The majority of our greatest inventions have come from observing and duplicating Nature.
For instance,the shape of all airplane wings come directly from the shape of a birds wing! The leading edge is rounded. Air flows over the top edge faster then the bottom edge. Creating a lower pressure on top,which in turn creates lift…..flight!
Eagles are masters of flight!
Whenever you see a halo around the sun it means that rain can be expected within 24 hrs.
The Daredevil is the only eagle who will approach me……closely!
Such a goof ball!
A eagle has over 7000 feathers. The largest are the primaries (the 5 feathers at the end of the wing) and the Tail feathers of which there are 12.
Finding a Tail feather is suppose to bring good luck to the finder. Once you find a tail feather put it in a place where nobody else can touch it. It needs to have just your energy on it.
A Grey resident whale has taken up just off Chesterman’s beach! Actually it’s a Cow and calf. They seem to be ping ponging back and forth between Frank island and the Wickinnish Inn!
Normally surfers on their boards are pointing landward but as you can see in the last shot they are turned around to watch as the whales go gently past them.
The Grey whale migration is on right now. They are swimming en masse from Mexico to the Bering sea. Think of it like one big aquatic super highway! There are thousands that swim past Tofino but a few see the sign saying “Tofino next right” and ramp off! They eat and rest for maybe 2 weeks or so and continue their journey northward!
The Daredevil’s new nest is up much higher then the last one. So when he comes down he is coming in at high speed! He has to slow down so he turns his wings on a angle and drops his legs to increase the surface area!
I was very happy to see that Delilah actually flew over to be with me! I think she’s getting use to me! It’s only taken 1 1/2 years.
I went looking for bears tonight but I couldn’t find a single furry butt anywhere? I originally went out because the cloud structure looked great but by the time sunset came around those beautiful clouds had gone bye bye.
So I was skunked on two fronts tonight but my feathered friends once again saved my non-furry butt!
Romeo sometimes likes to change direction very rapidly! He does these about face turns on a dime! Of course it’s all I can do to hang on tracking him!
I found two bears tonight. This was the first one. A older male. Unfortunately he was a 100 meters feet from shore. Tide was coming up, no chance of getting stuck,so I tied the boat up and walked around. The trick to doing this is to hold the camera right up to your face whiling look down (and at the bear) so you don’t step on anything that would make noise! You can only move when the bear isn’t looking at you. If it see’s you moving it might get spooked and take off?
Then as your approaching If he looks at you, stop and shoot. I watch for tell tale signs that the bear is getting nervous……the ears. This guy seemed fine with me hanging around but had a grumpy look on his face. See how the forehead muscles are drawn tight. First sign of a bear feeling uncomfortable. I got a few shots of grumpy and left.
This male bear was sporting battle scars. This must of happened last year? Once wounded the hair will not grow making the scars more evident.
When bears fight they always go for the eyes. He was lucky! Maybe the other guy was worse?
I was surprised to find that The Daredevil/Delilah had built a new nest on another island! About the only reason why that happens is because the old nest fell down. Probably during a windstorm?
The good news is that If it did fall down It didn’t happen while they were nesting! I saw the Daredevil take a fish up to the nest. Which means he has hungry mouths to feed! I could just barley see where the nest is.
He seemed very animated and very active! He hasn’t had eaglets for several years,so he must be excited!
Both Romeo and Juliette came out to do a fly by when I arrived! By the time I got to Romeo’s place the sun had set. I had spent too much time with The Daredevil….but who could blame me! Time flies (no pun) when I’m with my friends!
Tofino’s premier beach is Chesterman’s beach. If you’ve been here,you most likely have walked along it. From the air it looks like a huge “L”. The length of the “L” is about a mile. It has a rocky island at the bend of the “L” called Frank island. You can walk out to this private island during low tide but not at high tide. The connecting sand bar is called a Trombolo. A trombolo is defined as a bar of sand or shingle joining an island to the mainland.
I’ve heard stories of old timers landing their planes on this beach way back when. The beach provided a great opportunity for a plane to land. The military constructed large wooden crosses along this beach during WWII to stop a Japanese invasion! You can still see a few of them at low tide.
I like to go to the south end of Chesty and climb up on top of the rocks there. Better vantage point. I’ve shot this beach thousands of times in different weather! So much so I’ve come to the conclusion that each sunset is unique! If you could some how of had a sunset picture taken from the same spot each day of your life,you would find like snow flakes,no two are the same. Some may be alike,but they would defiantly not be the same.
I have now expanded that theory to include everything! For instance, no two grains of sand on this beach are the same. They may look like there are at a distance but close up you would see slight differences! This “uniqueness” applies to absolutely everything in this Universe and I suspect this uniqueness goes right down to the atoms?
So rejoice in knowing that there never has been,nor is there,nor will there ever be anybody like you ever again! We are all grains of sand in this BIG beautifully beach we call the Universe!!
Tofino Photography 