Taken earlier today from Tower Point. Perfect weather. We saw the whale watching boats around 11. Gary and I were both home today. We dropped everything and raced to the park, arriving as the whales were coming around Haystock Islets. The same group of transient orcas Gary had seen before, with the addition of two unknowns for a total of five individuals, two were small and looked pretty young. They even did a bit of jumping and splashing. The islets in this photo are actually quite close to shore. There is one big bull with a dorsal fin that must be 6 feet tall. Watching him emerge from the water in the bay near shore took my breath away. It was like that scene in Jaws where the shark is in the pond and you see the dorsal cutting through the surface just offshore, and the little boy is playing in the sand in the foreground. (“Martin — Michael’s in the pond.”) Then the shark eats some wayward member of the Kennedy family in a rowboat. Great movie. Not as good as real orcas though!

Alright, back to work everyone!

The last couple of days, I swear there’s been something in the air that tastes of Fall. I hasten to point out that Summer does not officially end until weeeelll into September. But there is that change in the air that so often accompanies the first days of September.

The birds, for example, are in on it. The other day at Tower Point we spotted a bird we hadn’t seen before. It looked kind of like a sandpiper, except it was swimming around in deeper water. And I mean it was swimming *around*. Like in circles. And kind of bobbing erratically. We later determined it to be a phalarope — apparently the crazy swimming has a purpose. They are stirring up plankton and such with their feet, then bobbing down to eat it. The point is, they are supposed to be Fall visitors to our coast. We’ve also had tons of migrating seagulls coming through, and are starting to see the diving birds that disappear from the lagoon over the summer, and come back in Fall.

Maybe I’m just more aware than usual that September is coming up fast. Today I went up to the University to get my student ID. Somehow, without coming at the issue directly, by deciding to throw in an application and figure the rest of the plan out later, I find myself about to start work on a second undergraduate degree. This is the BFA that I didn’t get the first time. The degree I probably always wanted to do, but went to a liberal arts school instead of art school, and got swept up into all the other amazing things there were to learn. It’s taken me until this year to realize that I could do this over. I’m a bit of a slow learner when it comes to things like that.

And being a student turns out to be such a deal! After I got my student ID, I went for a celebratory bus ride to Oak Bay to check out the Boutique de Laine, enjoying the hop-on, hop-off freedom of having a universal bus pass. Then there’s the dental insurance, the extended health benefits, the tax breaks, the library, the athletic facilities. . . I had forgotten what a great thing it is to be a student.

And now, on another topic: do you recognize the shape that Sam is demonstrating with his fully upright ear? Why, yes! You’re quite right. It’s the dorsal fin of a mature male transient killer whale. Thank you for that demo, Sam. To follow up on the orca post of last week, Gary was able to find out the identities of the whales he saw and photographed last week. They are the “T41″s family. There is a female, a male, and a calf. The “T” stands for transient. The orcas in this area are very well-documented, and fall into three broad groups — residents, transients, and offshores. Each with their own cultures, eating habits, hunting techniques, and family structures. The residents are the best-known. They tend to spend time in the waters around here all summer and into the fall. The transients pass through from time to time. The offshores are little-known; they spend most of their time in big groups, well, offshore. We suspected the whales Gary saw were transients because, unlike the fish-eating resident orcas, the transients hunt seals and other mammals, so we guessed the local harbour seal population attracted them to the area. We’ve been checking in on the whale-watch blogs and it seems the transients arrived in the area a couple of weeks ago and have been spotted frequently since then, especially west of Victoria.

By the way, the scarf at top is just the first of the many objects I will probably never get around to putting on Ravelry. It’s a late birthday present that went into the mail today. I’m not really spoiling the surprise, since I am late for so many birthdays.

I thought it was pretty exciting when, taking Sam for a walk Tuesday morning, we were followed by a wayward sheep. He (or she) must have got loose from a nearby pasture, and was wandering amongst the lawns of the neighborhood. Sam found this highly entertaining, and when we turned the corner and the sheep started tailing us, it was all I could do to keep him walking (looking over his shoulder the whole time). Every time we paused, the sheep would pause and baah. When we walked, the sheep walked. Fortunately, we were spared having to decide how this encounter should resolve itself (Sam and I were of decidedly different opinions on this matter) when the farmer showed up in a truck with a bucket of num-nums and our sheep was coaxed away toward home.

But today, Gary grabbed the brass ring of dogwalking adventures: an Orca sighting. And those of you who know Gary are not going to believe this, but . . . he did not have his camera! He had to race home with Sam, grab his camera, and bike back to the park. They were still there. These orcas were right off Tower Point park, around the Haystock Islands and other rocks where the harbour seals hang out. Looking at some of the whalewatch blogs, it sounds like they might be a group of transient orcas (they are the seal-eating kind) that have been sighted recently around Race Rocks, but we’re not sure.

