In Focus Daily

The gravelly shores of the Uganik River were littered with rotting Salmon carcasses and feathers from the thousands of gulls that stayed close to claim what was left after a Kodiak Brown Bear stripped the skin off (a nutritious delicacy) and munched a bit of flesh before casting it aside. The cubs were learning how to fish on their own and how to forage. The nutritious spring grasses were turning brown but sometimes a cub began to munch on what was left of the green grass and in this case, the cub tasted a large wing feather from a gull. It took a few chews before realizing it wasn’t edible.

It was about an hour before the sun went down Monday afternoon and we lay on the beach on Sullivan’s Island outside Ft. Moultrie with our long lenses and our panning plates. The only shorebirds we’d seen that afternoon were two Ruddy Turnstones and this Sanderling. As it approached me, I took my last shots of the trip, making the Sanderling, my favorite shorebird, a tiny bundle of nonstop energy, my goodbye bird.

On the last afternoon of our last day in South Carolina, we visited Sullivan’s Island and walked past Ft. Moultrie to the beach where we could see Ft. Sumter in the middle of Charleston Harbor. We didn’t see much else there. As I mentioned yesterday, shorebird sightings have been few and far between. We finally saw three birds, two Ruddy Turnstones and one Sanderling scurrying up and down the beach so in the end, we got to do some beach panning twice on that day. This Ruddy Turnstone is sampling, with some uncertainty, something it found in the detritus on the beach.

Yesterday was our last morning at Folly Beach, South Carolina. Shorebird sightings at the beach have been few and far between on this trip but we were determined to do some beach panning and hit the beach early. Despite the early Monday morning hour, there were quite a few people already jogging, strolling down the beach, or walking dogs. At first, most of the birds we saw were Brown Pelicans gliding low over the waves and gulls flying in the distance, but there were no shorebirds on the beach. Finally, a couple of Sanderlings appeared. As Sanderlings do, they scurried across the sand and were out of sight quickly. But, in the few seconds before they disappeared, I managed to lurch my body down onto the sand, stretch out, and aim my lens at them. I had them in my viewfinder for less than 40 seconds so I was happy to get a few shots before they flew off. They were the only shorebirds we saw.

The Clapper Rail, known for its distinctive clapping-like call, is an elusive marsh bird, about the size of a chicken. They tend to hide in the dense marsh grasses but the light was perfect early yesterday when we found the first Clapper Rail of the morning at Stono River County Park in Charleston, SC. The park’s boardwalk spans the grassy marshlands where we heard the harsh loud calls of Clapper Rails on either side of the boardwalk. When this Rail stepped from the shadows into the light, the busy grasses all but disappeared in the background.

So far this trip, strong winds and high tides have prevented us from laying on the beach and “panning” for shorebirds here in Charleston, South Carolina. But we’re discovering other places to photograph them. We found a lovely park that has a long promenade where marshy grasses and oyster beds are prominent features on either side of the path. We discovered a few birds there yesterday morning, including a single Willet that seemed almost out of place strolling over the oyster beds instead of over familiar sand, but there it was.

Yesterday was our first day on Folly Beach in South Carolina. At first we found no birds due to high winds that kept the birds grounded. But after a short reconnaissance, breakfast, and a visit to the other end of Folly Beach, we were lucky to find at first one Sanderling, then another, then a couple of juvenile endangered Piping Plovers. Beach panning was out of the question because of the conditions but we set up our tripods and focused on the Sanderling and the Plover. I’m used to watching Sanderlings run toward a wave only to reverse course and run away from the surf darting back and forth, rarely standing still. For some reason, this Sanderling had a different idea. It plunged head on into the foaming surf and ducked under to bathe. When it emerged, it preened for several minutes as it smoothed its body feathers and straightened each wing feather. The colorful bubbles from foam in the surf reflected the colors of the rainbow and made it appear that the Sanderling had a colorful bubble bath.

Last week on Kodiak, we had, for me, record numbers of bears to photograph. But, when there is the occasional lull in bear activity, the guys fish and I photograph them. One of our guides, Chris, loves to fish and is a fishing guide as well as a Bear guide. He caught three of the six Silver Salmon on this afternoon; Eric caught two, and Moose caught one.

We called her Goldie because her coat was so much lighter than the other Kodiak Brown Bears. And, her cub was tinier than most of the other cubs we saw, but also very adorable. Our guides speculated that Goldie appeared thinner than most of the other mother bears, possibly undernourished, and that could be why her cub seemed smaller than the others despite being close to the same age.

