Alaska Day 9 -Bears!!

7 AM finds us motoring to the ANAN bear viewing sight. What a Day! We each got 2 of 3 3hr viewing times. Walk up a mostly boardwalk trail ( 1/2 mile?) to a small COVERED lookout with decks and a blind down below for 5 people at a time. The first thing we see here is a black bear sleeping right over our head in a tree! This is a prime viewing area for all kinds of media and researchers but I was never aware of too many people. It was totally fantastic to watch the black bears catch and eat the many pink salmon running up this creek. There was one brown (Grizzly) mother and cub in the afternoon to watch too. It was so interesting to see the differences. The black bears seemed to just put their snout in the water to snag a fish while the brown bears definitely used their paws more to scoop them up. And they leave a lot of the carcass after getting the brains and roe if it’s a female. They are habituated to people here so walk right by the deck taking their catch to the forest to eat, or just eating it right next to the railing in one case. One did have to be sure to close the gate! (H was the last one in once and was yelled at to close the gate quick! He turned around to do so and saw a black bear strolling about 8 feet away!) Wonderful spot to watch the eagles too -catching fish or getting the leftovers. It started to rain in the afternoon but no matter - it was an exciting day! Then we still had to motor to Santa Ana Bay to anchor for the night..late. tired but happy.

If you are interested, I’ve put too many bears on the flickr set (day 9) as I just couldn’t pare it down more -there were some great eagle shots too, including one sequence of a young eagle pushing the adult away from his catch.