Burgers and Birds

 July 6th and 7th (Saturday and Sunday)

Both on Saturday and Sunday we mainly stayed home and did projects on the boat. We saw a good-sized salmon jump four times in a row not more than 150' from our boat. We were in the cockpit at the time. I was actually just walking through when we saw it off to the side. Each time it was way out of the water. I spent a while doing some casts off the boat, but no luck. We would love to know, was that the only salmon in our bay, were there a couple, or were there lots. Who knows, but we sure weren't expecting to see a salmon jump so close to us in our anchorage.
We made a lovely dinner of fish burgers. We shake n' baked some beautiful Lingcod fillets, and cooked them in the oven. I made biscuits for our buns, and we made up some homemade tartar sauce and had some of our cabbage from Dawson’s Landing. We also had some fresh sea asparagus to go with them. It was delicious!

We enjoy listening to the different birdcalls from our cockpit. There is a large Eagles’ nest in a beautiful big tree not too far away, so there is always a pair of Eagles around, and their calls are very distinct. 

Then there is a Mom Merganser and her chicks that we see swim-running across the bay or along the shore. Her and her family are often joined by other Mergansers, and they are always talking, especially when coming in for a landing. 

There are many Red Throated Loons here, and they always sound the alarm when the eagles fly by, their unique calls have become a very familiar sound. 

The Pigeon Guillemont is usually a quiet bird, but occasionally we hear them as well. They are always around, often in pairs, flying from one fishing spot to another. We enjoy watching them take off and land. They are usually very graceful and precise when they take off, run and step, step, step, then up into the air and their cute bright red feet tuck up under them in perfect unison. If there is too much chop, however, and they can’t make it over the first wave, they tend to splash into and over the tops of the waves. Their landings are the funniest part especially if there is any chop at all.  They usually end up doing a crash landing with a bounce, then belly flop into a wave, then bounce, and splash. It’s pretty funny to watch. 

In the distance we now often hear and pick out the call of a Sandhill crane, and of course there is always the robins and other land birds that make the shore come alive in song.
Two things I forgot to mention and have been meaning to tell you. We saw a good-sized flock of Rhinoceros Auklets one time when we were out fishing. They were in flight heading out to sea. We also sometimes see squid at the Hakai dock. A couple of times we have seen semi-large schools of them. It is neat to get to see squid so close, and watch them swim and change colour. Very neat!