Birds of the Bear Forest
A line of Common Mergansers
Clearly the clue is in the name. You cannot explore the Great Bear Rainforest without looking to photograph the bears and other land based and marine mammals. But, I always look out for the birds - wherever I go - ditto in this gorgeous part of the world. You never know when you get a chance to see and capture the local species again.
A distant Surf Scoter in the morning mist
A Wilson’s Warbler keeping a close eye on the wasp to the bottom right …
The timing was not optimal for birds as it was a little too early for the migratory season, but nevertheless I managed to get some good shots of a few species. The remoteness of this wilderness and lack of human activity clearly affected the birds reaction to being photographed. They were more shy than birds encountered in many other parts of the world.
Common Mergansers
The most magnificent bird was without doubt the impressive Bald Eagle, with its distinctive head and powerful beak. It is one of the largest eagles in the world. These proud birds were often spotted perching high up in the trees around the salmon rich river mouths. Quite skittish, they didn’t really enjoy close human company and often being high up, they didn’t exactly offer up a great pose. Nevertheless I ended up with quite a few photos of these beautiful birds.
A classic Bald Eagle position - high up in a tree next to a river mouth
The local Kingfisher - the Belted Kingfisher - was clearly on my target list, as I do love these brilliant fish catchers. There were quite a few of them around most rivers or water inlets. However, nailing a good shoot was tricky. If the eagle was skittish, the kingfisher was even more so, and simply flew on to the next branch once I nearly got within good shooting distance … it was hard to catch a good shot of this splendid bird.
A female Belted Kingfisher in the late evening light
Marbled Murrelet
In addition to the Bald and the Belted, there were also several other encounters with beautiful birds. The full list photographed:
American Robin
Bald Eagle
Belted Kingfisher
Black Oystercatcher
Black Turnstone
Bonaparte’s Gull
Brandt’s Cormorant
Canada Goose
Common Merganser
Common Murre
Common Raven
Great Blue Heron
Great Northern Diver
Greater Yellowlegs
Harlequin Duck
Herring Gull
Hooded Merganser (?)
Least Sandpiper
Marbled Murrelet
Orange-crowned Warbler
Pelagic Cormorant
Red-necked Grebe
Red-necked Phalarope
Red-throated Loon
Rhinoceros Auklet
Sandhill Crane
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Steller’s Jay
Surf Scoter
Western Grebe
Wilson’s Warbler
Great Blue Heron
Pelagic Cormonrants
If you look - and you’re ready - there is always a lovely bird to capture. This trip across the waterways of the Great Bear Forest proved that.
Bonaparte’s Gull taking off …
Whilst going through my images from the trip, there was one - not a particularly great image (see below) - shot at a distance, which included a pair of birds I struggle to identify. Using the excellent Merlin Bird ID tool, it does suggest these are Hooded Mergansers - likely young females. They do seem to miss the distinctive hood though, maybe that is because they kept diving under water and the hood was thus slicked back flat? If you have any suggestion of what species this could be then feel free to leave a comment.
Female Hooded Merganser?