Wildlife View Blog

A collection of Photos & films of big mammals and birds, with field stories, Location Tips and all around Advice about Wildlife watching.

Overview:

  • Canada East Coast
  • Canada West Coast
  • Rhodes, Greece

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  • From boat: One crazy breaching humpback – 15.07.2025

    Well it finally happened on my 6th boath trip in canada (3rd and last in 2025): Humpback breaching action. I can very much remember seeing the one humpback back in 2024 – i believe at bonavista lighthouse – breaching. That was from shore though and much further away. The feeling then was crazy incredible and unique.

    This time from boat the feeling – especially the 1st time – was amazing too, but slightly less incredible than in 2024. Still super awesome seeing it doing probably around 30 jumps in 20min – it just didnt get tired.

    Unfortunately it was at the end of the trip so that we had to get back after 20min. I basically filmed all 20min with my phone, and tried to extract the best images. Like the other posts, the videos are much greater because of the bad quality but i still didnt upgrade to pro on wordpress, because i dont know if i wanna continue blogging. So i can just show you the pictures.

    On the way back we saw some very cautious harbour purpoise. When I just tried to extract a picture out of the video I realized how crappy this is – but anyways I put a photo of them in there.

    Note and recommendations: This time I went on a 3h boat trip with Prince of Whales out of Telegraph Cove. Like I mentioned before I mainly went to the north side of Vancouver Island to go to knight inlet to watch grizzlys. But Telegraph Cove just has so much to offer. One thing i wanna recommend (even though id didnt go), going to Bere Point on Malcolm Island. You are supposed to have good whale watching from shore there – but i didnt have time to try that unfortunately.

    15.07.2025 Google Pixel 6a, Full HD Video, different zooms

    Location: Northern Islands, Northeast of Telegraph Cove

  • From boat: Orca “Tea Party” – 14.07.2025

    Now i finally got the motivation to come back to this blog and post more stuff from this summer. It happened a lot since my last post on 4th of August – but more on that later. Back to Summer of 2025:

    Still in the victoria/nanaimo area i wanted to do another whale watching boat trip. I very much liked the moment on the day before, where the orca was dipping out, but in the 3 hours of whale watching there wasnt much more exiting activity on that day, since that small whale family was busy hunting. I just had the felling: I wanna see more of them 😀

    Anyways, I spontaneously booked another boat trip with Ocean Eco ventures out of Cowichan Bay. And that time was very awesome.

    Not long after we went out, our marine biologist guide told us, that we would be heading to a “orca tea party” going on outside the Vancouver harbour area. Since all the firm are communicating they luckily pass on such information so that everyone can be a part of that. The West Coast also has an App for collecting sighting Info called “Ocean Wise Whale Report”. I still use that App back home in Germany sometimes to see what going on in the Canadian waters right now 😀

    But what the hack is an orca tea party? Apparently thats once a month, where multiple familys of orca come together…well…mainly to mate and supposedly also to share hunting info and skill.

    It wasnt hard to tell that there was much going on under water, since the whales practically flew and rushed through the surface (although noone did a classic full breach) – we saw lots of tail splashing and even one “pec(torial) slap”, at least the guide called it that. And some of that even with beautifull Mount Baker in the background. I really regreat now, i dont have a better camera/lens.

    On the way back we saw a big group of harbour seals – cute!

    One note: I actually didnt wanna do this boat trip, but the one from this company that would start further north. My Plan was to spread out my watching area, since I believe that would higher my chances to see more different whales/actions/…Anyway some bad wheather conditions cancelled the northern trip which is why they booked me to the one in Cowichan Bay again.

    14.07.2025 Google Pixel 6a, Full HD Video, different zooms

    Location: Georgia Strait, Vancouver harbour area

  • From boat: Orca dipping out – 13.07.2025

    After Vancouver and whistler i went to Victoria and Telegraph Cove on Vancouver Island – mainly for wildlife watching.

    The Vancouver island has lots of wildlife. There is the biggest cougar/mountain lion/puma population i know of, there are lots of black bears, moose, elk, much more.

    Some tips on where to stay on Vancouver Island:

    1. Many people camp here. So a good idea would be to rent a camper and travel around the island. But: Book early since its very popular. For camping I can especially recommend Abbotsford in the mid of the island. There are some campgrounds north of it where bear watching is supposed to be good. At the river you also guaranteed will see eagles. And there are (very rarely) cougars around as well.
    2. At campbell river you can also see blackbear and mainly north of it you can rarely see cougars.
    3. At Telegraph Cove you can book boat trips to Knight inlet to see Grizzlies (pics of that in another post). And there are a lot of blackbears around the Telegraph Cove area.
    4. Tofino is surfer town. But there is also whale watching, and looking at the whale report app (more of that later) there occasionly are fin whales which (at least in canada) are rare. They are the 2nd biggest whale species and are gigantic.
    5. Cowichan Bay has north of the harbour a place with poles where bald eagles breed – easy to see some.

