Polar Bear Expedition Trip Report

Churchill, Canada
November 6 - 11, 2023

 November 6, 2023 - Day One. I arrived early and was greeted by my local guides. It was 10AM and they were there to help escort me to our lodge for the trip. My bear guide this season is a big bear of a man named Jeremy. A nice kid, very enthused and ready to get the adventure started. We dropped off the bags really quickly at the lodge and off we went to go find some bears. 

It turns out this season has been tough during previous weeks. The weather was not cooperating and the bears just were not around and for the past few weeks it has been very difficult to find wildlife. Thankfully some storms blew in that have been quickly making some sea ice. The bears got the memo are all moving into the area and quickly. So today we found 7 different bears. 

None of them were close but we still managed a few shots. We even encountered a couple of red foxes. It was cool seeing them. 

We went out for a couple of hours and then headed back to the airport to pick up our group of eager photographers. My buddy Mike from Wisconsin is joining me, along with my friend Pat and three of his friends from Florida. 

We picked them up and went straight out to look for bears. We found some right away. They were all pretty far out, but it was a great way to kick off the trip. 

It is going to be a good week, we are all pretty excited about what is happening out here with the weather. It seems we arrived right on time.

We still have four more days of searching for bears and I am raring to go! We have an early start tomorrow and I could really use some sleep.

November  7, 2023 - Day Two. Damn it was a good day! We encountered at least 15 different bears today. The majority of them were all very far away, too far to photograph. But it was fun seeing that many bears. It was a lot. 

We did have a great encounter with a mom and two cubs. Big babies, at least two years old I was told. They walked right up to us. They were close enough for our guide to yell at us to get in the van. We were a bit slow climbing in so he got upset, and with good reason. Polar Bears are no joke, so I get it. It was really cool though, I have to admit.

It was a circus today with a lot of tourists all wanting to see some bears. Despite all the extra people, we ended up in the sweet spot and got a really good show, and we all got some nice photos. They can always be better though, but I definitely say that everywhere I go.

We also had a crazy good encounter with a beautiful cross fox that was extra friendly. He walked right up to us. The fox was so confident, and so damn beautiful. What a gorgeous animal. It was an awesome awesome encounter.

What a day! 

It was so cold though. My fingers hurt holding the camera. But can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings!

November 8, 2023 - Day three. What a day. We had a great morning AND a great afternoon. We spent the morning with bears. It was good, right away we found some close up bears. A mom and two cubs were sleeping on some rocks. It got a bit crowded with other operators so we snapped a few shots and then left. 

After that we went to another area to look for bears and foxes and found this massive male on the sea ice walking in our direction. He was about two football fields away when we saw him, but he was covering ground quickly, so we decided to set up tripods and wait for him. It didn’t take long before the bear was right on the shore line, still headed in our direction. He kept marching our way.

We photographed him until we were forced to retreat and get back in the van for our safety.

The big boy paid us no mind and kept on his way. He was headed to another area where he could access the sea ice there.

He walked down to the shoreline, found an area to stretch out and stopped to rest. We jumped out of the van and started walking (with our guide), towards the bear to get a little bit closer. After we walked for a bit, our guide turned around and saw another bear sleeping on the sea ice about 100 yards away. His head was up and he was looking right at us, so we aborted our trek and retreated to the safety of the van. We didn’t want to be stuck in between two big bears. Just in case. 

The resting bear went back to sleep, thankfully, and sadly. Would of loved for this bear to get up and come closer.

We took off and went to look for more wildlife and it didn’t take long. We found a mom and cub walking from the sea ice back to land. We went to park the van, there was already a few other vehicles there with shooters all set up to snap images. We got out, and we fortunately / unfortunately could not stay out of the van for very long as the female decided to walk right in front of our van, right where we parked, and sat down to eat some dry grass. It couldn’t of been very nutritious, but as the bear was waiting for the sea ice to form better, she has to make do with what nature provides. 

She ate for a while sitting down and we were able to keep the doors open and shoot from the van. When she finally got up, she started walking away, and sort of disappeared behind a small hill. Jeremy, lost sight of her and told us to get in fast and shut the doors. I was leaning out the window and I could kind of see her and said she is going the opposite way.

Two seconds later I see her big head looking directly at me from on top of the hill. I said, oops, never mind… get in the van everyone!!!

We finished the day with a search for Arctic foxes, they are very hard to find.

We found our friendly cross fox again, which I thought someone had to be feeding it because it is way too friendly. Turns out, no one was feeding him, that is just the way cross foxes behave. Every cross fox we encountered was very friendly. Such a cool animal.

We kept searching around and stopped at a spot near the coast line so Jeremy could scan the area with his binoculars. I stepped out to have a pee behind the van, and the rest of the guys decided to get out and stretch their legs and snap some iPhone photos of the area. It was very picturesque. 

We stopped right in front of a rock pile, and from inside that rock pile out popped an Arctic fox! Everyone was super excited, of course, no one had their cameras.

We all went running to the van to grab our cameras. We fired away at this very fast and shy beauty of a fox. 

It was very difficult to photograph; small, white fur against a white back ground. Talk about difficult. We tried hard to get some images of it and I think we all did ok. I captured a couple of images that I am happy with. I definitely want another shot at it so that I can try for better images, but I am still so very happy to have seen this beautiful little fox.

