7 March

 HORNBY ISLAND TOUR

I booked on for this tour some weeks ago.  It was offered by the Arrowsmith Naturalists as a way of viewing the wildlife (birds and marine mammals) that are associated with the herring spawn.  

We sailed out of Deep Bay Marina at 9 am on the Sea Corona, a 40-foot troller, well led by the boat's captain and an assistant, who was very knowledgeable about the area.  



The docks were very busy, with boats involved in the one remaining herring fishery in BC.  Our boat didn't actually have moorage, but rafted along another really big seine boat that we needed to climb over to board.  I didn't find it easy.

There were a dozen of us, nice enough folks but I think there were a few too many for the intent of the trip.  It seemed to me as though we managed to get into one another's way, and I certainly found that, all too often, when I had a good photo set up, someone would step in front of me.  😞  

The weather was cloudy but dry, and the sea was calm.

Sailing out, there were good views of Vancouver Island, including the back of Mount Arrowsmith.


There is a quite lovely lighthouse station on a small island offshore.


Strange to relate, there weren't all that many gulls--usually the herring spawn is a time to hone one's gull identification skills--not easy, but a variety of gulls are drawn to the occurence.  Somehow there weren't many and not much of a variety that I could see.  I'll monitor the situation and see if more gulls are along the shore at some point.

We spent quite a long time watching a big group of sea lions, mostly steller's, that are drawn by the herring.  

I tried to record them, unsuccessfully.  Odd, because they're really really loud.  Steller's are louder than the smaller California sea lions, who are also noisy but nowhere near the bigger creatures.


I think this is a young male--he's got the fringe of long fur around his neck.


There were many pups, as they're called.  It seems to me that as sea lions, they ought to be "cubs," but no, they're pups.   Ok.   They were very inquisitive and swam up to our boat to study us.  Kinda cute.  This sleepy-looking little character is enjoying a good scratch.

There were, as there always are around Deep Bay, big rafts of scoters, both surf and black, and Brandt's cormorants.  I've seen Brandt's but never before in their rather bizarre breeding plumage. 


Somehow, the bird in the lower left of the above photo reminds me of Mr. Burns from the Simpsons.



They posed here with a young eagle.

It was, all in all, a good trip.  By the time we got back to the dock, and navigated the rafted seine boats again, most of us were feeling rather chilly.  I was happy to fire up the heater in my truck, and drive up-Island to buy another batch of oysters, then head home for a warm nap.







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