Ketchikan - bears!

When I was 14, I saw a movie of a bear in Alaska catching a salmon in the rapids of a creek & decided that one day, I would go see that in person. Today was that day. 

It was raining enough to be miserable, really the first time that has happened all summer. It's rained overnight or while I was driving or just sprinkled, but today it was steady all day.  

We travelled by boat for an hour north & east of Ketchikan. Then a van drove us a mile inland to Margaret Creek. 



The trail to the deck was beautiful, & a Sitka deer with a baby was on the trail ahead of us. 



We spent most of 2 hours on this deck overlooking the creek.  


At first, we saw a male & a female with a cub (no pic of the cub). The guides have named the male Cinnamon Butt. 



After those 3 wandered off, all was quiet for about half an hour. 

Then for the next hour+, it was nonstop action as 6 more bears came in & out of our view. 

This fella fished for a while, & then wandered off.


Almost immediately, a mama & cub arrived. After the cub played with some fish scraps, mama sent the cub up a tree while she fished.  



Mama caught a big fish & spent some time eating on it. When another bear arrived to try to take it from her, she chased him off.   


After being chased off stage right, he came back a few minutes later from stage left. She then chased him off again. Because he kept hanging around, our guide guessed that he was her cub from last year & wasn't taking well to having been booted out of the family.


After eating, she caught another fish & headed up the hill to the tree where her cub was patiently waiting. 

Shortly afterward, another bear appeared on our stream bank & almost immediately caught a fish. He brought it up close to our deck to eat it.  






Then another mother & cub appeared, & she caught a fish. After eating some of the fish down by the creek, she walked right beside our deck with her cub in tow to feed him up away from the creek.  


With her nearby, we walked quite quickly back up the trail. 

Nine bears seen, 4 fish caught, 2 fights/chases, 3 cute cubs - it was well worth getting soaked through to the skin!

*   *   *   *   *

Wildlife sightings (not counting those in the conservation preserve or the aquarium)

--> --> today: 3 Sitka deer            9 black bears, 3 cubs

--> --> trip total so far: 

    black bears - 20        deer - 8 (6 Sitka)               grizzlies - 1            moose - 8

    stone sheep - 8        elk - 1                   caribou - 15            bison - 42    

    Dall sheep - 11        porcupines -1         mountain goats - 1       lynx - 1

    trumpeter swans - 32+        many bald eagles    black oyster catcher - 1 (rare)

    sea otters - 27             harbor seals - many, many         orcas - 1

    many sea stars & jelly fish        Dall's porpoise - ~ 20

    North Pacific Humpback whales - 2 pods of ~ 12 each + 1

    Stellar's sea lions - many, 100+ incl 60 pups in 1 spot (counted by scientists)

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