The Fraser River Valley

Location: Cache Creek, British Columbia
Population: 1037

The journey begins! I caught the mid-morning ferry over to the mainland (I took the bald eagle flying over the ferry terminal as a good omen!) where I met up with my parents and we started our trek north into Canada. We crossed the border near Abbotsford and while following the highway out of town you leave civilization behind in a hurry: no more traffic, no more cell phone coverage, no more billboards or gas stations or convenience stores. We're just a few hours north of the San Juan Islands and we are face to face with raw, natural beauty.

The first part of our drive took us along the Fraser River. This is the same route millions of salmon - the lifeblood of the Pacific Northwest, and summer sustenance for the Southern Resident orcas - take en route to their spawning grounds. The steep walls of the valley embrace you as you wind along the road, at times near river level and at times a thousand feet or more above. All slopes except those that are nearly vertical are blanketed with fir trees. The low-lying clouds encase you from above, but occasionally lift enough to reveal the snow-capped peaks of the mountains.

We broke off from the Fraser near its confluence with the Thompson River, and as soon as we started following the Thompson the geology was notably different. Gone are the dense coniferous forests and dark gray, craggy rocks, and they are replaced with sparser stands of pines and gravelly concentrations of minerals ranging in color form white to red. As we progressed even the trees thinned out and were surprisingly replaced with sagebrush and other semi-arid plants, an unexpected sight I wouldn't associate with south-central British Columbia.

These first few days will encompass a lot of driving as we press our way north, but that doesn't mean there won't be great wildlife to be seen or viewpoint stops to take photos. Today, I saw a respectable 19 species just from the ferry or far, including a couple of surprises - two new year birds in the black-billed magpie (163) and western kingbird (164).

I have already been warned that bald eagles are like crows in Alaska, but can the intrigue of such an impressive bird ever really wear off? We shall see, but so far it is has not. Here is one perched right in its nest just across the river from the main highway:

We also passed an osprey nest that was on a telephone pole just feet from the road. One parent sat in the nest, while this one sat on the pole just across the way:

We stopped for dinner at the Log Cabin Pub in Spences Bridge where the only other customers were a group of eight that had ridden in on their Harleys. Then it was on a few dozen more kilometers to Cache Creek, our stopping point on this first night and one of the many towns in the region that was formed during the gold rush era. It's the largest town we've passed since leaving Abbotsford, and our hotel here has all the amenities from wifi to....wait....what's this rubber mat on the floor? Oh, it's a "majestic boot tray"....of course.

"Yard" Animals and Upcoming Adventures

Yesterday I was getting ready to walk to town and I got delayed by the mink hanging out on the shoreline just off our houseboat. While I have seen minks two or three times here over the years, we seem to have one living nearby as we have seen it often this spring. It was a reminder to me that I've wanted to do a post featuring some of the amazing wildlife I see right from our front deck. Below is a picture of the mink - the toes look a little strange because they are actually partially webbed. (By the way, my walk to town was further delayed when I stopped to listen to my first Swainson's thrush (162) of the season!)

The same rocks that provide a shoreline highway for the mink are often used by a fishing great blue heron. One day the heron found a different perch - the top of some dock pilings that someone somewhat comically (and totally ineffectually) tried to keep birds from hanging out on:

The shoreline rocks are also patrolled by an immature glaucous-winged gull that has learned to hunt crabs. Just a few months ago the parents were still regurgitating meals for this youngster on the docks, but now the adults are looking eagerly on hoping to steal some scraps from their offspring that has become quite the crab specialist:

I've also been pleased to see more river otters around this spring. They are often passing through and you've got to have the timing just right and the camera handy to grab a photo. Sometimes they're high-pitched kipping gives you a warning that they're on their way:

Finally, these last few days I've noticed that some baby dark-eyed juncos have fledged and are following their parents to our feeders. It's funny, because the little ones are feeding themselves but are also demanding that their parents still feed them as well. I love this shot which perfectly captures the silhouetted seed in the parent's beak being placed into the gaping mouth of the baby:

Also, starting tomorrow I will be taking a break from the regular routine as I will be heading north with my parents for an epic five week trip to Alaska. We will be driving up the Alaska Highway and traveling around many parts of southeast and south-central Alaska, as well as parts of British Columbia and the Yukon Territories. I hope you will enjoy following along on my adventures, as I will definitely be updating my blog about all the amazing things I'm sure I'll see!

