The Daily Bucket is a regular feature of the Backyard Science group. It is a place to note any observations you have made of the world around you. Rain, sun, wind...insects, birds, flowers...meteorites, rocks...seasonal changes...all are worthy additions to the bucket. Please let us know what is going on around you in a comment. Include, as close as is comfortable for you, where you are located. Each note is a record that we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the patterns that are quietly unwinding around us.
August 12, 2015
Salish Sea, Pacific Northwest
Watching marine wildlife from a boat lets you see the world a bit more from their point of view. More often, like most people, I'm watching them from the shore, like today. It was a low tide, so I thought I'd check this spot on the west side of the island for seastars and take advantage of morning light behind me to get a better look at the wildlife along this narrow channel between islands.
It's peak tourist season right now, which meant lots of walkers and picnickers on the bluff, and tourist boats at sea. The Victoria Clipper is a passenger vessel that makes runs between Victoria BC, Seattle and Friday Harbor. It is at full power to make headway against the incoming tide that races through Cattle Pass. Cattle Point lighthouse is across the way.
A more local "whale-watching" boat has paused by Whale Rocks to view the wildlife there. I saw the first few Steller sea lions of the season last week when we took our own boat around Whale Rocks. Today I could see at least 6 from this spot on shore, along with seals, gulls and cormorants.
I did find one small seastar (good if not great news) but as I sat up on the rocky bluff for the next hour the weather closed down and everything turned shades of gray. Nevertheless I did see quite an array of creatures making use of a shift in the tide, becoming active in the fast-moving incoming tidal current that stirs up fish and other underwater critters.
Here are a few of the critters I saw.
Offshore in the 3-4 knot current many of the seals that had hauled out and been sleeping on the rocks slid into the water and started fishing. Here is one who caught a salmon. Two gulls lurked nearby looking for scraps.
Resting on a rock: a "big one and a little one", ie a mother and pup harbor seal pair, nuzzling. Several other pairs swam in shallow backwater nearby, occasionally venturing out into the current.
(All photos by me. In Lightbox...click to enlarge)
Several kinds of shorebirds like rocks for foraging. I saw Black Oystercatchers and Black Turnstones here, both year round residents. I also caught one migrater with the Turnstones - I think it is a Spotted Sandpiper. I welcome opinions on this guy.
Herons feed on small fish from the rocks. And just hang out there, like the gulls, waiting for - ? Wild animals have great patience....stillness.
After an hour of rising tide, surging and swirling around the rocks, the dozen seals lounging at this spot were down to a wet few.
There were Mew, Heermann's and California gulls here, all migraters, and also several of our resident Glaucous-winged. This one was working on something mysterious for a long time, and drew interest from a subadult gull, and also a nearby seal who swam around this tiny rock several times watching. I think it's either a small octopus or the guts of sonething - stretchy, hard to swallow certainly.
You can see a bit of the current whirpooling through the passage between the near rocks and shore in this view. The current was much swifter beyond, out in the pass. I saw Rhinoceros auklets, Pigeon Guillemots and my first Surf Scoters of the season. I watched one sailboat give up trying to make headway against the current - obviously they hadn't read the tide chart!
The weather moved in from the Olympic peninsula, those mountains you see off to the south. Pretty sky. It rained shortly after this.
Nature news fron your neighborhood?
"Spotlight on Green News & Views" is posted every Saturday at 1:00 pm Pacific Time and Wednesday at 3:30 on the Daily Kos front page. It's a great way to catch up on diaries you