Friday 23 November 2012

Two new mammals on the list

The Safari went to the dentist this morning which is in the same town as the plethora of Waxwings and after the pain of emptying the wallet we should have gone and collected a bag full of berries from the visiting beauties favourite trees.
Back at Base Camp we spent the remainder of the morning cutting wood in the back garden and heard a Goldcrest - very nice, flushed a Chaffinch when we put some kitchen bits in the composter and a heard a Dunnock. Overhead a Collared Dove whizzed between the houses so the garden isn't quite as dead as we thought.
A short walk with Frank was bins-less but not birdless. We found the finch flock on the North Blackpool Pond Trail but could only see and hear Goldfinches and Chaffinches - how we wished we'd taken the bins with us. Also present was a Coal Tit and a small flock of Long Tailed Tits.
Much later while waiting for the oven to cook our chips we decided to have a look at the Orca webcam, out in the channel off the northern end of Victoria Island British Columbia; usually by the time we get to it it's gone off air (7pm our time) but today we were much earlier and in luck!!!
As soon as we tuned in we saw a blow and minutes later several more but way off in the distance - well 10000 miles is quite far away. Before long an Orca breached and after a bit of practice we managed to get a 'reasonable' screen grab. How many of you have seen a live Orca in your sitting room?...and without getting wet!!!
Think we can just make out a tall dorsal fin which would make this tiny speck a male - it's a long way off as they are significantly heavier than African Elephants!
Also seen was a Bald Eagle and a lot of little blobs which were probably gulls.
All of a sudden the operator panned the camera round and zoomed in; this web cam has one of those the old Orca-cam we used to use could be manoevered from this chair although we never saw an Orca from it.
Not Orcas this time but two Humpback Whales, at least that's what we think they are (are we right Monika? Any around at the moment, or are they something else?)
Two Humpback Whales(?) and a Glaucous Winged Gull(?)
Swimming from right to left
Swimming from left to right
Unfortunately we narrowly missed a great tail fluke pic.
Where to next? Not sure what's happening tomorrow and we might not get anywhere near a safari...ohh dear.
In the meantime let us know what;s huge and swimming through your outback.


2 comments:

Warren Baker said...

Blimey Davo, form the Garden to british columbia - thats a big jump :-)

Lancs and Lakes Outback Adventure Wildlife Safaris said...

Not really Warren - it's only 3 yards from the garden to my 'puter chair ;-)

Cheers

D