10-23-14 What A Window Of An Afternoon

Thursday, October 23rd
...with the weather pattern beginning into a stretch of unsettled weather I didn't know if I'd be going out today or not...

...out on Maya's Westside Charters we headed over to where there were some humpback whales...
...on our way we stopped at Kelp Reef marker where Steller sea lions can often be seen at this time of year...

...as we came around to the other side...uh-oh...what happened here?...Capt. Jim wondered if the Stellers had done this...the tangled mess #1 of metal is what had been a hand rail to hoist oneself up from the vertical ladder #2 that is attached to the cement in the water...#3 is the ladder that leads up the tower of the marker...so far they haven't tried to climb that!

...link here to see prior encounter of how they do it...see how Stellers actually get up on that ledge...

...then I noticed in the next shot that the ladder is actually farther from the cement base that it appeared...I just hope someone will come and get this junk out of the water before it detaches completely and adds more trash to our waters...

...speaking of junk in the water...storms push a lot of debris, including logs into the water...when you think of the stream near you maybe not having much impact - not true - no matter where you live, when the rains come they wash all that junk down stream and in this area many times right into the ocean...here's a humorous yet potentially deadly 'cedar orca'...
...the only 'orca' we saw today...

...on to Canada...we paused seeing the Canadian flag flying at half mast after the horrible events that took place in Ottawa the day before...

...looking at harbor seals hauled out near Trial Island, I noticed some shore birds...

...we didn't have long to see the humpback as the seas were beginning to build from the west...

...but BCX0470 sounded (fluked) a couple times, giving us a nice ID opportunity...

...as we came back across we saw the tall ships - from S.A.L.T.S. -...we stopped to say, "ahoy" and those 9th grade students were about the most animated I've seen on one of those ships...those instructors probably had no problem in getting these kids into action!

...continuing toward home...oh, yes, Dall's porpoise visited us for a few minutes...off in the distance...

...to the northwest and moving our way...

...then an eagle in a tree...what's so great about that?...

...I love the feathers!...it's only 16 seconds and it's out of focus but the feathers are the 'main attraction'...

...as we pull into the dock the rain drops start...what a window of an afternoon!