Alaska's Winter Horizon

Alaska's Winter Horizon

Sunday, October 26, 2014

More Day 1 from Greg's Adventure at McNeil River

By about midday several of the bears, full of fish, picked out a good spot to relax. While they rested, several more bears made their way to the falls and took over their fishing spots.
 This bear decided to take a break from the action.
 And again, another big male stepped in to claim his fishing spot.
 There were about as many different fishing techniques as there were bears. Some stood and waited in the same spot sometimes for up to half an hour before getting a meal. Others were much more active and chased  the fish they spotted in the river. This bear was more of a diver!
 Some preferred to stand in the currents and swat away!
 This big fella had eaten all he wanted for a bit and had to take a nap. As you can tell, he had his fishing technique down to an art. Judging by his size, well over 1,000 pounds, I don't think he missed many opportunities.
 All throughout the day, more and more new bears made their way to the falls.
 Big bears, like these, claimed some of the prime salmon spots in the river.
 This chocolate bear was one of the most prolific salmon catchers! During the whole four day adventure, he kept up the pace. Each day I could see him catching many fish in his chosen spot at the big rocks down from the falls.
 I don't know if this bear was puzzled or just enjoying a cool bath on this warm day.
More and more of the first bears in the waters that morning, the successful ones anyway, found a quiet place to rest.
More bear pictures later.
For now, we had our first snowfall of the season. Last Sunday night, October 19th, we got about three inches of snow downtown. Others on the hillside reported getting over 9 inches of fresh snow. Thank goodness the studded snow tires were put on the car this week!

1 comment:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete