Bald Eagles

It's springtime here on the island-- which means the weather is likely to change at a moment's notice, the animals are all getting ready for courtship or mating, and it's simply gorgeous out. Today I saw an adult bald eagle fly by with a large stick in it's beak-- building a nest I presume. Although bald eagles are believed to mate for life, each year they will make 'improvements' to their nest by adding on more and more sticks until the tree can no longer support...

I paddled out for my first trip of the season today, and what a day! The weather was perfect and the wildlife certainly on display. There were so many different kinds of winter birds-- scoters, mergasers, buffleheads, cormorants, bald eagles, kingfishers, guillemots, auklets and more. The highlight of the trip for me was when two harbor porpoise surfaced behind our boats a few times. They seemed to be feeding, but moved off before we could get some really good...

Today I paddled out for a few hours with a lovely local couple who were celebrating their wedding anniversary. We started out under gray skies and were quickly paddling in the rain. Although it was November, and thus well after the tourist season was over, it was beautiful.

We identified all sorts of birds today, from the Harlequin duck's defined white markings to the soft gray spots of the Bonaparte's Gull in winter plumage. There were grebes, guilemots and...

Today our guide Megan had an awesome familly sea kayak tour! They saw red rock crab, purple and green shore crab, mossy chiton, and an abundance of ochre sea stars when they got out on Posey Island to stretch their legs. Later that afternoon she took out a group of adults on a Bicycle Adventures specific tour, where they paddled to a kelp bed and saw two bald eagles relaxing in a nearby tree on McCracken point.

With the sun out and blue sky all around, all three morning kayak trips enjoyed an abundance of wildlife. They spotted bald eagles, harbor seals and river otters. The morning was low tide, which allowed us to observe sea stars, kelp crabs and moon jellies. The day ended with four of our guests from the 5 hour kayak trip taking advantage of the great weather by going for an impromptu swim.

It was another beautiful day on the west side, and my 3 hour sea kayak tour was pleased to see all sorts of wildlife out and about! Not only did I get my first glimpse of the year of an eaglet in a nest, but we also saw killer whales off in the distance! The whales were spread out in the Haro Strait, headed north. Although they were so far off that we could only just make out some dorsal fins and their exhalations, it was still awesome to see.

On a sunny Saturday afternoon our group of 10 kayakers left Roche Harbor. We paddled in calm waters past Pearl Island and around to the western side of Henry Island where we saw everything from Bald Eagles to brilliant purple Ochre Sea Stars. We even ate Bull Kelp! Sitting in the Bull Kelp bed we sat quietly munching on our Kelp snack as curious Harbor Seal heads popped up around us. As we continued south on the west side of Henry Island we heard the screeching of...