Spring Black Bears – A video report

Posted on 28. May, 2009 by Paul Burwell in Everything, Locations, News, Photography, Videos, Workshops, Tours and Courses

I just returned from a very successful workshop focussed on spring Black Bears.  The workshop was held at the Riding Mountain Guest Ranch just outside Riding Mountain National Park in south west Manitoba, Canada.  If you’ve never been to this area of the world you really owe yourself a visit.  It is truly a remarkable area of the continent with a huge variety of wildlife.  I always leave there wishing I could find a way to move there, it’s just that great a place.

Cape May Warbler

I thought I would share some video I made during the time in the bear blind.  The bear blind is a metal structrue, somewhat elevated off the ground for saftey reasons, that allows us to observe, photograph and video the bears as they come and go.  All the bears are completely wild and free to come and go as they choose.

Spring is a great time to hold this workshop because of the baby bear cubs.  All babies tend to be cute but I have an affinity for baby bears.  The Riding Mountain Region has quite a number of cinnamon coloured bears in the region and that also helps make the workshop special.  In addition to first year cubs (about 3 months old) we also had a family of bears visiting the blind with yearling cubs about 15 months old.  If tradition holds true, the mother will run the cubs off in the next few weeks on they’ll be on their own.

Here’s an overview of the workshop to help you understand how the day goes together.  At about 4:00PM we eat a tremendous dinner prepared by the ranch’s co-owner, Candy Irwin, who is an excellent cook.  At about 4:30 we load up the gear into the transportation and make our way to the bear blind and everyone gets their gear all set up and ready to click and then we wait.  Again, these are wild bears so there are no guarantees about when they will show up or even if they will show up.  That’s the deal with wild animals, you just never know what you’re going to get.  Fortunately, we had bears visit the area of the blind all four nights we were there.  While waiting in the bear blind we only ever talk in whispers because we don’t want the bears to become accustomed to the sound of human voices.  Anything we can do to keep these bears out of trouble (and alive) is worth the effort.

Once a bear, or family of bears show up, the shutters start clicking at a furious pace.  I try to provide an oversight for everyone about what all is going on and try to make suggestions and give advice as required or requested.  When the young bear cubs are playing the action can get very entertaining and I try to let everyone know where the action is at a particular moment so they aren’t missing anything great.  It is easy to get tunnel vision when your eye is glued to the viewfinder.

Once we run out of light, we head back to the guest ranch where folks download their memory cards and grab some desert before heading to bed.  In the morning, we’re up bright and early to have breakfast and then we head out on safari into the park itself.  The idea is to cruise the roads or walk some trails looking for wildlife to photograph.  During the workshop we had one tremendous morning where we had mist (a benefit of the crappy cold spring we’ve had in Western Canada this year) and as we came around a corner, we came across a number of Elk walking through the mist back-lit by the sun.  It was tremendous light and everyone in the group got some great photos.  The safari continues until about 11:00AM when we return to the ranch for a filling and hearty brunch.  People are then left to their own devices for a couple of hours and then at about 2:30 in the afternoon, we convene for some classroom time to do photo critiques and talk about different photo processing techniques.  Dinner follows at about 4:00PM and then the whole process repeats for the duration of the workshop.

The last morning of the workshop was reserved so that folks could do what ever they liked.  Some headed out for more photography in the park, others headed off to explore and do some shopping.  I stayed back at the ranch and photographed the wonderful Cape May Warblers that were around in abundance.  There were a lot of other birds around including Black & White Warblers, Yellow Warblers, Canada Warblers, Orioles, Evening Grosbeaks, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Tree Swallows, Barn Swallows, Robins, etc.  It was a real treat for me being around all that wildlife.

During some of my time at the bear blind, I was able to catch some video of the bears at the bear blind.  Here it is for your edification and enjoyment.  If you have trouble with the embeded video, try viewing it here.

 If you have questions or comments, I’d love to hear them.

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Tags: baby, bear, black, candy irwin, cape may, cinnamon, cubs, cute, guest ranch, Instructional, jim irwin, national park, Photography, riding mountain, warbler, workshop