Black Bear Trip Report 2023
Outer Banks, North Carolina
Trip # 9
June 12 - 17, 2023
THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN!
We just finished up our Black Bear Expedition in the Outer Banks, North Carolina.
What amazing animals black bears are.
This region has one of the highest concentrations of black bears in the world.
I can say… we saw bears, and had amazing encounters everyday. We photographed and filmed a lot of behavior, it was so good.
Our guests had a great time, and that makes me happy.
We had 51 bear encounters over a five day period. I stayed additional days and over a nine day period I experienced ninety nine different bear encounters.
So we definitely saw some bears…
I am sure we encountered some of the same bears on different days… But that is part of what this place special.
It allows you to get to know individuals better and learn their habits.
June is mating season, which was one of the reasons there was so much bear activity.
The boys were out there trying to find some girls…
And big boys too!
We saw some massive bears on this trip, one was easily 800 plus pound.
Overall this was one of the best trips we have ever run to this area. a lot of bears, with some really good encounters with the other wildlife in this area; red wolves, coyotes, owls, snakes, etc.
It was really, really good.
The weather all week was beautiful. A couple of days of rain, but it did not last very long, and it did not stop us from getting out there to enjoy the wildlife.
Here is the photo album from the trip, I hope you enjoy.
An important part of this trip was visiting the Red Wolf Center to learn more about what is happening with the remaining population of red wolves. There is maybe 25 remaining red wolves in the wild, and something like 223 in captivity. They are considered functionally extinct, which means they no longer can do their job in the eco-system. So it is great to see these people working tirelessly to help the species try and recover. The image below is one of their captive red wolves, which can not be re-released to the wild. A beautiful boy.
We spent a few mornings with this Barred Owl. She was hunting in the drainage ditch, in some of her favorite trees. She was feeding her two owlets, which were almost weaned. She was catching cray fish for them. I tried hard to get a flying shot. I did manage a couple shots, but they were not perfect.
Our second red wolf encounter. We saw our first red wolf in the early morning on the road very far away. This one was much closer but still very far away. It was a thrill finally seeing one them in the wild. On June 13th, we thought we had the ultimate wolf encounter, but sadly it turned out to be a coyote and not a red wolf. Talk about gutted. It was cool seeing a coyote here, but I really thought it was a red wolf.
Black bear eating wild growing black berries.
Our buddy Tony is hard core into snakes, so we put a solid effort into finding some snakes for him. We found a few species; black rat snakes, water moccasins, and this beauty up here, the cotton mouth.
We spent about an hour with this coyote. At first we thought it was an old red wolf, because it was collared. But sadly no… they also collar the coyotes that are caught in their trap. What the researchers are doing is neutering the coyotes so that they do not interbreed with the wolf population. It is also meant to monitor their movements, to see if they are staying in the Alligator River area, or if they are moving off to other parts of North Carolina. The coyotes get black and white collars, while the red wolves get bright orange ones.
The area has a lot of drainage ditches which are always full of water. Of course that means that they are also full of wildlife, especially turtles. There are a lot of turtles here, makes for great photo opportunities when you can find them.
Mating black bears. This was super special to watch (no I am not a pervert. Lol). It was just super cool to experience mating bears. Sadly it happened right at dusk and the light was disappearing, and I had also left my 800mm lens in the hotel room, so I only had my 100-400mm lens. A bit too far, and a bit too dark. It was still so cool to see.
We spent a lot of time with this bear. He had his daily routines, which was to go into the field, graze for an hour or two, then he would walk into the forest, find a spot to cross the road, and then slowly walk over to his favorite bathing area. He would cool off in the water for a bit, then wander off into the forest to hide from the heat of the day. He was a such a cool bear.
Sunset at the refuge. I love this shot. Traveling down the dirt roads here, you never know what you are going to see…for sure you find some sort of magical moment.
a huge thanks to Tony and the Thoma clan for making the experience beautiful and fun!