Northern Residents of Telegraph Cove

There are several distinct populations of orca in the waters of British Columbia, and the pods most common to the Telegraph Cove area belong to the Northern Residents. These orcas are specialized in eating chinook salmon, nearly to the exclusion of all other potential foods and are an iconic part of the landscape of northern Vancouver Island.

 They travel in pods between a pair to several dozen and like all orca, have a matriarchal society in which the sons stay with their mothers most of their life (according to a book we read last year, sons may spend up to 65% of their life within a body length of their mother). Since they must constantly come up for air, they can only let half of their brain sleep at atime, so they are commonly found in a resting formation where they travel along slowly and breathe frequently.

 When fully awake and active, their behaviour can be quite varied and exciting with all manner of spy hops (below), tail slaps, pectoral fin waves, breaches and vocalization. People only began seriously studying these animals in the 50s and the volume of information yet to be learned is huge, but with such striking and charismatic behaviour there should be no shortage of excited researchers and observers.

Family and Friends to be Thankful For

 With our health, happiness and loving marraige, we both have a lot to be thankful for. Most of that is difficult to express in a quick trio of photos, but we also had visits with dear family and friends this year which are much easier to summarize in a blogpost as people who most certainly help us through the years. Kathryn's parents shared a nice week with us earlier in the summer, allowing for some nice excursions from the city along with an overdue visit. They are an excellent example of how to be married for decades and still be very much in love.

 My cousin Simone and her husband Robbie were in town for a visit this summer as well, and we had a surreal crossover with them and my old friend Riley from Manitoba and the long long ago. It was really great to catch up with people I hadn't seen for years and pretty much pick up where we last left things off.

 Rounding out the summer, my dad came along with us to Telegraph Cove for some wildlife viewing and good company. As always, our friends at Stubbs Island Whale Watching were incredibly generous with their time and we had a dinner party/barbeque pretty much every night we were up there.

 

 There are many more dear people in our lives than we have quick reference photos of, but to everyone that is a part of our routine in Vancouver or elsewhere, thank you for being in our lives and we are no doubt past due for a proper visit.

Telegraph Cove Birds

 While the mammals are overwhelming in Telegraph Cove, there is a plethora of stunning birds to be seen if you can stop your head from spinning after all the cetaceans. There were a pair of peregrine falcons living along a nearby roadside which obliged us with a number of fly-bys. My dad was very quick on the draw and got this stunning photo with all the detail in the feathers and tack-sharp focus.

 Of course, some of the locals are more leisurely about having their photos taken like this great blue heron which was foraging along the entrance to the cove as our tour set out. While they are a common sight all along the coast of BC, we never tire of them or their primeval stature. Watch one of these for a few minutes and you'll have no problem believing that some dinosaurs eventually took to the air.

 While neither of us are big gull enthusiasts, my dad is quite the fan and his interest certainly makes them more of a draw. This California gull was perched helpfully on one of the pier pilings in the cove and there were dozens of others scattered around the area, just waiting to be scanned for rarities.

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.