: 400MM @ F7.1 // 1/60 // ISO1250

Canon 7D with 400MM F5.6 L

Image © J M Douglas|Photography 2011

Techs: 400MM @ F7.1 // 1/200 // ISO1250

Canon 7D with 400MM F5.6 L

Image © J M Douglas|Photography 2011

If you enjoyed this blog please feel free to share this link with friends and family:

http://jmdouglasphotography.blogspot.com/

For more information on Black Bears visit: http://www.bear.org/

Black Bear Diaries 2011 Part 7: Bea...

..vers! I should rename my blog to "Beaver Diaries 2011" and see if the blog gets more hits ;) I came across a Beaver this evening at about 7:45ish on my way along the trail and wanted to share some photos.

As usual I went out in search of Bears tonight but none were around. The males Bears have started to make an appearance so this has made the mum and cubs a little scarcer for the time being. Because the males are looking to mate, they will attack or chase off the cubs thus putting the mums on edge. I have a photo of the first male I encountered this year (last Friday night) but it was taken at 9pm so I'll wait until I get a better quality image before sharing. He is a decent size and I have seen him twice.

Back to the Beavers. A local had told me the beavers were out again so I decided to go see for myself and to my luck one was chomping away on the river bank. Because it was late I had to really push the ISO so I could get a useable shutter speed for making a sharp image. If you read the Image Tech information below you will how the ISO change affected the shutter speed. The light was not on my side this evening but I mounted my gear on a tripod and this was crucial for getting the Beaver sharp.

I love this first shot of the Beaver stretching out of the water in oder to reach some tasty vegetation.

 

Techs: 400MM @ F5.6 // 1/60 // ISO800

Canon 7D with 400MM F5.6 L

Image © J M Douglas|Photography 2011 

Techs: 400MM @ F5.6 // 1/80 // ISO1250

Canon 7D with 400MM F5.6 L

Image © J M Douglas|Photography 2011

Techs: 400MM @ F5.6 // 1/125 // ISO2000

Canon 7D with 400MM F5.6 L

Image © J M Douglas|Photography 2011

Techs: 400MM @ F5.6 // 1/500  // ISO3200

Canon 7D with 400MM F5.6 L

Image © J M Douglas|Photography 2011

Techs: 400MM @ F5.6 // 1/60 // ISO800

Canon 7D with 400MM F5.6 L

Image © J M Douglas|Photography 2011

If you enjoyed this blog please feel free to share this link with friends and family:

ttp://jmdouglasphotography.blogspot.com/

For more information on Black Bears visit: http://www.bear.org/