Our little mink was elusive when we tried to snap his pic each day. He was always there sneaking around grabbing a scrap of fish when the boats came in. Morning was a good time to see him, but nobody ever had a camera in hand heading off to breakfast and planning the day at 6:30 am. Bob from the Park and Game services happened to be on the dock one afternoon uploading on his computer and caught the little guy jumping up on the cleaning station. He gave us all a disk of his pictures and videos of the mink, his cabin and work place. He and Jill, his intern, stay up around the bay in a park cabin. They have to hike about a half hour up a stream. It is very remote and the bears always keep them on their toes due to all the easily available salmon. They can never turn their backs for a minute and have to keep their cabin secured by fence the best they can. We've found out that you never cook and eat near where you sleep or you'll be in danger of bears visiting you. The trash burning and compost areas were far from the lodge and cabins, to keep the bears from wandering into the immediate area.
As you can see from Bob's videos, his work is quite a set up. They block the stream with steel bar cage and let the salmon group, then they lift a bar or two and the salmon swim through, enabling a count. And repeat the process over and over. Bears find this the perfect spot to gather for a quick bite, not to mention a curious thing, so they are always around. One even got up a tree just above the cabin to see if he was missing anything one morning. They look friendly but definitely are not.
Bob and Jill are welcome guests at the Lodge as neighbors, invited for dinner, lunch, breakfast or a stayover if the weather is bad. They are a bevy of information and wonderful company, a real joy to meet.
More video!! Here is a 2-1/2 minute video of the seals - who knew Mr. B could speak seal?! And here are a couple videos of a bird island, where the little baby harlequin ducks run the beach area until they grow their flight wings and learn to fly.
Remember the mink we saw in Canada when we were kids? Their heads are amazing, all jaw.
ReplyDeleteThose look like good size bears, I wouldn't want to come across one while I was out walking. Or sleeping. Or taking out the trash. But from a distance is fine.
The mink is sooooo cute!!!11
ReplyDeleteYeah,,, he can really hissyfit at you!
ReplyDeleteUp there it is hard to tell how big anything is due to the vastness of it all... but.. after walking the river/stream bank looking for eagle feathers and almost stepping in Bear Sh*t... I'll tell ya... they must be pretty big! We always had shotguns with us up there.