    The first wildlife view of a bigger animal was on a boat tour out of Cowichan Bay. I chose that place because I booked the trip a week before and didnt have nuch time for research. Since Cowichan Bay is in the middle it has good access, which gives you a very good chance for spotting animals.

    13.07.2025 Google Pixel 6a, Full HD Video, different zooms

    Location: Georgia Strait, Northeast of Victoria

    I went on the evening trip with Ocean Eco ventures. The trip was a full success. We mainly followed a family of 4 Orca, while they were feeding. When there were seals around one of them shortly dipped out (last picture) to get a better look. And in the end they were playfully splashing with their tails.

    Here are some tips for whale watching in the Vancouver area:

    1. First of all, most of the companies in the georgia street communicate about the sightings, so you will always see whales but it can also get very crowded around the whales. Thats why i recommend going after ours. For example Ocean Eco Tours out of Cowichan Bay go 5-8pm i think.
    2. Look for recent sightings. The people around Georgie strait use the Oceanwise whale report app to post sightings – very usefull. Then book a trip that starts nearbthose sightings to maximize your time with the whales.
    3. In my experience the whales tend to be further away here and dont approach. So you need a good camera or a scope.
    4. You can likely see whales from the Tswassen – Shorts Bay Ferry
    5. Orcas are great to see but the marine biologists told me that they are less playful than the humpbacks – just so you know. And they are smaller than humpbacks. I guess you can tell already: Im team humpback 😀
    6. Im not sure if I can recommend Ocean Eco Ventures. I went with them twice but thinking back there are some things that annoyed me: Even if all have the greatest time watching some Orca, they will still leave to look for other animals, so they can afterward say, that you saw more animals…i didnt like that.

  • Black bear watching – 11.07.2025

    In summer 2025 ive been doing a trip to the Vancouver area. For land animal wildlife watching in the Vancouver area in summer Whistler is pretty much the place to go.

    You can do a day trip from Vancouver. If thats what you want, you should have accomodation in North Vancouver or get up early because of traffic.

    I much rather recommend to stay at least 1 night in Whistler – there is a lot to do there in the summer: mountainbiking, taking the gondola up the mountain (worth it), suspension bridge up on the mountain, hiking.

    From a wildlife view perspective i recommend the gondola, because you can see black bears from there sometimes, and mountain biking, where you will also might see a bear.

    One of the activities I did was going offroad with a 4×4 with a guide to some more distant bear watching spots. We looked at the trees and the grass, but couldnt see any bear. In the end we went to creek valley mountain area where we saw a cinnamon bear / brown black bear with a cup.

    11.07.2025 – Google Pixel 6a, Full HD Video, full zoom.

    Location: Whistler Creekside (drive with car to Fairmont heritage and then go on foot or with bike on the FSR up).

    The interaction with the two bears took about 15min. We had to be very quiet but one of us had to cough and the bear noticed us. It immediately looked at us and stood up. Then we had to stay quiet and not move. Then the cup flew to the woods (but came back later) and the mother approached a little, but in a relatively chilling mood – probably to check out if we are a danger. We started to move more togerher to represent a bigger threat to them. Then the bear turned around to its cup. A little later they both came back out together and ate berries – interesting behaviour, it was amazing to witness!

    Here are some tips I can give you for black bear watching in Whistler:

    1.) Inform yourself about recent sightings if possible. There are close to 60 bears between the two mountains (whistler mountain+blackcomb mountain+creek valley).

    2.) July is a great time to go because its berry season and many bears come out of the forest to the berry bushes which are mostly in better visible areas. Also their cups are still very small and cute. From what I heard and researched Mai-July is excellent for bears in general, since they come out from hibernation and look for food. The females with cups usually hibernate longer (End of April like).

    3.) Be very careful if you go alone. Black bears usually are afraid of you, but they will attack if you come to close and they have cups. Our guide always made sure to keep a 100m distance to the cinnamon bear with cup. I also recommend a bell or clapping with hands. That way the bears wont be surprised by you.

    4.) Bring a scope or a good camera, since you will probably maintain that 100-150m distance.

    5.) Time of day: Early morning or evening

    6.) You can go on the FSR (Forest Service roads) on foot or with bike (but not with car) here.

