Tofino and Ucluelet

The skies were overcast, but the rain mostly held off during our full day exploring the Tofino area. We hiked a lot of the local trails and explored the remote beaches while bird-watching and taking photos.

Overlook along the Tonquin Trail

Long log on Long Beach

Taking wave photos on Long Beach

Couple on Long Beach

Down at the Ucluelet harbor, we saw some California sea lions fishing right off the docks.

 

Next we walked out to Amphitrite Lighthouse in Ucluelet, a short stubby little lighthouse:

We only saw about 15 bird species throughout the day, but one of them, the black turnstone (80), added to the year list.

As we approached one overlook we were stunned to see a male and female killer whale surface just beyond the breakers! These were my first orcas of 2016, and also the first time I've seen orcas in the open Pacific! Infuriatingly, they only surfaced that ONE TIME. We scanned for the next half hour but never saw them again. Here's what my face looked like at that point:

Teased by Ts!

Before it got dark, we did some tidepooling at Brown's Beach, where the most impressive sights were the abundant mussels and giant anemones.

The next day, Monday, was when we had to head back, but when we woke up to sunshine we decided to spend most of the day on the coast before driving home. Our first stop was Schooner's Cove.

While the crashing waves on the sandy beaches were the most different from the east side of Vancouver Island, the forest portions of the walks were equally impressive, especially with their macro opportunities. Check out the droplets on this fungus!

It was so beautiful we decided to do the lighthouse loop in Ucluelet again, with dreams of more dorsal fins in the back of our minds for sure. We didn't see any more whales, but it was still a very good decision to go back out there. The wave action was incredible, and the rugged coastline was that much more picturesque in the sun.

Crazy sea foam

There were lots of bald eagles about too, with some of them engaged in courtship-like behavior.

All in all the Tofino area was stunning, just as I expected it to be!

Photographing Photographers

I've recently had the pleasure of going out on a couple of photography excursions with a fellow photographer. Photography has mostly been a solo act for me over the years, but it's been exciting to be re-inspired by seeing things through the eyes of someone else. You can both walk the same trail, but end up taking vastly different pictures, and that makes both of you start to push your own photography in new directions! Here are a few of the shots I've taken over the last couple of weeks that have been inspired by seeing things in a different light and experimenting with different styles of photography.

Of course, being with another photographer also gives you another subject to photograph. I found I was taking pictures of him taking pictures, and that it was pretty neat to see the shot that resulted next to the photo of the shot being taken. Here are a few examples of that:

By the way, that sweet little camera he's shooting with his a Ricoh GR, an excellent and compact wide angle set up particularly good for street photography and macro work. I've had a ton of fun getting to play with that a little bit too! And check out some of Jason's other work on his 500px site. 

Finally, a brief year list update! A little birding on San Juan Island has helped me bump the list from 67 to 74 by adding harlequin duck, red-breasted merganser, black oystercatcher, greater yellowlegs, horned grebe, mourning dove, and house sparrow. That helps me build my lead over my dad, who is still at 66 in the year list challenge, though I know that lead will be short lived! I'm still trailing way behind Dave for the moment as well, who as of yesterday is at an impressive 93!

More September Whales

I'm gearing up to do my annual Day of the Dead blog post, but realized I should recap the rest of the fall first! The Southern Residents were around quite a bit in September, but mostly either out of reach of shore-based viewing or in rough seas, so my encounters with them were more limited than in some years. Here are a few highlights though...

On September 13th I saw Js, Ks, and L54 sub-group from the west side of San Juan Island. This is an example of what the seas were like on days I couldn't get out in our boat!

On the afternoon of September 15th, I picked up a visiting friend in town and we got out to Lime Kiln just as the whales were passing by. Only a few J-Pod whales came north past the lighthouse before flipping and going back south, but one of them, who approached at the very moment we ran down to the rocks, was J2 Granny:

J2 Granny close to shore at Lime Kiln

On September 22nd I got the chance to take my same friend out on our boat, and we met up with a group of L-Pod whales offshore of San Juan County Park. The first whales were saw were L92 Crewser, L91 Muncher, and her calf L122. They were tough to track, as they were swimming sporadically and going down on long dives, but after a lot of patience we did get some nice looks.

L92 Crewser

L91 Muncher and L122

After losing L120 last fall just a few weeks after he/she was born, it's especially nice to see L122 doing well. Fingers crossed he thrives through the winter! L-Pod is where we need successful mothers the most, so I'm hoping this is just the first of many calves for Muncher.

Up off Kellett Bluffs, the whales stopped to forage. We cut our engine and dropped the hydrophone, listening to a bunch of great L-Pod vocals for several minutes when the whales all disappeared. They were on a long dive and got totally quiet...until I started hearing some echolocation that sounded VERY close. "Somebody's right here...." I told my friend, and less than 30 seconds later L95 Nigel surfaced off our stern, both startling and thrilling us. I'm pretty sure I literally jumped!

Why hello there Nigel

The glare was so harsh I edited this photo to be black and white, and I kind of like the effect. What's especially cool is I posted this photo on my Facebook page and the guys in the sail boat saw it! I always love when I get the chance to share photos of people and whales with the people in the picture.

On September 24th, I saw some very spread out and distant Js and Ks heading south from Land Bank. I played with adding a filter to this photo as well, and was also pleased with the effect:

K44 Ripple cruising south

Then on September 25th, I got to see the T49As from the park near my house. It's always a treat when I can see whales walking distance from home!

Male T49A1 heading down San Juan Channel

There's a whirlwind summary of the rest of September - coming up next, October whales and Day of the Dead.