Exploring Kootenay Lake

Beavers are shy and nocturnal, so they are rarely seen. Now, most people associate beavers with the ponds and dams that they build on creeks. Less well known are their activities on a lake where they build shoreline nests. On Kootenay Lake I have only seen a beaver about a half-dozen times in twenty years and the last time was seven years ago.

Mind you I have often seen evidence of their activities.

Last evening I watched a beaver for about 20 minutes as it ate, preened, and scratched. Although it was close, it didn’t seem aware of me. 

A beaver sits close to the shore with its scaly tail extending in front of it.

While a black bear had passed by for quite a few days, I didn’t see it yesterday, but there were some raccoon kits.

This big black bear has often come past in the evening.

Two raccoon kits were up a tree while their mother hid nearby,

Three otters (mother and two pups?) turned up on a nearby dock and spent about a half-hour preening, scratching, pooping, and resting. Only rarely could one see all three faces at once.

They then went on their way up the lake.

A small family of three otters visited.

With the return of a large brown black bear, I managed a good shot of it looking in my direction. A striking thing about it were the crests of the shoulder and hip humps. With black bears, hips are higher than shoulders, and this is obvious here.

Of course, with grizzlies, back height is the other way around: shoulders are higher than the hips.

A large black bear looks, just before it vanished.

After seeing my first bear two days ago, I saw another yesterday. At first I thought it was the same bear, but this one did not have a white blaze on its chest while the last one did.

The black bear climbed a Douglas-fir tree and was eating Saskatoon berries.

It made a final pause to look in my direction before vanishing.

This is the first bear I have seen this year and it is already mid July.

A large, black bear was exploring my property looking for food. It stopped for a moment when it discovered it was being watched. He looked to be in good shape, but had received a minor scuffing of its fur on the left flank.

This black bear is brown.