    7.) I can recommend whistler creek for lodging, especially “foreside lodge”. There were bears regulary coming out in the evening and jumped on cars or ran threw the backyard – people told me.

  • 2025 Announcement

    In Summer 2025 I first went to the Vancouver area, which is in British Columbia, West Coast of Canada. I did 5 tours with guides – 2 bear tours and 3 whale watching tours. Look forward too amazing pictures of both!

    Next i went with my grilfriend to Rhodes, where we did one boat trip as well and saw something i havent seen before!

  • From boat: Amazing humpback footage and white shark – 23.07.2024

    As i said we drove by trinity again because we enjoyed the boat trip so much but wanted to wait a little. Actually we met one employee of them (Clarenville or Port Blanford), who told us that they we already being more playful and they saw one breaching as well close to the boat.

    So we booked with them for the 23rd and saw a lot of humpbacks – not breaching, but basiclly doing everything else and even coming very close to the boat.

    First we saw a shark again, but Skipper Bob told us again that they usually dont see them. This time the skipper was relatively sure though that it was a young “Big white”:

    23.07.2025 Google Pixel 6a, Full HD Video, no zoom

    Location: Just east outside of Trinity harbour

    We drove a little further and then saw a lot of humpbacks. There were younger, more playful one, that we stayed a little longer with.

    The first thing one humpback did, was seemingly intentionally getting the whole boat wet by hard splashing its tail close to the boat.

    23.07.2025, Google Pixel 6a, Full HD video, no zoom

    Location: Far east of Trinity, near the edge, where the peninsula continues to the north.

    After being splashed on, one came up extremely close and spit through his whole at us up close – just before taking a massive shit, that I unfortunately dont have a video from.

    I dont even now if there is a name for this sort of behaviour.

    I got it all on video but unfortunately cant upload because im still too cheap for premium.

    Next we did see a lot of dorsal flipper splashing.

    We also saw one guy doing a turnaround after he approached the boat

    Of course we got some tail:

    Some other highlights of this boattrip:

    Here are some more tips for whale watching from boat:

    1. Definetly go with a zodiak like boat: Fast, less people, good views, whales can approach very close (like above).
    2. If you are in the same area as we were (bonavista peninsula), take a boattrip at the right timeline. You can find out about that by googeling or even by some recent sighting that the boat companies post online.

    And again many thanks to our Skipper Bob, who even let us stay with the whales 30min past our time, although in hignsight he couldnt start the engine since the whales were too close.

    Check out Trinity boat tours at https://trinityecotours.com/

  • From shore: breaching Humpback – 21.07.2024

    On the 21st we already had tonleave bonavista, but not before visiting Cape Bonavista and the Lighthouse. We mainly went there to see the Puffin colony, but were surprised by some whales in the distance:

    21.07.2024, Google pixel 6a, Full Hd Video, full zoom

    Location: Cape Bonavista Lighthouse

    This is one of the main reasons I definetly have to get a better Camera and worpress premium. I was very lucky to catch this whale breaching. We were watching his pod for approx. 45-60min and then he suddenly breached. He didnt do it again though. I got the full breach on video and extracted the best frames out of it.

  • From Boat: Shark + Humpbacks – 20.07.2024

    The next stop of our Newfoundland roadtrip lead us to bonavista, where we stayed, and the bonavista peninsula.

    First thing i can recommend is “Trinity Eco Tours” out of Trinity. Trinity is yet another very small village, approx. 1h from bonavista. In difference to St. Shotts it has much more to offer (apart from boat tours). I remember a craft shop, a gift shop, a forge and a nice harbour. There also are good hiking trips nearby – at least they are supposed to be good (didnt do them).

    We did a boat tour with Trinity Eco Tours, and chose their 3h morning Trip with a Zodiak boat, which brings me to some Tipps for Boattours:

    1. If you can, choose small fast boats like a Zodiak. Its just a better experience for obvious reasons.
    2. Check if they have Marine biologists employed. That usually ensures that they are carefull of the animals and abide by the usual rules (200m distance + engine off when they come close + lets the whales decide, if they want to approach).
    3. Check for recent sightings in the area.

    They mainly focus on whales and also give you lots of Information about them.

    Here are our Highlights:

    (Unidentified) Shark:

    20.07.2024, Google Pixel 6a, Full HD Video, no zoom

    Humpbacks:

    20.07.2024 Google Pixel 6a, Full HD Video, no zoom

    Location: East from Trinity Harbour and then around the corner to the North.

    Here is what else you can see around bonavista peninsula (according to Trinity Eco Tours).

