Birding

Gwaii Haanas part 4: Collision Bay, Rose Harbour, and Heater Harbour

Late Monday morning (July 21st) had us motoring in no wind and calm seas south and then east 12 nautical miles to Collision Bay. With s/v Senja heading to the nearby Ikeda Cove, we thought we’d probably see them again in Rose Harbour later in the week if not sooner. Inside Collision Bay we anchored tucked up in the north end of the inner bay behind the unnamed tree-covered islet that is connected to the rest of the island during low tide (52° 17.0074′ N, 131° 09.0173′ W).

Collision Bay gave us another chance to just sit in one place for several days, and we spent our time mostly cooking, baking, and reading, with a brief trip to land one day. You might wonder why I don’t talk about going to land more, but it’s simply because here we usually don’t. We can pick across rocky beaches and poke our heads into the dense forests in some places, but with the steep hills and thick greenery it would be difficult to go far; it’s difficult enough getting a hundred feet into the forest from the beach.

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Orca whales and some birds

We had a pleasant sail + motor from the Catalina meetup at Roche Harbor to Shallow Bay on the west side of Sucia Island on Sunday. Motored out of the bay, between San Juan Island and Spieden Island, then unfurled the sails for an easy, slow sail up towards President Channel, which separates Waldron Island and Orcas Island.

Not far out from the entrance to the channel, we spotted several whale watching boats and a few private boats all grouped up near the south tip of Waldron, Point Disney. Once my partner confirmed with her binoculars that she should see a dorsal fin, we immediately furled in the sails (the wind had just died anyway) and motored over to see what was going on.

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Gallery

Birds (and more) from a brief trip to the Dominican Republic

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In early June I flew to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, for a friend’s wedding at a resort on the coast north of the city. Naturally, despite the limited time there and the schedule for the wedding, I made some time for some bird photography, with little regard for the amount of photography equipment I had to haul along with me.

At the resort there was a small eco-park, which was well populated by native, wild birds. These birds being accustomed to human presence, getting these photos was not especially challenging, but it was certainly fun!

Click on the photos if you want to view them in fullscreen (and use the arrow keys to move through them).

Antillean mangos were around if you paid attention, but there weren’t all that many flowering plants around, so I only saw a few:

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Aside

What’s On Deck

I’ll resume more regular posting in the next month or so, but in the meantime:

  • I’m working on finding a new job, since my current contract is about to hit its max of 18 months
  • I’ve started diving into improving my incredibly poor grasp of Spanish using the excellent Duolingo, as it will become useful as I continue my travels around the (mostly tropical) Americas and Caribbean
  • I have my first trip dedicated to birding lined up: in the third week of September I’ll be spending four days at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge
  • Nikon is releasing their new 200-500mm f/5.6 lens in the middle of September and I’m very tempted to buy it. I’ve liked the Tamron 150-600mm but I’m not entirely satisfied with its sharpness at f/8, and the bokeh at f/9 and above is very harsh
  • My next sailing course, ASA 106, is happening the first weekend of October, where I’ll be learning advanced techniques in coastal sailing including anchoring and sailing at night
  • And of course the San Juans charter trip I’ve detailed previously will be occurring over Labor Day weekend, and marking the second time I’ll be a skipper during a sailing charter, and the first time I’ve put the entire thing together by myself
Gallery

Hummingbird overload at Discovery Park

This past weekend (June 13th & 14th) I spent each morning at Discovery Park, arriving before 7am each day to coincide with the peak of activity by small birds. Specifically, I went looking for rufous hummingbirds before they begin migrating south to Mexico in the next two months.

What ended up happening (after a nice person in the park told me where he’d seen dozens of hummingbirds buzzing about) was probably the two best days of hummingbird photography I’ve had yet. More importantly, it gave me a lot of practice shooting these tiny, fast creatures, as well as an idea on an equipment modification I could make that I’m going to have to try to fabricate (possibly with the help of a 3D printer) which, if I end up doing, I’ll detail in a future blog post.

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