Being much more sensible today, after breakfast we downloaded our pictures, put stuff on to charge and turned in, sleeping through until about 1.30pm. After a cup of tea we went out to try and buy some coca cola or other fizzy drink but the first shop was shut from 19-21st and the second shut at 3 on Saturdays so we headed back to the Lodge for the 4.00pm dinner of pea with meat soup, kebabs and spaghetti with a tomato sauce and fruit salad. We packed up our gear and made our way to hide 1 which has improved considerably, giving views on 3 sides with a peephole and toilet view on the fourth. The weather was very overcast but at least it wasn't raining. Having spent the first half hour destroying mozzies we settled down to wait for the first mammal to appear.
It was a long wait but around 10.00 pm I was looking out of the back windows when a youngish bear appeared on the forest edge. It cast about and found some food but was descended upon by a gang of gulls, which caused it to dash back into the forest. The next 2-3 hours saw quite a lot of bear activity as two young bears, a black, male bear and probably, two more bears came and went around the area to the right of the hide. The pair were probably a young male and female, with the male opening the boxes and the female following on a few minutes later after the gulls had had a feast. We took turns to sleep from around 1 o'clock and the last bear came in briefly from the right at about 6.20am but it just nosed about and then went off into the forest.
One of the bears was a yearling who approached the food but really hightailed it away when the gull mob descended. Back for breakfast before packing up ready to leave after a day out with Sabrina looking for owls. We drove north for about one and a half hours then we turned into a forest track and a Hawk Owl was spotted in a tree. We spent about half an hour watching and photographing it before carrying on to park in the forest clearing where we met up with a guy from Martinselkonin who walked us into an area where he had a couple of hides set up from where you could watch a Great Grey Owl on the nest. As well as the ground hides, there were a couple of tree hides, 30 foot up. David and Christian opted for the tree hides so went off through the trees while Nat and I set ourselves up in the tent hide. The next few hours were just brilliant. The owl sat on her nest, turned, stared and preened. At one point you could just see the chick's head over the edge of the nest. Changing over for the tree hide was an experience as you had to climb up a double ladder and manoeuvre into the hide through a 4' foot doorway, someone has to tie your gear to a rope so you could haul it up before being left with just you and the owl. Unfortunately she chose the time when I was up the tree to feed her chick so all I saw was the back of her head as she tore up bits for the chick.
We were going to be taken to an Ural owl nest, but Sabrina got a call saying the owl had just left the nest and wouldn't be back for 3 hours so we returned to the Hawk Owl area where we managed to loc ate 2 owls again. Having spent some time photographing them we went back to the Lodge, collectwd our gear and drove slowly to Sabrina's for our evening trip out for Flying squirrels.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
It was a long wait but around 10.00 pm I was looking out of the back windows when a youngish bear appeared on the forest edge. It cast about and found some food but was descended upon by a gang of gulls, which caused it to dash back into the forest. The next 2-3 hours saw quite a lot of bear activity as two young bears, a black, male bear and probably, two more bears came and went around the area to the right of the hide. The pair were probably a young male and female, with the male opening the boxes and the female following on a few minutes later after the gulls had had a feast. We took turns to sleep from around 1 o'clock and the last bear came in briefly from the right at about 6.20am but it just nosed about and then went off into the forest.
One of the bears was a yearling who approached the food but really hightailed it away when the gull mob descended. Back for breakfast before packing up ready to leave after a day out with Sabrina looking for owls. We drove north for about one and a half hours then we turned into a forest track and a Hawk Owl was spotted in a tree. We spent about half an hour watching and photographing it before carrying on to park in the forest clearing where we met up with a guy from Martinselkonin who walked us into an area where he had a couple of hides set up from where you could watch a Great Grey Owl on the nest. As well as the ground hides, there were a couple of tree hides, 30 foot up. David and Christian opted for the tree hides so went off through the trees while Nat and I set ourselves up in the tent hide. The next few hours were just brilliant. The owl sat on her nest, turned, stared and preened. At one point you could just see the chick's head over the edge of the nest. Changing over for the tree hide was an experience as you had to climb up a double ladder and manoeuvre into the hide through a 4' foot doorway, someone has to tie your gear to a rope so you could haul it up before being left with just you and the owl. Unfortunately she chose the time when I was up the tree to feed her chick so all I saw was the back of her head as she tore up bits for the chick.
We were going to be taken to an Ural owl nest, but Sabrina got a call saying the owl had just left the nest and wouldn't be back for 3 hours so we returned to the Hawk Owl area where we managed to loc ate 2 owls again. Having spent some time photographing them we went back to the Lodge, collectwd our gear and drove slowly to Sabrina's for our evening trip out for Flying squirrels.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
No comments:
Post a Comment