    Although you will see the occasional shark, what you will mostly see from my experience are the humpbacks. And they are also what you wanna see because of their playfull behaviour:

    When they are hunting for fish the dive down deep, which they announce by going pretty much 90degrees downward. Thats when their beautiful tail comes out the water. When they fed enough they get very happy and also sometimes playfull. Then they will slap with their pectoral flippers – some people call that “pectoral slap”. When you are lucky they will even breach through the surface and let themselfs fall down (“breach”) or slap with their Tail.

    Additional tipps for whale watching:

    1. When you look for recent sightings, it might also be usefull to know, if there are certain seasonal apperarings. What i mean by that ist the following: Usually in the early/mid of July the caplin (main fish source, that humpbacks eat) spawn in the south of newfoundland. Which is why you are supposed to see a lot of humpbacks near St. Vincents at that time. The caplin will go east around newfoundland, which is why you will see a lot of them in the trinity/bonavista area around mid/end of July – depending on the year of course. This should then also apply for St. Johns, which is in between, but i dont kbow for sure. So when we went out on the boat trip on the 20th near bonavista, it was a little early and they were still mainly feeding. Thats why the best pictures i have from then are Tail-pictures like the double Tail above.

    So we decided to go with Trinity Eco Tours again, but wait a few days for the whales to feed and get happier.

  • A Seal further down the road – 19.07.2024

    Like i Said before, we did the “Irish loop”, Kind of Like the southern curve of the St. Johns peninsula of Newfoundland.

    We didnt wanna do everything in one day, so we decided to stay the night in St. Shotts. There was a lovely airbnb, which is kind of more for couples though. But there is not much nearby plus host was very nice and gave us a good tip to watch for seals.

    Plus St. Shotts is definetly a must see village. It was completely covered in deep mist, which is usual as we were told. They even had a Guiness world record for mistiest village once.

    Also the village backstory is very interesting. It has like 70 villagers, mostly or exclusively (cant remember) old people. If i remember correctly the Government wanted to move them, but they refused and excepted the lack of infrastructure – the young people left though. The villagers that still live there, retired mostly from fishing.

    Anyway our host recommended us “Cape Pine” to check out seals that lived nearby.

    And thats what we did the next morning:

    19.08.2024 Google Pixel 6a, Full HD Video, full zoom

    Location: Cape Pine, Newfoundland, Canada; go right on a muddy way around the hill. You will see a memorandum and after the next turn watch out for seals.

    This was also a Video, because seals in remote areas can be very shy. And this one definetly was. It smelled me from around 150m away (i didnt make a sound), turned around and hopped in the waves.

    Anyway, cute memory and a good spot to check out seals, if they interest you.

    Cape Pine does offer lots of views into the misty ocean. We even saw another whale, probably humpback as well.

  • First Post – My First big Wildlife animal 18.07.2024

    Starting this Blog in August 2025, its not easy to think back and write about everything I have seen so far. After some thinking i wanna start with the first big animal i have seen ever:

    18.07.2024 – Google Pixel 6a – full HD Video

    Location: Ferryland Lighthouse, from shore

    Me and my good friend flew to a distaned relative of mine, that lives in Newfoundland, Canada. We stayed a few days with him in the vicinity of St. Johns and the startet our Roadtrip from St. Johns parallel to the East Coast trail south, then doing the so called Irish loop, which i will tell you more about in the next Posts.

    And just in the beginning of our Roadtrip we saw these humpbacks in a small bay ob the right hand side of the ferryland lighthouse.

    To be entirely honest: We did a few days before See 1 Minke whale from a boat. But as you may now, these animals are very shy and we couldnt get any pictures of him. This makes ne remember a few first Tipps I can give you about whale watching:

    1. Inform yourself of nearby sightings in the last days. When we did the boat tour from St. Johns, we didnt know there werent any humpbacks nearby. And the humpbacks are the whales you mainly wanna see (more explanation later). There are Apps or Websites for that. Mostly locally Sites. If I find one for St. Johns, i will add that Here later.
    2. If you have the time, look on a map, Like Google Maps and visit Sites in shore that Go a little bit on the ocean, Like a cape or Kind of Like an Edge – Like ferryland Lighthouse. Sometimes you get lucky and there are multiple spots on the East Coast trail, Where you regulary See whales!

    As this ist my first post, i dont really now what im doing. Just thinking I saw some great animals and i wanna share the Images/videos with you as well as my experiences on the locations for watching them. Also I didnt Upgrade to Premium yet, so i cant Post Videos yet. I will think about solutions, because the Videos i Have, are far better than the Pictures.

    Enjoy.