Fellow Tweeters,


I was out late watching and listening for owls, January 31 in the Boundary Bay, Ladner, Canoe Pass, near Reifel and Whatcom county areas.


It was very quiet and quite an evening. Clearly heard or saw seven species, including three hunting. While walking the dike at Canoe pass, cold, with clear star-lit sky and in darkness, I heard a sound that stopped me in my tracks. It was a surprisingly loud and familiar sound, that could not be placed. I stopped, turned and listened. Again, but louder and longer. I saw a long silhouette rise in the water, mid- channel. My mind raced to make meaning of the sounds and shapes and dimensions. Sea lion most likely-I thought. I continued racing up the dike toward the sounds. Then, mid-channel. It surfaced- a whale! Orca I reasoned, but again it rose and exhaled. Why would an Orca be in such shallow water- at low tide? Didn't make sense. It again surfaced, longer sounds with labored breathing. Very large and no apparent dorsal. Orca not. After a dozen appearances in the near darkness, It disappeared. I waited. Nothing. I walked further up the dike. Nothing more.


I went back to the car, drove quickly to and across the one lane bridge on the pass. Parked, informed the bridge operator "neat'- had not previously noticed there was one. He put on his coat, closed the door and we were out on the bridge, waiting to identify any passing whale. We noted the reflections of light downstream and agreed we would watch for disturbances in the reflections as an indicator of approach. False positives- geese. The bridge man told me of acting and Seattle accents learned in acting classes- mine was exactly as he had learned in class- he did a great imitation of my verbal description of everything I noted about the experience of the whale. Seattle people often say words in batches. And the history of Reifel the farmer and bootlegger and his generosity to the people of BC and that boats could not pass the very shallow channel at low tide. He asked if Reifel and I could be related because of the similarities in names. A nice thought for association with a beautiful sanctuary. We speculated in wonder regarding the type of whale seen and if it was feeding or struggling in darkness in the too shallow waters of pass and low tide. After 45 minutes of vigilance, great chat and clear cold skies, we bid farewell.


It was a very good night.
Dan Reiff


A few days later, I contacted Wayne Webber of Rare Bird Alerts, BC. I knew I could count on Wayne to be informative, helpful and appropriately scientifically skeptical. Thanks for your help Wayne. As advised, I called the Friday Harbor whale research group. They said they had no recent reports, asked about the dorsal, stated that whales often hunted salmon at the mouth of the Frasier and that the only other similar report they had, was in January, 2007 swimming up river in Canoe Pass- a Gray whale!