Recent Wildlife

It's uncommon for Orca to come into Warm Springs Bay, so it was really a treat a few weeks ago when a pod of six whales came in and swam right up to the waterfall.  I had just gotten back from hiking up to Baranof Lake when Jen came flying out of the door with her cameras.  "Killer Whales!" she blurted, and there they were, right in front of the lodge.  We watched them head out of the bay and then decided to follow them for a while in the skiff.  In the outer part of the bay they started getting active.  We were quite a ways away, but suddenly we saw a huge splash, and then many more splashes, tail slaps, and roiling water.  We're pretty sure they caught a steller sea lion!

 Cruising through the bay.

Spy Hop!  That is a Common Loon swimming away as fast as it can, and a gull surveying from above.

Looking for sea lions!

They found one!  This steller sea lion is having a very bad day.  She already has a gash on the side of her head and shortly after this she and the orca disappeared from our sight.  The sea lion appears to have been trying to reach the rocks just about 100 yards to the left side of this photo.

These are the rocks that we think the sea lion was heading for, and it appears she may have become dinner for the whales.  There was a lot more splashing, thrashing and tail slaps right up next to this wall.  We never saw the sea lion again......This whale really got some height while tail lobbing!

Jen waiting for the next appearance.
 

Ironically, there was a dead sea lion drifting around in the tide rips. You can see that someone made a meal of his now missing head, lower right.  Jen was sorry the orca didn't dine on this guy instead.
 

We also found a nice log for firewood that somebody insisted absolutely must come back with us!
 

Bay selfie.....entirely too close for my comfort!

 

Home Sweet Home!

 

Toni (Great Blue Heron) on one of her favorite roosts.

Toni on the same roost on a windy day.  Look at that expression!  Notice she had both legs down for support, instead of her usual one-legged stance.  The winds were gusting to 30 knots in the bay that day, and some gusts really challenged Toni!

 Toni back on the eagle tree after our first snowfall.
 

This gull pulled a little cutthroat trout out of Sadie Creek at high tide.  It took him a few minutes before he could finally wrangle the fish down his gullet!
 

This squirrel has been busy with the burlap bag for days--probably insulating his nest.

 A rare Tiger of the North!!  She heard about the squirrel, so is hustling over to check it out.