Jim Coda Nature Photography

March 28, 2023March 28, 2023Brown Bear

Brown Bear, Lake Clark National Park

Here's a photo of a female brown bear out on the tidal flat hunting for clams.

A female brown bear roams the tidal flats hunting for clams near Silver Salmon Creek in Lake Clark National Park.

February 24, 2023March 4, 2023Brown Bear

Brown Bear, Alaska

This is a photo of a brown bear with long stems of sedge grass in its mouth.

A brown bear munches on sedge grass in Lake Clark National Park. I’m not sure why it is that brown bears, at least where they are routinely photographed, pretty much ignore humans. I don’t know of any distance rules regarding the bears in Lake Clark. Of course, there was the famous case of Timothy Treadwell, a brown bear activist who, along with his girlfriend, was killed by a male brown bear in 2003.

August 2, 2021August 2, 2021Brown Bear

Brown Bear Mom, Lake Clark National Park, Alaska

This is a photo of a mother brown bear.

This mother brown bear is looking for clams on the tidelands of Cook Inlet. Her three cubs follow at some distance.

January 22, 2020Brown Bear

Brown Bear, Lake Clark National Park

This is a photo of brown bear in Lake Clark National Park.

Brown Bear, Lake Clark National Park

This is a photo from a few years ago in Lake Clark National Park. This female brown bear was feeding on sedge grass, a very important food source until the salmon spawning runs begin. Her cub was just out of the photo.

August 3, 2017May 1, 2018Brown Bear

Brown Bear Cub, Lake Clark National Park

Brown Bear Cub, Alaska — Looking Like a Pika!

When this two year old brown bear cub lifted its head and stared at me, it reminded me of a pika. If you’ve ever seen a pika with its mouth full of grasses to be stored for the winter, you know what I mean.-

July 22, 2017May 1, 2018Brown Bear

Mother Brown Bear, Lake Clark National Park

Brown bear sow, clams — Mama bear goes clamming.

My last two mornings at Silver Salmon Creek Lodge we had very low tides. That brought the bears from the sedge grass meadows to the tidelands. I was amazed to learn how well the bears find the clams. They quickly smell them through little holes or vents in the sand that go from the clams up to the surface. It’s also amazing how easily they use their big claws to pry open the shells. They are very efficient at it. Not a lot of meat from each clam, but I guess it adds up and is a welcome change from their mostly grass diets.

July 15, 2017May 1, 2018Brown Bear

Brown Bear Cubs, Alaska

Brown Bear Cubs, Lake Clark National Park — Are we fighting or dancing?

I was in Alaska recently. I spent the first week of this month photographing brown bears in Lake Clark National Park. If you’re interested in photographing brown bears, Lake Clark is a good place to go and Silver Salmon Creek Lodge (SSCL), where I stayed, offers excellent accommodations. In fact, the lodge provides full services, including meals/lodging, flights to and from the lodge and a guide. My guide, Jim, has an M.S. in Wildlife Biology and his thesis involved bears. SSCL is already taking reservations for 2019, but I think it still has some openings for 2018. The lodge is about 100 air miles southwest of Anchorage. http://silversalmoncreek.com/

If you’re thinking of going, you may be wondering when is the best time? That depends. I’ve been there the first and last weeks of July. My understanding of what happens there in June, July and August follows.

June. June is mating season. I understand most of the big boars leave the area by the end of June. Also, the ones that remain into July have lost their luxuriant winter coats by the end of June, if not before. What kinds of foregrounds and backgrounds will you have to photograph the bears in in June? The bears will be feeding primarily on sedge grass, which I like to photograph them in. They will also be feeding on razor clams when the tide is very low. That’s another setting I like.

July. It’s my understanding that the sows with cubs, at least spring cubs, don’t arrive until the big boars have left. Boars kill and eat cubs. So, if you want to photograph cubs, July is a good time. When I was there this year most of the sows and all of the cubs still had their winter coats. The foregrounds and backgrounds you will have will be the same as in June.

August. In August, the silver salmon/coho start migrating up Silver Salmon Creek. The bears will focus on eating as many of them as they can to fatten up for the long winter. The big boars may return at this time, but you should check with the lodge on that (plus everything else I’ve said). I don’t know what the color of the sedge grass is in August, but I’m guessing it would still be green. I don’t think I need to describe the setting for the bears standing in the creek trying to catch salmon. There are no falls, at least at the lower end of the creek, so don’t expect to photograph bears standing at the top of some falls with their mouths wide open catching jumping salmon, like McNeil Falls is famous for. But you won’t have to fight with hordes of people either.