While all this was happening, I was buying Sam 40 lbs of kibble on my way home from Wild ARC. When I got home, I knew something was up immediately. Gary had a look on his face like he had something really important to tell me. I think he was worried that I would be really upset at having missed the orcas, but was also really excited and fresh from the adventure. I was so relieved that it wasn’t some terrible news, but something exciting and good, that I didn’t really feel sorry at all that I’d missed it. (Besides, I make it a point to get upset only for irrational and groundless reasons.)

Right now, as I write this, I can hear Gary in the other room brushing Sam’s teeth. We sure love our critters around here. I missed the orcas this time, but somehow I still feel very lucky indeed.

What do you see?

I see a ground squirrel looking at me!
Ground squirrel, ground squirrel, what do you see?

I see a mule deer looking at me!
Mule deer, mule deer, what do you see?

I see a baby sheep looking at me!
Baby sheep, baby sheep, what do you see?

OMG!!! I see the CUTEST BABY MOOSE EVER!!!!!!!!!!!

Makes me crack up every time I see it his funny face. He’s so plush and soft looking.

“got . . . a leaf . . . stuck . . . riiiiight there . . . ”

Special thanks to Gary for the wonderful photos, all from our trip to Jasper in June.

There is not a lot of traffic in Jasper, but you do get caught in the craziest traffic jams. We were held up for a while by bighorn sheep that had set up a roadblock apparently with the intention of shaking down motorists and licking the salt off their cars. Most of our photos of the sheep look kind of unsightly (actually, Gary took some great ones of the baby sheep) because they are moulting at this time of year. You could probably follow them around and collect yourself a sweater. You can see this guy’s got some tufts sticking out on his backside. But those horns! It gives me a headache to look at him.

Busy day trying to meet a deadline, and this afternoon I was feeding and cleaning up after the baby raccoons at Wild ARC. They are the fiestiest little guys, but I find them adorable, even when they are gnawing on my fingers (with their cute baby teeth of course). Tonight I attempted to make the Roasted Veg. Pasticcio from the Rebar cookbook, but cheated a bit in a rush to get it done, so I probably didn’t do it justice. Still, a big pile of pasta and roasted vegetables with a baked breadcrumb topping and cheese can only be so bad. After dinner we got to cleaning the house to get ready for guests arriving tomorrow.

More trip photos to come when I get a chance, including the megabomb of cuteness which will blow you away with its plush, long-legged, twig-chewing adorability. Just you wait.

. . . and one to go! Last weekend while we were in Vancouver I knitted and frogged a heel (aka nosewarmer) on scrap yarn until I finally thought I had it figured out. Why didn’t I think of doing that earlier? I looked at a couple of online tutorials and some other patterns and tips, and eventually worked it out. (Thanks for the tip Robin!)

Finally one lovely sock is done. It was meant to be part of a charity knit donation, but since I work so slow, its going to miss the deadline. I should probably move it into the Christmas present column now. If only it didn’t fit me soooo perfectly!

So yay for that sock, and yay for the Red Sox, who just won the American League pennant and are facing the Colorado Rockies in the World Series starting Wednesday! Tonight we had our neighbors over for pizza and made them watch Game 7 of the ALCS with us. Thank you, Sportsnet, for carrying all the baseball playoffs!

My other event of last weekend was the basic skills class for wildlife rehabilitators. It was hosted at the Orphaned Wildlife Rehab Society in Delta, BC. On the second day this eagle that was cared for in their centre was released. Besides me, there were several other volunteers from Wild ARC there as well. It was a good exposure to the basics of care — nutrition, housing, and treatment. I don’t know if I’ll be able to use what I learned, but I like knowing a bit more about how the animals are cared for and treated.

This week I’m going to try to get in some studio time. I think I might finally be getting back to the point where I can work on some projects in my non-work time. Fingers crossed.

Look at these buds! The dog on the right is me on Wednesday, after being at work until 3:30 am getting the paper out. The dog on the left is me today, paws all crossed, relaxing and enjoying the sunshine and fresh air. This is supposed to be the worst couple of weeks of the year at work for crazy hours. I learned a few things from last week, and I’m hoping next week will go incrementally better.

But back to today. At the end of the event a rehabilitated red-tailed hawk that had been injured by a car was released. Sometimes they just open up the crate and get the hell out of the way, but for this one the rehabber held the hawk up and then lifted him into the air to let him take flight. Being a wildlife rehabilitator can’t be easy. You work long, hard hours for very little recognition or thanks. If things go well, your patients hate you, may bite you, and try to get away from you as fast as they can. I’m glad she got her moment today; a picture-perfect release and a big round of applause.

Put yourself in the reader’s position. I know this might seem like a lot of trouble, but it really works. Of course it wasn’t easy to find an abandoned-looking seal pup, but, with Gary’s help, I managed. He came back from walking the dog with a report that a baby seal was on the beach at the park. Seals are a common sight on the offshore rocks, but the little beach is pretty far from the deeper channels where they swim.

