Mortal Remains

The Galapagos Islands are like Canadian National Parks and others where you cannot remove any flora or fauna and that includes their remains. I really wanted a sealion skull but I was very good and left everything behind. The remains below are of a male which had some neat taphonomy on the caudal verts. A badly healed break. I was happy to give a quick talk about bones as our naturalist did not know as much about their remains as the animal while it was alive so we had a great exchange of info.

Just a comparison shot. The female Galapagos sea lion on the left is dead to the world only in the sense she is fast asleep and oblivious of her prettily bleached compatriot directly to her right. Most bones were not articulated particularily well but these were pretty much were the animal died. The white bones blend into the sand a bit in these photos.

Kind of blech. I prefer my bones a bit cleaner but they got to get that way somehow. This little pup was unlucky. We figured it likely was abandoned and starved to death. Poor thing. By now its probably clean as a whistle like the bones above.

Clay Licks Along the Napo

Along the Napo River there are occasional high cliffs. One of these has the minerals and clays necessary to healthy parrots.  Many of the fruits in their diet are poisonous and the clay helps neutralize the toxins harmlessly in their stomachs. Hundreds of parrots descent on these licks to nibble and scrape up the clay. In the photo below are hundreds of parrots of about 4-5 species wheeling about and jockeying for space.

If it rains the parrots do not show up. They licks has to dry up a bit before it is attractive to them. There are dozens of such sites both along the Napo and within the jungle itself.  They are quite noisy. We watched them from the boat on the Napo.  All at once a group would burst and fly off and then re-settle. This happened a couple of times. The last time they did not calm and settle back down. This was because a boa constrictor was in the trees above.

In the photo below you can see the fresh scrapings from all the birds. They cling to the sides with their feet, They almost look like magnets.  My advice for people visiting would be to just visit the licks along the Napo River. There are some that can be visited within the jungle and is a short hike. We could hear and see them way above in the trees but they did not come down.

Another reason is that in order to lure parrots to the licks accessible to tourists the native Yasuni poured petrol on clay licks further out forcing the parrots to go to the interior ones they control.  They charge $20 for people to hike in and see these licks and fail to mention that little fact about pouring gas on clay licks in a park. It's up to you but I don't want to encourage that kind of thing. So I suggest not to go and to let people there the reason why. I would not have gone to the inland licks if I had known that.

Fisheye Planets of the West Coast

 Click on any of the pictures below to enlarge them.

Geordie is getting very adept at both stitching together these planetoid photos and finding places that make for an interesting end product. I really enjoy the one below of the Sooke Potholes with the trees bursting out at either end.

 I like how you see different things in the image too. This one is at Whiffen Spit park just outside of Sooke. These images have all been processed in a different way than the ones posted earlier and have more proper perspective without crushing buildings/trees on the horizon or making people look squat.

 We hiked to check out the Seal Petroglyph near East Sooke. This is where it is situated. If you enlarge the picture maybe you can spot the seal picture and another figure. I like how all the trees are at one end and the open ocean at the other.

Sooke on Horseback

 I love to ride. And Geordie has been accommodating enough to ride with me even though he learns on the trail and I have rather more experience then him. Nevertheless we had a completely lovely ride with Joyce at Driftwood Stables in the Sooke environs. She clearly loves her horses and knows what she is doing. I rode Drifter, a Cleveland Bay/Arab cross. Geordie rode a Tennessee Walker named Snow which is a perfect ride for him because of the smooth gait. Here is me being unphotogenic with Drifter (who is very snuggly and pretty). I had the opportunity to ride an Australian saddle which was new to me. I think I did alright but it took a moment to remember my English riding lessons as I am more used to Western. I need to get more comfortable at a canter English style. So much easier Western. My thighs felt the posting the next day!

 The stables itself was between the beach and hills giving us an opportunity to ride along the beach and then up behind in private land that had been groomed for deer. There is even a pictograph across the road but on private land as well. Geordie got the chance to learn how to do a bit of grooming hence why the horses are so shiny!

Cammy is a rescue horse who couldn't properly stretch and groom herself. Here she is showing how much she can be flexible with the bribery of a carrot snack. The little patches on her coat are from a vitamin deficiency but no worries as she is on a special diet and is getting nice and plump.

Several Scenic Sooke Sights

 This is the lighthouse which is at Race Rocks. You can see Victoria from the Rocks. This is also where all the elephant seals were at. We are going to dive this in the future. While we were there the visibility was great just from the boat but the current was coming through plenty fast. Race Rocks is known for its fast currents and many wrecks. The lighthouse is built entirely in Scotland and then brought over as boat ballast and reconstructed on location.

 All along the coast road through Sooke and for some time after it there are lengths of beaches. You can walk along them for kilometres. Often there are neat deadheads and driftwood that have been tossed up. There is plenty of property along them but the beaches themselves are all public. This is the environs of Gordons Beach.

 This is the view from the B&B we stayed at called Gordon's Beach. It was just up the hill and had a great view of the water and the open sky at night. It was a reasonably priced place to stay and our room while on the ground floor was still lovelty. We can recommend it.  It is just past Sooke in Otter Point. On the grounds we saw California Quail.

New Birds in Sooke

Whiffen Spit Park on the west side of Sooke is a nice walk that has a path gong down a narrow strip of land that juts into the ocean.  This proved to be a lovely walk with crab boats about, a seal and some new birds all for us. I've always wanted to see Brandt's geese and at a little park in Sooke I got my way. There was a large flock eating seaweed close to shore.  They were quite shy but as we sat quietly we ended up with them pretty near by. I like their pretty necklaces.

I've seen Mountain Bluebirds up in the higher cut blocks in the interior but  never on the coast. This female allowed Geordie to get quite close while she flew and hopped about a small area.  They are  rare on the coast and on Vancouver Island. This one must have been passing through as part of the Spring Migration.

The same area also yielded a mystery shore bird. Geordie and I after much debate and pondering of bird books had tentatively identified this fellow below as a Rock Sandpiper. We were corrected by Geordie's Dad, Peter. It is in fact a Black Turnstone.  Shorebirds are shy and fast and hard to ID and I am bad with them. The group that was feeding on the rocks right at the water was shy but we still got in for a close look before they flew off.

Friggin Huge Seals

 Seals come in 3 sizes. Wee (grey seals), very wee (harbour seals) and Friggin' HUGE!. Elephant seals are of the latter type. We have always wanted to see them and we got our chance during the Easter holidays during our trip to Sooke on the island. Part of this trip was to scope out Race Rocks for a future dive and to see if we could spot these extra large pinnepeds. We were in luck! Not only were there elephant seals but harbour seals as well as Steller and California Sea Lions.

 We had heard that there were 2 females on the rocks before we were there. Imagine our delight when there were not 2 but 11 hanging out at the Rocks. There was even two on the dock to the light house and buildings. I don't envy people docking there. This time of year the females and juveniles molt. For these ladies it is not just fur coming out, they shed their skin too. This makes for hungry and irritable elephant seals as they are vulnerable to the cold at this time and are unable to go and eat in the ocean.

 The largest of the females at Race Rocks was probably just shy of 10 feet and weighed somewhat less then 2,000 pounds. The grown males are giants as they can get upto 16 feet and the heaviest weigh approximately 5400 lbs. All these large ladies were soaking up the sun during a wonderfully sunny Easter weekend.