Ken Klimko wrote:
> >On Sunday September 14 and the following Monday, we had the good fortune
> >to take a mini-pelagic on the BC Ferry, The Queen of Naniamo, to Mayne
> >Island (one of the gulf islands bordering Active Pass) with Michael
> >Price.

<big snip>

Thought I could feel someone's eyes on me. Never knew it was a familiar set! As
kismet would have it, I was on one of the BC ferries passing through Active Pass
Sunday, the 11 AM boat from Swartz Bay which would put me in Active Pass about
1145. I had attended a BC Field Ornithologists exec. meeting in Victoria the
previous day.

The voyage across from Tsawwassen on Saturday the 13th was rather uneventful
except for the jaeger floating on the water not too far W of the mainland
terminal. I got on the bird late but the others (Tony Greenfield, Prue Spitmann)
thought it was a Long-tailed. To me, it could have been a Parasitic or a
Long-tailed from my brief glimpse. Otherwise, rather depauperate of birds with
the occasional Surf Scoter flock, a few Double-crested Cormorants, and a couple
of Rhino Auklets passing by.

Active Pass itself had the requisite ~3000 Bonaparte's Gulls. What was more
interesting was the complete lack of Bald Eagles, a species usually in permanent
residence there. A few Brandt's Cormorants and Pacific Loons around.

The voyage back the next day saw almost the exact same birds in the Pass except
for the addition of a southbound Turkey Vulture passing right over midships, and
one young Bald Eagle.

And what every ferry voyager hopes for, a southbound pod of Orcas were
intercepted in mid-strait between Active Pass and Tsawwassen. One adult female
with calf was quite frisky with much tail-slapping and rolling. A couple of
others "spy-hopped" us to get a good look at this strange boat with all the
human things on it.

A recommended voyage anytime, although a shore stay as Ken and Michael described
will turn up passerine species not visible from the ship.

- Jack








Jack Bowling
Prince George, BC
jcbowling at mindlink.bc.ca