Look for some new visuals. I checked my brochure-in-progress. Any advice? Don’t touch, don’t get too close, and don’t try to make it go back into the water. Keep pets away. Nothing in here about taking pictures. I had my photographer get a few shots.

Get some feedback. To really get inside the head of someone who had found a potentially abandoned baby seal, I decided to call some experts. The local animal rehab centre referred me to Marine Mammal Rescue, the point people for marine animals in distress. A very nice expert took my call and asked me a series of questions, which were extremely helpful to my brainstorming efforts. How big was it? Did it look skinny or fat? How long had it been there? Was it vocalizing? Did it look like it had been crying?

Umm. What? I was trying to be extremely level-headed and unemotional about the whole situation, but that question threw me for a moment. In the pause that followed her question, I think she could hear my gears turning because she quickly explained that if the seal is well hydrated, it will have wet areas around its eyes. If the eyes look dry it could indicate the seal had been there long enough to become dehydrated. In my sketchbook, I crossed out the disney-cartoon seal pup crying for its mom and wrote down “eye ring diagram?”

Work on another project for a while. Its not unusual for a seal pup to be alone for a while while its mom is looking for food. So to avoid “kidnapping” perfectly healthy seals, marine mammal rescue usually waits at least 8 hours before taking action. Since it was early evening, our job was to check in on seal pup and report whether he was still there the next morning. And if we could, maybe put up a sign down by the beach? Great idea! I often find that getting away from the computer and working by hand is a good way to open up that blocked creativity. Just let yourself work without worrying about the results. Its very freeing. Et Voila! You never know what you might come up with.

Sleep on it. Don’t underestimate the power of a good night’s sleep. But sometimes the diligent freelancer has to get up early too. First thing the next morning I rode my bike down to the park to check on our little friend. Please, don’t let me find a dead seal pup. That is one visual I really don’t need for this project.

Sometimes, happy endings can be kind of anticlimactic. The beach was empty. On the sand, only a cryptic trail of flipper and tummy-skooching marks leading toward the deeper water. Wherever he went, it looked like it was under his own steam. See you later, pal. And thanks for all the great material!

Our first trip to Jasper was a whirlwind tour with a motel stay a couple of years ago. I think our wildlife sightings amounted to one elk on the roadside at dusk. This time we camped at the Whistlers campground, which is home to a herd of elk. In May and June the elk are calving, so you stand a good chance of seeing the new babies (and of being chased off by a protective parent).

We were excited when we saw our first elk of the trip and pulled off the road to watch them from the car. We weren’t all that close, but it was exciting anyway. Later, when we got back to our campsite, I noticed Sam the dog looking into the bushes next to our tent site with ears at attention. I followed his gaze to a graceful female elk resting in a mossy hollow. We looked around and realized they were all around us. Over the next couple of days, we got used to watching the elk sauntering amongst the campsites, remarkably calm most of the time.

Before the trip, I worried that camping with Sam the dog would turn out to be a debacle, especially in a place with serious wildlife. He surprised me with his reactions to the various wildlife we encountered. Large elk near our campsite: mild interest. Bighorn sheep: slight amusement. Ground squirrels, pikas, and domestic cats: total obsession. Grizzly bears: slept through the whole thing (in the car, fortunately).

One night, while the three of us slept in our tent, Sam woke me up with some tentative woofing. The elk were grazing right outside. I could hear them chomping on the grass what seemed like inches from our heads, and occasionally one would step in front of the campground lights and I’d see an enormous nibbling head silhouetted against the side of the tent. I had to shush Sam for a while and get him into a sort of snout-lock until eventually he went back to sleep. A watchdog he is not.

It’s wildlife baby time, and tonight this one was visiting our rock garden. I borrowed my hubby’s camera and spied on the fluffy fledgling for a while, until mama robin showed up with a nice tasty worm. All is right with this robin’s world.

At the wildlife rehab centre (Wild ARC) where I now spend my Friday evenings, one of the things the volunteers do is feed baby birds, and I love seeing them up close. One week there was a tiny chickadee that you had to feed with a tiny yellow syringe tip. The next week we had a nestling crow that could have fit the entire chickadee in its big gaping mouth. It was like feeding a baby pterodactyl.

Meanwhile, over in Beacon Hill Park, Victoria’s famous Bitchy Bees knit night had its own run-in with wildlife this week, as pushy grey squirrels attempted to extort cookies from our ranks. I wish I was able to make it out to the knit nights more often, but I always seem to have some kind of conflict on Tuesday nights. I’m shoutin’ out to Mary, one of the Bees’ awesome leading lights, who discovered my blog via . . . wait for it . . . Dana’s blog, another fellow knitter who I met through Robin, who’s blog I discovered while searching for knitting groups in Victoria. It’s perfect that Mary found me through Dana, since I originally heard about the Bitchy Bees when Mary left a comment on Dana’s blog. Got it, people? Anyway, Mary, glad you found me!

And the headline? Birds and Bees was just too easy.