KATMAI'S LATE-SUMMER WILDLIFE

      Fish drives the economy of wildlife on the Brook's River in Katmai National Park in Alaska through September.  Schools of apparently post-spawning sockeye salmon, and small fish, are the main prey of daily gatherings of brown bears, glaucous-winged gulls, Bonaparte's gulls and common merganser ducks that I see by live camera and our home computer screen.  Readers can bring up those live cameras by typing in Mississippi River Flyway Cam- Explore. Org.- River Watch Bear Cam.  

     Brook's River flows through lovely scenery of forests and forested mountains in the southwestern corner of Alaska, at the base of the Aleution Island chain.  Nearby tall coniferous trees stand out in deciduous forests that closely skirt the river.  This whole, nearly-pristine environment is mostly the way Native Americans saw it before the coming of Europeans.

     The bears, glaucous-wings and mergansers have been along that wild stretch of river since at least June.  The bears caught many salmon as they were leaping up eight foot falls on Brooks River, enroute to their spawning streams.  The large glaucous-wings ate scraps of salmon left by the slopping-eating bears, while mergansers dove under water after small fish.  

     But flocks of Bonaparte's gulls didn't arrive on Brooks River until September.  They raised young around lakes in Canada's and Alaska's forests.  These small, dainty gulls will probably stay around Brook's River awhile to ingest insects and small fish.  But later they will move to the Pacific Coast where they will forage for similar food through winter. 

     In September, brown bears wade and swim up to their necks to catch remaining, seemingly spent salmon.  The salmon are clearly visible swimming into the current in the shallow, clear-water river.  The bears had been consuming salmon all summer, and through September, to fatten up to spend the long winter sleeping in a sheltered place.  

     By live camera and computer screen, one can see small concentrations of bears fishing in Brook's River because of the still-abundant salmon in it.  Big, fat male bears are solitary figures in the river.  And one can spot mother bears, each with up to three cubs, with each mom and her children ingesting salmon.  Mother bears keep their young away from the big male bears for the safety of those cubs.

     Glaucous-winged gulls are a large, common gull along the Pacific Coast.  At Katmai,these gulls scavenge the brown bears' leftover scraps of salmon on shores and small islands, and floating in the water.  These gulls also appear to be catching small fish, and other aquatic creatures, by tipping up to reach their beaks into the water. 

     The petite Bonaparte's gulls catch small fish and other diminutive, aquatic critters by repeatedly fluttering a few feet above the river and dropping into the water, beak-first, then in the air fluttering again.  Each wing on every Bonaparte's has a broad, white stripe that flickers like a banner while the bird is in flight.  Fluttering flocks of Bonaparte's gulls are something special to see when they are all flying daintily together in a bit of a distance.   

     Common mergansers dive under water from the water's surface to snare small fish in their thin, serrated bills.  They paddle their feet under water in pursuit of their prey.  By diving deeper than the gulls can reach with their beaks, the ducks reduce competition for the same food with the gulls.  

     It seems some of these ducks raised young on the river.  But now other mergansers, that nested elsewhere, are joining them on Brook's River.   

     Bears, gulls and ducks of Brook's River, Alaska, prey mostly on fish, which are abundant in that river.  Those creatures get ample food, and we humans can enjoy their wild presence, interactions and beauties in a natural, nearly-pristine, environment, via our computer screens.                    

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