Here is my day eighty-three submission to my 365Project:
Today I ended up going to Saturna Island (one of the many Gulf Islands near Vancouver Island) to help my friends, who who have a kayaking company at Fisherman's Wharf in Victoria (Kelp Reef Adventures), set up to take a large group of 46 students paddling and to dogsit their two pups (Lucca and Belle, such cuties!) while they were paddling.
This was my first time actually going on Saturna Island (as opposed to zipping past it while working on a whale watching trip!) and during the group's morning paddle, the dogs and I headed out to East Point for a wander and to see what wildlife we could spot. It turns out it was worth going there as I spotted a lot of wildlife including: harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena), Black Oystercatchers (Haematopus bachmani), harbour seals (Phoca vitulina), multiple gull species, and, a new species for me (at least that I have now positively identified!)...a Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus).
The Harrier was in hunt mode soaring over the grasses where I was sitting which was great for grabbing some photos of it mid-flight.
Fact of the day:
East Point, Saturna Island was the location of the first live capture of a killer whale (Orcinus orca). In May of 1964 a harpoon gun was mounted at East Point with the intention of harpooning and killing a killer whale as one of the pod's swam past East Point. The plan was to build a life-sized sculpture of the killer whale to hang in the newly opened Vancouver Aquarium.
Unexpectedly, the small killer whale (later named Moby Doll) did not die and so was towed back to Vancouver where it lived for three months...and in that short time Moby Doll became an international media sensation playing a crucial role in shifting public awareness and perception of killer whales and kicking off the lucrative, and now controversial, captive killer whale industry.
Read more about Moby Doll's capture and history of the live capture industry here.
Find out where you can watch the recently released documentary Blackfish which tells the story of Tillikum, the captive killer whale who attacked and has killed trainers and which highlights more about the now controversial industry keeping these animals in captivity.
Here are some more photos from today's adventures on Saturna Island:
Getting the kayaks ready, bright and early, in the morning after we caught the ferry at 5:10! You can see the Edgewater Fortune, the boat the kids were staying on, in the background
The very cool coffee stop, Wild Thyme, just up the road from the ferry dock
Lucca and Belle in the back of the car waiting to go for our walk around East Point
Lucca at East Point
More photos of the Northern Harrier soaring and hunting at East Point, Saturna Island
One identification feature of the Northern Harrier is the owl-like facial disk...as you can see in this head-on shot
Belle and Lucca hanging out at East Point - they were such good pups and so patient with me while I made them wait while I took my photos :)
Mother and calf harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena)
I also spotted this other black-tailed deer and it was so relaxed it was drooling, ha ha!
In the afternoon, during the group's second kayak trip, Lucca, Belle and I headed to Winter Cove. After snooping around on the beach we went up to the point at Boat Pass...and just missed a group of four Stellar sea lions (Eumatopias jubatus) swimming through despite the strong currents flowing through the pass!
I love how I while was photographing birds I noticed the pattern in the wood of one of the picnic tables looked like a bird...I guess once you start looking for them you see them everywhere :)
