Polar Bear - first sighting

This is not strictly true. We had gone out in the morning, grey, low cloud, mist, and found a polar bear on a boulder strewn bank - this was the first sighting. All you could see was a dirty yellowish mound. Polar bears, like all bears like sleeping and it had its back to us. It did raise its head and turn it to look at us, decided we weren't worth the effort and curled up again. Around the corner, there was a whale carcass, possibly a baleen whale as it had no teeth on its bottom jaw, which was half in and half out of water. The carcass had been there around 18 months to 2 years (for 9 months of the year it is in the freezer!), and the bones which poked out of the water were totally clean. The head, underwater, still had some large coverings of meat.
I hadn't slept well, so stayed back in the afternoon. What I missed was sightings of another lone bear, mother and cub, and a bear diving to tear bits of meat off the whale carcass! Ahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!
So we went back again after supper. The mother and cub were perched on the top of the cliff and the lone bear had had enough and was making its way up the boulder strewn hillside. The view was rather boring but its fur was caught by the evening sun. I decided to cut the exposure to darken the bear and catch the rim lighting on its fur (enhanced later with curves).
A very dull morning which became an extremely satisfactory day.

If you want to see more photos of this amazing trip go to
http://gallery.me.com/lizziebea#100161