It was a hell of a great day! Day four begins tomorrow. Can’t wait!

November 9, 2023 - Day Four, and wow. It was a really good day. We woke up to howling North-West winds, and cloudy overcast skies. We thought our day was shot. We figured everything was going to be hunkered down and hiding from the wind.

Thankfully it was not. 

We had more gifts from Nature. We left at 7:30AM as usual and went out to the back roads by the coast line to see what was up and walking around. It didn’t take long to find a couple of bears walking on the sea ice. They were pretty far away so we didn’t spend much time with them. 

We kept scanning around for Arctic foxes. We all wanted to find another one. Sadly we had no luck with the arctics. We did however find the mom and two cubs from the previous day. They were sleeping behind a hill that was sheltering them from the wind.

When we arrived they woke up, and were nervous. We felt bad for disturbing them, but we quickly realized what was bothering them, it was not us. It turns out there was a big male that was out on the sea ice coming in. The smell of the other bear got stronger and she stood up and was ready to run. Thankfully the other bear had no interest in her and kept on walking.

She watched him walk away, she even stood up on two legs. Sadly she had her back to us when she did. I was dying to get that shot, but she wasn’t looking our way, so I had to settle for a standing butt shot. Still very cool.

We eventually left her and continued our search for Arctic foxes and wolves. We really would like to see a wolf.  But they are much harder to find.

While in our search for canines, we encountered another bear. This one was a single female and she was also nervous because a massive bear was in hot pursuit. He wanted to meet this beautiful bear, but she was not interested. 

These bears were super active and ended up walking right by the truck. I got some great video of it on my phone. 

After that interaction, we left and went on to find some foxes and wolves. We did not find a wolf or an arctic, but we did find another friendly cross fox. This was a different fox and the markings on this guy were so beautiful. Such attractive animals.

After that we went back to photograph the first mom and two cubs. They had moved locations from their morning spot and had relocated to a frozen pond. They were a bit far, so we only stayed with them for a short while before we left to find a wolf.

We finished the day with an encounter with an Arctic hare. These guys are so hard to find because of their winter coat color. Jeremy was scouting around when we stopped for a pee.

Our pee stops are getting lucky. Comedy.

November 10, 2023 - Day five. Today was a day of days!!! Just damn. We woke to a beautiful sunrise. The kind of sunrise that we wanted to go somewhere with a nice background so we could shoot it. We did. We froze our butts off because it was a freezing cold morning. 

Our guide Jeremy told us, “Ok guys, I am only getting out of the vehicle for a wolf or polar bears fighting. Because it is cold!” If he is saying that and he is from Churchill, then you know it’s going to be a cold ass day.

After we shot the sunrise, we went off in search of bears. With the freeze the way it was, I didn’t expect to find any bears. I figured they would all be out on the sea ice hunting. We quickly found the mom and two cubs we have been seeing for the past few days. 

The sun was still rising, and the sky was lit up. She was on the move and I ask Jeremy if we could position ourselves so that the bears were back lit. The sky was amazing and I didn’t know for how long so I wanted us to hurry. He moved the van so that we could get into a better position in case she walked by and sure enough she did. 

It was awesome…  and with the sun behind the bears we managed to capture some amazing images of the three.

Damn I was on fire.

We shot her and the cubs until the sun rose higher, and the sky turned blue. So we switched positions and photographed her with the sun behind us. Momma walked for a little while longer and then laid down. 

We decided to leave them alone for their morning sun bath nap and went off in search of foxes. Specifically Arctic and Red Foxes. Red foxes are the most common foxes here, but we had not seen any yet. We had one very brief encounter, but they should be easier to find. We also went in search of wolves, but we didn’t find any.

We thankfully found both an Arctic fox and at the end of the day a pair of red foxes. We snapped some really fun images of both. It was a perfect way to finish off an absolutely amazing day. 

Tonight is our last evening in Churchill. We head out for one last early morning session and then back to the lodge to pack up and head out to the airport. 

I think today was my favorite photo and wildlife day of the trip.

November 11, 2023 - One last Hurrah! We went out in the morning to look for wildlife. We attempted to visit a few areas where we thought the wolves might be, but nope… no luck. Damn it, no wolves this season sadly. Just gives me a reason to return. Not that I need a reason. 

So we went out to find some more bears.

We found four out on the Sea ice. Sadly the weather had warmed up a bit and the bears were forced to retreat back to land to wait for the weather to get cold again. 

They were walking around close to shore, sniffing around for scraps to eat.

The bears must be really hungry now. They had survived for months on their fat reserves in anticipation of the winters hunt for seals, and sadly they were going to have to continue to wait.

For us photographers it was a dream, but at the same time, as wildlife advocates you also prayed for a hard freeze so that the bears could go out onto the sea ice and do what bears were born to do. 

We snapped some images of the bear and got some close ups of a young bear that was extremely curious and coming in very close. 

A bit too close. 

It was a great way to finish up an extraordinary  week with the bears.

On our way out we encountered another red fox, our third red fox of the day. 

It is funny how for the past three days we were on the hunt for red foxes and found none, then here in our final hours, three were out and about hunting under the bright beautiful sun on the Tundra…or maybe it was the Tundra’s way of saying goodbye to us?

I’d like to think so.  

Until next season Churchill… Thank you for the Magic.