The Bald Eagles were plentiful on Kodiak Island this past week along with Kodiak Brown Bears and various kinds of gulls. They were all drawn by the salmon swimming upstream to spawn. After spawning, the salmon die and salmon carcasses were strewn along the river’s edge and submerged in the shallow water. As scavengers, the Bald Eagles were right there to scavenge. This juvenile Bald Eagle was standing on the shoreline and suddenly took off on a mission. I’m not sure what its particular mission was but they frequently harassed the massive flocks of gulls causing the gulls to take flight. We welcomed the harassment as it caused a welcome temporary lull in the persistent screeching of the gulls.

With hundreds of salmon running upstream to spawn now, the Kodiak Brown Bears have lots of opportunity to feast on fresh salmon. While my favorite part of a salmon is the pink flesh, it turns out that the bears, especially the mature bears like this boar, prefer the skin and the fat that is just under the skin. It is the most calorie dense and nutritious for them at this time of year. As we watched from about 30 yards across the river as this boar stripped the skin from a salmon, he watched back.

As we watched from across the Uganik River, Mama Bear rolled over on her back to allow her three cubs to nurse. They pounced, each one claiming a teat. Mama was patient and unflinching despite obvious raw patches resulting from baby teeth clenching too tightly. We saw this mama bear and her three adorable, but rambunctious, cubs every day on Kodiak. It’s so much fun to watch the cubs as they learn to enter the water, swim, catch salmon, and play. One seemed to be unable to leave Mama Bear’s side, one trailed far behind doing its own thing, and the third, somewhere between the other two. They make a delightful family unit.

Kodiak Bear cubs are soooooo cute! We’ve been really lucky this year to see so many cubs and they have almost all been COYs, cubs of the year, meaning they were born this year. We saw a total of 19 mothers and cubs on an afternoon shoot a couple of days ago. This is one of the younger-looking cubs. We called its mom Golden Bear because her coat was lighter and more golden colored than the other moms and her cub seems to have a lighter coat. Since I’m from the Golden Bear State, I am particularly fond of this cub and its mom.

There are many blessings to being with Kodiak Brown Bears. One is expecting the unexpected. We were drifting down the Uganik River in search of Kodiak Brown Bears late one afternoon when a Cross Fox appeared traveling along the edge of the river. We were ready with our cameras in our laps so we were able to capture the unexpected. And what was unexpected, you ask? What we thought was a Silver Fox was actually a Cross Fox.

We’re back at Rohrer Bear Camp on Kodiak Island in Alaska. Yesterday we motored up the Uganik River and found a mother Kodiak Brown Bear with three adorable cubs. One of the cubs stood up to check us out. I prefer to think of it as a welcome back greeting.

As I walked back to my room after breakfast this morning, I saw pink clouds in the sky as the sun was about to come up. I had 30 minutes to kill before we needed to meet to fly into Bear Camp so I grabbed my camera and walked down to St. Paul Harbor. It was a gorgeous view to start the day.

Commercial fishing around Kodiak Island winds down significantly by mid-September due to commercial fishing restrictions and shifting fall weather patterns. Walking back from dinner last evening, we passed St. Paul Harbor where the dock was crowded with moored fishing boats.

The clouds were a welcome sight as we approached SEA-TAC yesterday morning. We were delayed leaving Sacramento because of a minor mechanical issue and then prevented from taking off from there because of traffic in Seattle. By the time we were cleared for take off, it was clear I was not going to make my connecting flight to Anchorage. I’m headed to Kodiak and luckily our flight from Anchorage to Kodiak is this afternoon so my delays yesterday won’t affect my getting to Kodiak. Despite the disappointing delays, we had Joan, the most marvelous Delta flight attendant, who kept us all informed of how the delays would affect the connecting flights of many passengers, including recalculating wheels down time to give passengers a realistic idea of whether they could make their flights. The delays eventually caused missed connections for at least three flights, mine included, but one group had a chance. What amazed me was that passengers actually listened to Joan who asked that we all stay in our seats until those passengers, all coming from the rear of the plane, could walk to the front of the plane. I have heard flight attendants ask this and rarely do passengers comply. It kind of restored my faith in people. And, Joan was determined to keep her passengers happy so she gave me some extra bloody and some extra Mary for my Bloody Mary. A nice way to relax after realizing I was going to be spending my day in the airport. Taken with iPhone 16 Pro.

Some birds are unforgettable and one of those birds is the Pale-mandibled Araçari from Ecuador. Such a clown and such a charmer.

The look of sunrise changes by the moment at Monument Valley. One moment before the sun appears, the sky is brilliant red. Once the sun climbs in the sky, the colors change. On this morning, the colors changed from red to orange to saffron. The sun radiated beams and silhouetted East Mitten.