Black Bears on the Boardwalk and Grizzlies of the Deep

With the draw of whales near Telegraph Cove, its easy to forget the other major mammals in the area, both on land and in the water. Telegraph Cove is built up on boardwalks along the coast, and one morning this young black bear followed a stream down to the sea and was wandering around at low tide looking for tasty invertebrates under the rocks. He seemed quite unphased by the gaggle of tourists following along above and taking his picture.

 Out in the water, the Steller Sea Lions are equally impressive mammals. Since we typically see them from boats where we are both far away and much higher up they can seem comical, but they are pretty big and impressive creatures in their own rights. They are infact the largest of the eared seals and combine the size of bears with the sociability of dogs.

 Carrying the bear analogy one step further, the Whale Interpretive Centre has skeleton samples of most of the resident mammals, and a quick comparison between a grizzly bear and a steller sea lion shows more than a passing resemblance. This should not come as a huge surprise since both groups share common Arctoidea ancestors and are really just different twigs on the same branch of the mammalian family tree.

Hungry hungry humpbacks

 We had our annual visit to Telegraph Cove over the Labour Day long weekend and its been a few years since we actually had a blog post dedicated to one of our favorite animal sightings: the humpback whale. There have been an increasing number of humpback whales in the area this year, and Captain Wayne told us that it was a poor year for baitfish such as herring, so the humpbacks were being very competive for their meals. The whale below slapped its tail on the water for several minutes straight, maybe saying hello and maybe telling the other whales to give him some room.

 This was the first year we had seen humpbacks performing a newly discovered feeding technique called 'Trap feeding.' This behaviour seems particular to this area of the world, making it all the more rare and amazing to see. The whale essentially pops its mouth above the water and slowly moves around while using its pectoral fins to push fish into its mouth. An incredible bit of hunting AND a good chance to see the whale for more than a few seconds as they held this position for half a minute or more scooping up fish.

 Of course, with so many whales in the area, some were more competitive than others, as the whale below is lunging sideways through a bait ball. There were 5 or more humpbacks in the immediate area all feeding on this school of fish and the meal lasted several minutes.

Interestingly enough, the whales are just being opportunistic mooches, the actual work is done by the birds, some of which dive under water while others scoop up fish from above, forcing them into a ball for defense... the the humpback "sneaks" in and eats the lot. The birds do the work, but we have yet to see any get accidentally eaten, so they don't have the worst part of the deal, that place is reserved for the fish that EVERYONE seems to find so delicious.

Back to School and Summer Job Roundup

 We had a wonderful getaway to Telegraph Cove over the Labour Day long weekend, but before we get to that I'd like to do a quick post about my summer job and heading back to school for year 2 (of 2). I had a great summer gig at Bardel Entertainment doing Excel spreadsheet data and will continue to do some part-time freelance for them in the coming year, which is nice. It was very fun to transition from the art side to the business side and see film production from an entirely different perspective.

 For my friends still in vfx: if the image below doesn't look like a fun summer then don't get into accounting :) I spent 3 months working in Excel 8 hours a day creating templates for Bardel to track the finances of their various productions and help consolidate that for quarterly reports. I also did some basic entry level accounting tasks and learned an absolute ton.

 And here's the lineup for the coming term. The first week is always a pain getting caught up on reading as every course has a few chapters right off the hop that are full of technical terms but not complex enough to warrant longer coverage so there's a sudden surge to read 100+ pages of dense material in each book. For those of you not familiar with it, and to give scale to the widths of that stack, the Income Tax Act (at the bottom) is 2000+ pages of 8 point legalese text and a guaranteed cure for insomnia.

 

In Summary: It was a good summer, its going to be an intense and demanding 9 months, but after this push I will be totally employable in my new field and already have some contacts and experience for when I come out the other end.

Chariot Fest of India

 Yes, you read that right: Indian Chariot Festival. I wasn't quite sure what to expect myself, and anyone that goes expecting Ben-Hur or Queen Boudica will be disappointed, but if you are looking for a splash of colour and culture, its a pretty neat event that has been a part of our neighbourhood for 41 years and this was the first I had heard of it.

 The chariot itself was around 50 feet high and had this fellow riding in the front along with a few others. The people infront of the chariot were symbolically pulling it on ropes, but it contentedly ran along on a little motor to make it easy on everyone. The event honours the god Jagannatha who apparently leaves the temple once a year to ride in a chariot.

 There was a nice festival near Second Beach after the procession and unlike most of the parades I've seen lately, this one had a yoga booth right across the way from a free feast. Each year the organizers prepare enough vegetarian food to feed 20,000 people which is given away free and I can certainly attest is delicious. There were also displays on vegetarianism and reincarnation along with the usual childrens theatres, music stages and gifts.

Squamish Railway Museum - Outdoors

 While we were in Squamish with Kathryn's parents earlier this summer, we also stopped by the Squamish Railway Museum which has had some expansion work in the few years since we'd been there last and was a thoroughly entertaining place to spend a couple of hours. As you can see below, a significant portion of the outdoor displays are several lengths of track with an assortment of diesel locomotives, old passenger cars and cabooses along with an old station and roundhouse.

 I find these old snow shovel locomotives particularly amazing given that the cab sits a good 12 feet in the air, giving you an idea of just how much snow needs to be cleared off of the tracks in some of the mountains and interiors.

 Another fun aspect of the outdoor area is being able to clamber around and inside of most of the exhibits. Valerie in particular was delighted to climb up into a caboose as seen below and was very keen on exploring and sitting behind the wheel of every machine in the yard.

Khatsalano Street Party

 For the 4th year in a row (and somehow the 1st year we actually heard about it), part of Kitsalano shuts down for a massive street party 10 blocks long with a typical turnout of over 118,000 people. Below is a shot up the hill into the crowd from one end of the street party. Note that there is an equally large party happening on the other side of that hill, so quite the shindig.

 Any event like this attracts its fair share of buskers and street performers, but we were particularly delighted by this fellow who was blowing  enormous bubbles for donations in the middle of the crowd. He was quite talented and able to blow smaller bubbles into the larger ones as they formed. There was also an excited gaggle of children hanging around waiting for any bubbles to stray into their reach.

 Another main draw for the street party is the collection of music stages which have a variety of performers which change every hour. We had never heard of them before, but Kathyrn was particularly keen to see 'I, Braineater' shown below. They are a group of artists/aging punk rockers who put on a pretty good show and were certainly all involved in the show. The chap in the creature costume on the left was playing the drums 20 minutes later and singing as we left, so they certainly keep things varied.

Canada Day Highlights

 Kathryn and I both really enjoy Canada Day and while it has long been a staple of our summers together, we have had a rough time getting our schedules to line up and enjoy it together the last few years. That said, we were delighted to both have the day off this year for a nice outing and visit with friends. The shot below is a fraction of the crowd downtown at the main music stage near the convention centre.

 On the other side of the convention centre we caught a Lumberjack Show and, while it was very similar to the Lumberjack Show at Grouse Mountain, it was never the less a good time out watching some woodworking hijinks and log rolling tomfoolery.

 On our way home from the family-friendly portion of the day we make a quick stop off at Vancouvers subculture festival 'Canabis Day' which happens every year at the Art Gallery and seems to be getting bigger and more popular with each passing year. I always enjoy seeing public art dressed up for holidays and it was fun to see this Rastafarian lion watching over the crowd.

We ended our day off watching the sunset on the beach with a good group of friends and thoroughly enjoyed having a chance to visit with people and relax and have a nice day together as well. Happy 147th Canada!