.JPG)
Port Hrdy to Bull Harbour
The Canadian Turkey Vulture
I have identified a bird in Canada, which resembles our humble Turkey Vulture from the Rogue Valley in appearance and numbers. It may be a subspecies, our a separate species entirely but it does share many of the Vultures characteristics. It is often seen in groups, roosting in trees or on pilings or on breakwaters. It does a lot of sitting around, but always has it’s eye out for an easy meal. It eats carrion, but prefers fresh kills. It appears to have excellent eyesight, and perhaps relies more on sight than smell as it searches for food than the Turkey Vulture does. We were privileged to an up close and personal display of it’s hunting prowess when it dove just behind our dinghy. It eased close to the water, then pulled up abruptly within inches of the surface. Perhaps it’s prey dove just then. We were trolling with a flasher, it’s action reflecting the sun’s light on the surface of the water. It pulled up as it approached though, somehow realizing that what it thought was a fish was too good looking to be true.
It has a much more distinctive call than the Turkey Vulture, which doesn’t have a call at all. When heard from the cockpit after sharing a fine meal with friends and imbibing perhaps too much wine, it’s call sounds like a high pitched cackling laugh.
Just like Turkey Vultures, it can be spotted soaring in great circles at higher and higher elevations on it’s great broad wings. Unlike the tilting TV however, it soars on steady wings, it’s dihedral being flat rather than V shaped. It’s head in flight is much more prominent than that of our Turkey Vulture.
The locals pay no attention to these birds as they are so plentiful, though one man told us that it has made a come backing the past 15 years or so since DDT was eliminated.
It has a thick yellow bill, not unlike the Turkey Vulture for ripping flesh. Turkey Vultures have just one color phase or morphology, this bird appears to have both a dark phase blotchy as well as a two toned, double ender color scheme which lends credence to the idea that it may likely be another species all together.
I’ve enclosed a few photos in case any of you could help out with identification……
At last, Port Hardy
Port Hardy, while sharing many of the same characteristics as other North Vancouver Island towns--as history of logging and fishing, a plentiful First Native population, like all towns if has it’s unique features. The grocery store chain here is called Overwaitea. They very kindly have an explanatory plaque at check out for all of the ignorant tourists who do what I did, which was to ask the checker “What does the name of your store mean and how do you pronounce it?” She answered me kindly Canadian style and pointed at the commemorative sign. Bunches of years ago, a clerk in a frontier store measured out 18 ounces of tea for a customer instead of the usual 16 ounces, thus becoming the over-weight tea merchant. A supermarket is born! Such were it’s humble beginnings.
Our weather was good in Port Hardy, and everyday went something like this: am woke to cloudy but calm skies. Clouds would dissipate around noon, or 10 or 2, and the wind would kick up from the north. If we were away from the docks, the sun warmed us quickly, but on the water it felt perhaps colder even than in the cloudy morning. We would head out from the dock with down vest and jacket bracing against the wind, and within one turn of the corner off the port off they would come. I’m a slow learner I guess--I didn’t figure this out until our last day there…..
We met some folks, Demi (accent on the last syllable ) and Holly who were full time cruisers for the past 4 years. They called home a 40-something foot catamaran that made our 38 foot mono-hull look like an efficiency apartment next their penthouse. They had wintered twice in Mexico and twice in front of the Empress Hotel in Victoria. They had sold their home in Colorado to buy their catamaran. They kindly invited us to tea (we brought the cookies) and we shared stories and looked at charts. They like we, had taken the only accommodation available at the cheap rate moorage fisherman’s dock, as the trendy Quarterdeck Marina had been full. The next morning they were gone, but had not left--we saw them the following day pulling out from Quarterdeck to head north up the coast. A guess 3 times the charge was worth it to be amongst like kind.
To Bull Harbour
Bull Harbour is the jump off point to head around the top of Vancouver Island via Cape Scott. When leaving Bull Harbour, it is necessary to go through Nahwitti Bar. This bar, like other bars, is an area of water where the ocean enters are much narrower passage, concentrating the force of the waves and sea strength. Nahwitti Bar is much respected by yachtsman and is generally run only at slack tide.
Bull Harbour was reached via Goletas Channel (see photo). Due to circumstances, we took Goletas Channel on a rising tide against us. Early on, the wind was against us as well, and Ken looked at our options to duck out of another upwind passage (“they are almost over honey I swear”) instead settled down when he realized that our alternates were few (see Ken reading in his full foulies). Fortunately, the wind calmed down and we hugged the northern shore thus being able to make way at an average of 5 knots.
We had been followed into Bull Harbour by another sailboat. Their plan was the same as ours--they were circumnavigating the Island, but were doing it at top speed, especially for a sailboat; they went from Seattle to Bull Harbour in 5 days!!! Bob and Leo are retired, so I’m not sure what they’re hurry was. I heard one of them say to the other when they were setting the anchor “how much chain should we put out?”, and Ken said they were still working under the assumption that flood tide moved north, which is the way it is south of Desolation Sound with in the southern half of Vancouver Island and the Inside Passage.
Hope Island is an Indian Reserve--see photo. It was under grey and dreary skies that we explored this just barely inhabited island. Acorrding to Waggoner’s Cruising Guide, depending on the time of year, between 2 and 30 individuals from the Tlatalisikwala Native band live here. And one dog--see photo. It was a somber place, perhaps reflecting injustices past or the bone weary fatigue of mariners and natives having made it around Cape Scott, or across Queen Charlotte Sound from the north.
A narrow land bridge separates Bull Harbour from Roller Bay on the north side of the Island. Roller Bay receives the full brunt of the Pacific wind and waves, and it’s rocky beach is testament to that with it’s perfectly smooth egg-like rocks--see photo. Notice all the Canadian Turkey Vultures here as well.
