Month: October 2019

DEADMAN’S CRESCENT

Clouds, Deadman Island, Sunset

This is Deadman island,its in Tofino’s harbour. The Natives would take their dead there and put them up in the trees. (Which was not a bad idea if they died of something contagious!) They believed it was Evil spirits that killed their loved ones and so wanted the evil spirits to be elsewhere!

They would put them in small Bentwood boxes. Many times the limbs would have to be broken to fit into these beautifully hand crafted wooden boxes.

The crescent moon adds a nice touch.

TRAIL CAMERA RESULTS

Tofino Wildlife

I placed a trail camera upstream in Tranquil creek Sept 16th. I’ve been recording the goings on for awhile now. Around 1300 30 second videos were taken. I had the sensitivity too high. The camera was being activated just by the water flowing. Also I didn’t think of limiting the shooting time to day hours. So half the videos were shot at night. A black bear at night does not record very well but you sure can see their beady little eyes reflecting back!

Here are 5 videos showing what was going on.

This video shows how bears patrol the stream looking for salmon. Bears are very skittish around each other.You can see one bear hurrying to get out of the way of the other approaching bear.

This video shows a black bear searching for salmon on a beautiful day!

This video shows one bear chasing another bear. When a bear grabs a salmon it will hurry off into the forest. It doesn’t want any other bears seeing it with a salmon as the other bear will most likely charge it trying to make it drop its prize!

This video shows how cooperative the bears are with each other during salmon spawning season. They all have  full tummy’s and so are happy campers! They feel the way you do after a big Thanksgiving meal……….content and not wanting to fight!

This video shows a Sow hurrying off into the forest with a big fresh salmon and cub in tow!

NOT A SKUNK!

Birds, Eagles, Tofino Birds, Tofino Eagles

I went out looking for bears today but couldn’t find a single furry ball anywhere!  Than to make matters worse I found that Maggie and Romeo were gone too. I wasn’t totally shocked because I know they’ve all gone to the salmon chow down!

Eagles will leave for a week,come back (to make sure nobody has moved in) for a week and leave again. I’d love to know which streams each of them go to!

The only eagle around was the good old Daredevil! I always love going over to visit with him. He doesn’t sing much but sure speaks with his eyes!

He saved me from being skunked!

SALMON VIDEO

Tofino Wildlife

Its taken me several years to figure out how to video tape salmon without spooking them! I have created a device I call a “Drift Rig”. Its basically a piece of wood that I have attached a Go Pro to. I simply go upstream of a school and release it. Once released I have zero control over where its looking.

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In this short video you will see mostly Chum salmon. Female Chum salmon have a black strip running down their side while the larger ones with purple are the males. There are a few that do not have that black strip or purple markings they are Chinook salmon. They are a prized salmon and so are fished constantly. Their numbers have been greatly  reduced due to overfishing. We’ve had to replenish the stocks artificially through the use of hatcheries. The reduction of this salmon has greatly affected the resident Orcas. There are only 74 of them left! The Residents eat only Chinook salmon. Some have died due to starvation! They get what is called “peanut head”. Which is what happens when their fat reserves are depleted due to starvation.

The Chinook count in Tranquil is always low but this year even more so.

The smaller fish are cutthroat and rainbow trout that have come upstream to eat stray eggs. Everybody chows down when the salmon spawn!