This trip will certainly have a huge impact on my year bird list, which currently stands at 162. My original goal, which I planned on being easily attainable, was 175 species, and I plan on passing that number easily in the next couple of weeks. My loftier target was 200, so that is definitely the new goal at this point!

Birds and Flowers at British Camp

We had to cancel our trips today due an unusual late season storm being in the forecast. That left me with an unexpected afternoon off, and since the storm hadn't yet arrived by noon I decided to go for a hike at British Camp.

The bay is quite empty compared to the winter when many ducks and geese are found there. That didn't, however, mean it was quiet as four black oystercatchers were loudly chasing each other around the bay. I was trying to get a photo of all four of them when they had seemingly settled down to forage for a bit, but they were right at it again. This action shot is actually cooler anyway:

I was proud of the fact that I was able to identify the Hutton's vireo and chipping sparrow by call after I successfully learned their vocalizations when seeing and hearing them in the field two weeks ago. I also heard my first yellow warblers of the season (160). This is a bird I have known by call - sweet sweet sweet I'm so sweet - for years.

Another call I didn't recognize stopped me alongside the trail for a good ten minutes or so as I hoped to get a glimpse of the bird. I was only rewarded by the briefest of glances as it took off from the tree tops - confirming that it was indeed a small bird but not even giving me a good enough look to determine which family (warbler? flycatcher?) it was a part of.

I kept hearing the bird in the distance, but decided to move along, stopping a little later on to enjoy a rare view of a pacific-slope flycatcher out in the open. Amazingly enough, while watching the flycatcher the culprit of the mystery call hopped right into the field of view of my binoculars - a striking male townsend's warbler (161)! Add another song to the repertoire.

All in all I saw and heard 24 species while hiking the loop, but the only other photographic opportunities came from wildflowers. There are two common plants that are found all over San Juan Island but often blend in and get overlooked except for a short time in the spring when their showy pink flowers demand attention. One of them is American vetch (Vicia americana) - a vine member of the pea family that crawls in and among all the other plants trail-side:

Those thorns aren't part of the vetch, but rather the other pink flower in bloom: Nootka rose (Rosa nutkana). I've heard this described as the most common shrub on the islands, and I really didn't believe it until last spring when I noticed these papery flowers everywhere:

Here's another flower that is a little rarer but was out in force on one particular hillside: harsh paintbrush (Castilleja hispida). I love the spiky-flowered paintbrushes, mostly because of their non-traditional flower shape, but also their bright colors:

The storm delayed long enough for me to enjoy my hike - but it's here now! High winds and rain....this is more like November than May!

Sailing to Jones Island - Plus a Bird and Sea Lion Update

There has been so much to blog about with all the trips I've been out on the water and the whales in the area that this is my first chance to share photos from a sailing excursion I went on last week. A friend of mine from high school brought his sail boat up from Seattle and luckily his stop in Friday Harbor coincided with one of my days off. In the morning I went down to the docks and hopped aboard his 27' sail boat, Joshua, and we headed north up San Juan Channel.

Amazingly enough this was my first time ever on a sail boat, and needless to say it's much slower going than our high-powered tour boats. But when your goal isn't wildlife viewing, speed isn't as important, and there's something very peaceful about gliding up the channel on the power of the wind and really taking in your surroundings.