The Canadian Turkey Vulture
I have identified a bird in Canada, which resembles our humble Turkey Vulture from the Rogue Valley in appearance and numbers. It may be a subspecies, our a separate species entirely but it does share many of the Vultures characteristics. It is often seen in groups, roosting in trees or on pilings or on breakwaters. It does a lot of sitting around, but always has it’s eye out for an easy meal. It eats carrion, but prefers fresh kills. It appears to have excellent eyesight, and perhaps relies more on sight than smell as it searches for food than the Turkey Vulture does. We were privileged to an up close and personal display of it’s hunting prowess when it dove just behind our dinghy. It eased close to the water, then pulled up abruptly within inches of the surface. Perhaps it’s prey dove just then. We were trolling with a flasher, it’s action reflecting the sun’s light on the surface of the water. It pulled up as it approached though, somehow realizing that what it thought was a fish was too good looking to be true.
It has a much more distinctive call than the Turkey Vulture, which doesn’t have a call at all. When heard from the cockpit after sharing a fine meal with friends and imbibing perhaps too much wine, it’s call sounds like a high pitched cackling laugh.
Just like Turkey Vultures, it can be spotted soaring in great circles at higher and higher elevations on it’s great broad wings. Unlike the tilting TV however, it soars on steady wings, it’s dihedral being flat rather than V shaped. It’s head in flight is much more prominent than that of our Turkey Vulture.
The locals pay no attention to these birds as they are so plentiful, though one man told us that it has made a come backing the past 15 years or so since DDT was eliminated.
It has a thick yellow bill, not unlike the Turkey Vulture for ripping flesh. Turkey Vultures have just one color phase or morphology, this bird appears to have both a dark phase blotchy as well as a two toned, double ender color scheme which lends credence to the idea that it may likely be another species all together.
I’ve enclosed a few photos in case any of you could help out with identification……
At last, Port Hardy
Port Hardy, while sharing many of the same characteristics as other North Vancouver Island towns--as history of logging and fishing, a plentiful First Native population, like all towns if has it’s unique features. The grocery store chain here is called Overwaitea. They very kindly have an explanatory plaque at check out for all of the ignorant tourists who do what I did, which was to ask the checker “What does the name of your store mean and how do you pronounce it?” She answered me kindly Canadian style and pointed at the commemorative sign. Bunches of years ago, a clerk in a frontier store measured out 18 ounces of tea for a customer instead of the usual 16 ounces, thus becoming the over-weight tea merchant. A supermarket is born! Such were it’s humble beginnings.
Our weather was good in Port Hardy, and everyday went something like this: am woke to cloudy but calm skies. Clouds would dissipate around noon, or 10 or 2, and the wind would kick up from the north. If we were away from the docks, the sun warmed us quickly, but on the water it felt perhaps colder even than in the cloudy morning. We would head out from the dock with down vest and jacket bracing against the wind, and within one turn of the corner off the port off they would come. I’m a slow learner I guess--I didn’t figure this out until our last day there…..
We met some folks, Demi (accent on the last syllable ) and Holly who were full time cruisers for the past 4 years. They called home a 40-something foot catamaran that made our 38 foot mono-hull look like an efficiency apartment next their penthouse. They had wintered twice in Mexico and twice in front of the Empress Hotel in Victoria. They had sold their home in Colorado to buy their catamaran. They kindly invited us to tea (we brought the cookies) and we shared stories and looked at charts. They like we, had taken the only accommodation available at the cheap rate moorage fisherman’s dock, as the trendy Quarterdeck Marina had been full. The next morning they were gone, but had not left--we saw them the following day pulling out from Quarterdeck to head north up the coast. A guess 3 times the charge was worth it to be amongst like kind.
To Bull Harbour
Bull Harbour is the jump off point to head around the top of Vancouver Island via Cape Scott. When leaving Bull Harbour, it is necessary to go through Nahwitti Bar. This bar, like other bars, is an area of water where the ocean enters are much narrower passage, concentrating the force of the waves and sea strength. Nahwitti Bar is much respected by yachtsman and is generally run only at slack tide.
Bull Harbour was reached via Goletas Channel (see photo). Due to circumstances, we took Goletas Channel on a rising tide against us. Early on, the wind was against us as well, and Ken looked at our options to duck out of another upwind passage (“they are almost over honey I swear”) instead settled down when he realized that our alternates were few (see Ken reading in his full foulies). Fortunately, the wind calmed down and we hugged the northern shore thus being able to make way at an average of 5 knots.
We had been followed into Bull Harbour by another sailboat. Their plan was the same as ours--they were circumnavigating the Island, but were doing it at top speed, especially for a sailboat; they went from Seattle to Bull Harbour in 5 days!!! Bob and Leo are retired, so I’m not sure what they’re hurry was. I heard one of them say to the other when they were setting the anchor “how much chain should we put out?”, and Ken said they were still working under the assumption that flood tide moved north, which is the way it is south of Desolation Sound with in the southern half of Vancouver Island and the Inside Passage.
Hope Island is an Indian Reserve--see photo. It was under grey and dreary skies that we explored this just barely inhabited island. Acorrding to Waggoner’s Cruising Guide, depending on the time of year, between 2 and 30 individuals from the Tlatalisikwala Native band live here. And one dog--see photo. It was a somber place, perhaps reflecting injustices past or the bone weary fatigue of mariners and natives having made it around Cape Scott, or across Queen Charlotte Sound from the north.
A narrow land bridge separates Bull Harbour from Roller Bay on the north side of the Island. Roller Bay receives the full brunt of the Pacific wind and waves, and it’s rocky beach is testament to that with it’s perfectly smooth egg-like rocks--see photo. Notice all the Canadian Turkey Vultures here as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment