Nature Galore

Amanda called yesterday to invite my mother Dorothy and I out to help with the annual Audubon bird count . Of all the amazing activities I've participated in since moving to Hornby, today's bird count reaches into the top five. This bird count is headed up by Doug Carrick of Hornby Island Eagle Cam fame and it was much more than a birding outing.

Five of us covered two areas, Big Tribune Bay and a beach off Texada Road, just up the island from where we live. At 'Big Trib' we saw a number of gulls, crows and other usual suspects. But then what seemed initially to be a flock of Canada geese turned out to be a flock of Trumpeter swans. The wind was howling and it was the highest of high tides so we were happy to hop into a warm car and drive on to our second target beach. In fact, Dorothy's feet had turned to icicles in shoes, so I drove her back to the house and caught up with the group at Texada.

The second beach presented a couple of interesting winged creatures and then, just as I said 'I'd love to see orcas today', there they were. Three orca whales surfaced right in front of us, just off shore. It looked like a family of two adults with one jeuvenile. It was my first whale sighting from Hornby - and my favourite whales!

It was a day of incredible nature all within ten minutes of our house. Earlier this week we scrambled up to a cliff side where a waterfall fell cascading over the mouth of a cave. This was also by invitation of Rob and Amanda. For a tiny island, there is endless exploring to be done.