Our destination was Jones Island, a 190 acre state park about four miles north of Friday Harbor. It's an island we regularly go past on our whale and wildlife tours, but like many of the smaller San Juan Islands it's a place I hadn't actually set foot on. Here's the Joshua at the dock on the north side of Jones:

There's a nice trail around the island that we hiked before eating a picnic lunch. We saw the camping facilities and a couple of the fairly tame deer that live on the island. I enjoyed the views, which gave me a different perspective of San Juan Island and a lot of the other areas we routinely travel around and through.

All in all it was a great way to spend a day and catch up with some old friends. Thanks guys!

Now for a couple of other brief updates. I haven't had a chance to do much terrestrial birding but while out on the water yesterday I spotted a flock of about ten red-necked phalaropes (159), a species I hadn't counted on seeing until the fall migration. We see hundreds of these odd little shorebirds in August and September, but according to my book Birding the San Juan Islands only a few fly through on their way north. I hadn't ever seen them here in the spring before, but the ones I saw yesterday were here just at the time reported in the book: mid-May.

Last month I posted the history of Oscar, the branded California sea lion that has been hanging out on the buoy outside Friday Harbor. After confirming that this was the same animal as last year, I sent my sighting to the NOAA researcher and he asked if I had seen any other branded sea lions. After going back through my photos I found this branded Steller sea lion, photographed on April 18th on Whale Rocks at the southern end of San Juan Channel:

Even though I wasn't able to read the brand marking, the researcher was and kindly sent me this animal's history. He was tagged as a pup in southern Oregon in 2003, making him seven years old. He has been re-sighted nine times, almost all of them in Washington, including several times at Tatoosh Island in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and once in Puget Sound. It's cool not only to be able to contribute to the research on sea lion movements, but also to learn a little bit of the personal history of some of the animals we see out there.

Whales on the westside - but who are they?

This morning a report came in of whales on the west side of San Juan Island, right where we might have expected L-Pod to show up after their travels yesterday. We kept receiving conflicting reports that it was either L-Pod or some transient orcas, and when we left the dock on the Western Explorer we still didn't know. But, we had a whale report, so we started heading in that direction.

Along the way we stopped to check out a couple of harbor seal haul outs. It was low tide so many of the low-lying reefs were covered with seals. (Note: today's photos were taken by Captain Ivan)

We also got several good looks at adult bald eagles, the coolest of which was an eagle on Spieden Island with a fish that was still flopping at its feet!

By the time we got on scene with the orcas part of the mystery had been solved - the whales in Haro Strait were definitely a group of seven transients. At first we got a nice look at the big male T87, who, along with a few other whales, has been spending a lot of time in the area over the last many weeks. Often, transients will just be in the area for a day or two and then move on, but these guys have been hanging around a lot - not that we mind one bit!

I heard from Jeanne that T87 was traveling with T124, T124D, and T124E, though we didn't get a great look at these whales ourselves. Instead, we headed offshore towards another group of three orcas - T88, T90, and youngster T90B. Here's the four year old T90B right behind mom T90:

On our way back to Friday Harbor we spotted some small groups of harbor porpoise, then made a last stop to check out the California sea lion that hangs out on the buoy in San Juan Channel. Since he's been there all spring and last spring as well we decided he needed a name. One of our passengers came up with Oscar, and I think that might just stick. So here's a picture of Oscar on his buoy:

In the end, the other part of the mystery - where was L-Pod? - was solved by a confirmed report of the whales heading west towards the open ocean out the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Hopefully they are just going to get their compatriots and will be back soon!

Part of L-Pod Returns!

Yesterday we heard the exciting news that many killer whales were southbound from Campbell River on Vancouver Island. We all expected them to be residents, but who? And when would they show up? They had more than a hundred miles to cover to get here by today, but early this morning they were seen of Nanaimo. The buzz among the whale-watch community was incredible this morning. As we left the dock there were still no reports, but we were hopeful.

