Bears, birds and beauty

 

We have been so lucky with the weather so far!  Woke up to another mild and sunny day, so the guides decided that it would be good to spend the entire day in the sub arctic wilderness, and have a picnic in a place even more remote than the lodge - which is a very high bar!

 I got up just in time to see the sunrise, and said Hi to our local black bear

(he comes every time the smells  food waft from the kitchen.  He is clearly a very discriminating bear, since the food is here is indeed very good).

We got on our rhinos by 9::30am and off we went, about 12 miles in the wilderness to look for bears, and just enjoy the views! 
Joe was ready!!! We quickly saw a mommy and cub.  We got a good look and followed them for a bit, but they were skittish and decided to go and hide in the willow bushes.  

From my very limited experience, polar bears are not nearly as scary as we were led to believe:  They seem to have very little interest in eating us, and indeed are more scared of us.  This time of the year, they are in a state called "walking hibernation": Polar bears do not in fact hibernate:  but they only feed when there is ice (and seals arrive)- which means that from mid August to mid/end October, they don’t eat at all.  They just hang out and wait for the ice to form, trying to save their energy.  So they are not up for a fight, and would rather just be left alone.  The mom and cub if anything are more cautious, so we did not get too close.  Still, wonderful sight! 

We continued on, though the barren and grand landscape- and muddy too!  at one point one of our rhinos got stuck in the mud, but - no problem- that's why we have two of them, and we just pulled it out and went on.

 

We then drove to our lunch spot by a river.  It is so quiet out there!  And so beautiful and barren at the same time.  Lunch was really good too! 

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There was definite signs of bear activity at our lunch spot.....  but they stayed away

 

Little wading birds called Greater Yellow Legs kept us company.  Again, there were may other birds, including peregrine falcons, eagles, harrier hawks and savannah sparrows.  Plus tons of varied geese.  But since the yellow legs kept us company during lunch, they are the ones being featured today!

After lunch, we drove back and parked by the bay for a walk on the beach and looked for fossils.  

That beach was so beautiful!  Hudson Bay is very shallow, making low tide very interesting.  I did find some interesting fossils and rocks.

As we got closer to the lodge, it started raining.  First time since we got here.  I have to say that riding on the rhino is not as pleasant in the rain.  Can you tell that Joe is having fun?? 

But before the rain, the sky was so beautiful that it was worth getting a bit wet.

Another delicious dinner at the lodge  It's 9:30pm and I'm ready for bed.....