The day started pre-dawn for us all before we tried for the Black Bears and Wolves. We failed with the former and temporary car trouble meant we did not have time to really try for the latter, though we did pick up a Wilson’s Warbler and a Surfbird seemingly flying out of across the car-park by our heads was a strange sight. Tom also managed to get on to a Swainson’s Thrush. So after sorting the car, we continued our long drive long drive to Campbell River where we were to get our float plane over to Knight Inlet.
We had a couple of planned stops on the way, the first being at the Taylor River rest stop were I was told Western Tanager could be found. However, though the pools held a number of passerines, we could find no Tanagers so continued on to our next stop at Little Qualicum Falls. Here I checked and failed for Dipper, but did get on to a flock of Crossbills in flight.
Way ahead of schedule, Michelle requested we look around the rather strange town of Coombs where we had something to eat (with more “Nanaimo Bars”!) and watched the excellent Shane Philip perform. No more stops and we arrived two hours early for our flight, so just sat and watched the sea at Campbell River and enjoyed a beer.
The float plane journey (in a de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver) was very exciting and I sat in the co-pilots seat. Arriving at The Grizzly Bear Lodge, Knight Inlet, the tide was high meaning we had no chance to look for Black Bears as promised, so instead, the four of us went on a walk of our own. We saw little bird life but we all got on to a Mink near the lodge. After an excellent meal, the children went in to the hot tub with two girls!
