besides it’s hot for a polar bear, and I pant and get grumpy when it’s hot.
I’ll growl at the dirt if I want to.
Whose gonna stop me?
Baby Bear, like a pint sized Narcissus, practices panting and growling at his reflection. Someday, he hopes to grow huge and growl as fiercely as Mama Bear, but for now, all he can do is practice.
What big teeth,
huge tongue,
and what fine bears you are!
Your sleepy cub is quite handsome,
and your home is lovely too!
Cheers to you from the awesome bears in their stunning Hudson Bay home~
Hudson Bay in Manitoba is massive, pristine, and full of wildlife.
Approximately 50,000 beluga whales spend the summer here to feed and give birth.
The Hudson Bay beluga population comprises 35% of the world’s total wild beluga population.
Belugas are very vocal whales, hence their nickname, ‘canaries of the sea.’
They respond to human singing, so I have spent time singing, “Baby Beluga in the Deep Blue Sea,” which they seem to love. They come like puppies when I sing, and sing back under water, so I do not care how ridiculous I know I appear.
The reason these belugas are curious, friendly, and approach human beings, is because they are not hunted in this area.
They swim upside down under the zodiac checking us out. They bump your hand if you trail it in the water. You can see this one approaching the back of the zodiac for a visit.
My son went snorkeling in a dry suit with them and they came immediately to him and played all around him.
Here is the zodiac we explore the bay in and our guide, Deb, who is the best guide we have ever had.
Cheers to you from the glorious and unspoiled Hudson Bay~
We are seeing polar bear everyday here in The Hudson Bay!
This series of shots are a mama and cub at play.
Polar Bear health is rated on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being too thin and starving, and 5 being overfed and obese.
I am happy to report that all the bears we are seeing are healthy fours!
The population of polar bears at Hudson Bay are thought to number between 900-1000.
Some estimates indicate Hudson Bay populations may have declined approximately 17%- 22% in recent years.
Despite these sobering statistics, all the bears we are seeing look really healthy.
During the end of August, polar bears are in a state of semi-stuporous, walking hibernation, waiting for the waters of the bay to freeze up, so they can head out and hunt seals.
They still do eat and hunt though, and I will show you some photos of this in my next post.
But, for the most part, these lazy August days are spent sleeping, playing and swimming.
This little cub though, seems quite intent on depriving mama of her nap!
The affection between them was beautiful to see.
Cheers to you from the happy, healthy bears of The Hudson Bay~
We are in Clear Lake Manitoba staying in a remote cabin.
There are wide open tracts of nature here with nary a person in sight.
We are heading further north soon, to Hudson Bay, to hopefully spend time with belugas and bears, and any other critters we may meet..
I gathered these late summer wild flowers in the meadow behind our cabin, eating wild raspberries as I browsed. We are enjoying the flowers as you can see on the cabin’s screened porch, watching deer in the meadow.
There is no wifi in our cabin, and wifi will be even harder to find as we head further north, so I am out of touch. I will check in when I can, but until then, it is cheers to you & be well from beautiful Manitoba~
Between sips of nectar, they are constantly battling for dominion.
The plant is a blooming Century Plant or Agave Americana, that is the largest I have ever seen, big enough to feed hundreds of hummers. It is well over thirty feet tall and as wide as a telephone pole
Century Plants produce many offspring in their lives and we have lots of them at The Holler. You may notice the plant looks like a giant asparagus stalk. This is because it is related to the asparagus family. The Centurion stands guard by our front gate.
Other birdy pollinators, like orioles, love the nectar too, but they are far more civilized about sharing. The most they do is chatter endlessly at each other.
Bees are attracted en-mass to the centurion which blooms only once in a lifetime, and many 1000’s of bees are busily gathering pollen in the huge masses of flowers.
Century plants are not accurately named. They each live 10-30 years. Soon the entire plant will die, and the hummers will find something else to fight over.
Cheers to you from our giant pollen creator and the beautiful bickering pollinators~
The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway has the world’s largest rotating tram cars.
The two and a half mile trip up the mountain from the desert floor takes ten minutes.
It brings you from a desert floor elevation of 479 feet to 8, 516 feet. That’s a big climb in ten minutes!
The ride up moves through five different life zones, from the Sonoran Desert floor to the Arctic/Alpine Zone, where the highest peak, Mt. San Jacinto, is 10, 834 feet.
You leave the stark, baking desert, and hike in the mountains where the temperatures are 30 degrees cooler than below.
During our trip, a summer storm was moving in, causing it to rain on the mountain, and dropping the temperatures even more.
By the time we returned to the desert, we could watch the rain clouds move in over the mountains accompanied by lots of thunder. This is a rare summer occurrence and one I have never seen before. Despite the rain, the temperature remained a steady 112 degrees fahrenheit, and the drops evaporated quickly after contact with the superheated desert.
After the passage of the brief storm, the light was lovely.
Cheers to you from the scorching, but beautiful, summer desert~