Shortly into our trip we got the call we were waiting for - that there were whales in Active Pass. Active Pass is a narrow channel in the Canadian Gulf Islands that the orcas often use, but they almost always travel through it from west to east. Today, for the second year in a row, after coming down the inside passage they transited through from east to west - very odd!

The first thing we saw when we got on scene was several big splashes in the distance from breaches. As they continued south towards us I could hardly wait to see who was present. The first whale I identified was the adult male L79 Skana:

I'm totally speculating here, but the whales really seemed as excited to be back to their summer home as we are to have them. They were going crazy as they made their way down Swanson Channel, with multiple breaches, cartwheels, and tail slaps, as well as an occasional spyhop. Here are a few photos that capture the spectacle: the first one is L22 Spirit about to crash down from a breach, the next is a tail slap by L85 Mystery, and the third one is an enthusiastic cartwheel by another L-Pod female:

Whenever the whales first return from a long absence (this part of L-Pod hasn't been seen since February when they made a quick pass through the San Juan Islands), it is always exciting to see who all is there. In addition to figuring out which pods are present, we want to make sure that all members of a family group have returned and see if there are any new calves. The official word isn't in yet as to who was there, but from my photographs I was able to positively ID L12, L22, L25, L41, L73, L79, L85, and L89. From this I concluded that the L12, L5, and L54 family groups were present - a total of up to 19 whales if they were all present. Here is a picture of L73 Flash:

Now the big question is, will they stick around? We sure hope so! And maybe the rest of the Southern Residents will come in soon to meet up with them....J-Pod just stayed for two and a half days on their last short visit, but we expect to be seeing more of them and the other residents any day now.

A gray whale in the San Juan Islands!

This morning when I got down to the boat Captain Hobbes was sitting in the wheelhouse with his binoculars and said casually, "I'm watching a gray whale." I laughed and gave him a skeptical look, but I glanced out towards San Juan Channel and almost immediately saw a huge spout! Our trip got underway about half an hour later and we did indeed spend the first part of our morning with a gray whale.

There are often gray whales down in Puget Sound in the spring, but they are a rarer sighting up in the San Juan Islands, so we were very excited today. Look at how high that spout goes!

Interestingly, this gray whale also fluked a couple of a times. Normally that's a behavior associated with humpback whales right before a deep dive, but this whale did it a few times too, giving me a chance to get a photo of the underside of its tail flukes. I timed one of its longer dives at seven minutes.

For our afternoon trip, we caught up with the gray whale again further north in Boundary Pass near Skipjack Island. I had to wonder if this whale was migrating through (kinda late?) towards Alaska, as I believe some gray whales do go up the Inside Passage. Other grays hang out off the Oregon and Washington coasts for the summer instead of making the full migration, but there's not many places for this benthic-feeding animal to forage in the deep, rocky channels of the San Juans.

Gray whales can be identified by their tail fluke markings (if you are lucky enough to see them), or more commonly by the mottled white patterns on their side, as in the photo above. I compared this photo to the ID guide of northern Puget Sound gray whales put together by Cascadia Research, but didn't find any matches. I've sent a couple photos to some baleen whale researchers to see if they know who it is.

It's interesting that we saw a gray whale today, because just the other day I was reading an amazing article about a gray whale spotted off of Israel. This is remarkable because the Atlantic population of gray whales has been believed extinct for about 300 years. If it is a Pacific gray whale, how in the world did it find its way over there? It has definitely raised a lot of questions.

A little while after leaving the gray whale we found ourselves surrounded by dozens of harbor porpoise near Boiling Reef. It's pretty spectacular to just cut the engines and float in the currents while porpoise pop up all around you. Since they are small at about 4-5 feet long they surface quickly, so photographing them can be difficult. Today was the first time I managed to get as many as three in one shot!

It seems that there are starting to be fewer sea lions in the area as May progresses, which is what we expect as they start to head to their breeding colonies for the summer. There were still a dozen Steller sea lions hauled out near East Point, however, looking very regal. Here are three of them: