2024, animals, Family, holidays, Nature, Uncategorized

Up Close And Personal

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One highlight of our trip to Tacoma was a side trip we took to the northern part of Puget Sound to Orcas Island to see. . . orcas!

We took a ferry to the island and stayed in an Air B and B that was up a single lane, vertical dirt road to a place that was lovely and that afforded a gorgeous view of islands and the Sound. Vancouver Island was quite close.

The crew of the whale boat were three marine biologists who loved their work and who loved to tell us all about the animals. There were about 30 people on board, including some very lively children. We were very lucky to encounter a pod of seven orcas, including a young orca. We saw them chase a harbor seal, but we didn’t find out if they caught it. At one point the pod divided into two groups and we had orcas on both sides of the boat. The marine biologists somehow knew the lineage of the pod, and showed us the pod family tree going back to the great grandmother. We were also thrilled to see the largest and oldest orca in that part of the Sound, a huge 62 year old with a notch in his dorsal fin, probably from the bite of a Stellar’s Sea Lion.

With regard to the sea lions, they were the only animals stationary long enough for me to get a photo. They were lying on a large rock, grunting and bellowing, and roaring. You can see them in the header photo. They smelled terrible!

The orcas leaped and swam but were too fast to catch on camera. So were the otters. It was nice to just sit and watch with my eyes and put my phone camera down for a while.

What are some memorable “up close” wildlife encounters you have had? Did you ever want to be a marine biologist?

34 thoughts on “Up Close And Personal”

    2. Sometimes I think YouTube is a a terrible waste of time full of drivel and annoying ads. And then I start my day with a sea lion choreography video, and I think YouTube is the greatest invention ever.

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      1. I saw Chicago once. All I remember (I think) is a nightmarish sequence with Richard Gere as a marionette. Did that really happen?

        I don’t remember a tango but then I’ve tried to erase the whole movie from memory.

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        3. Here’s a better tango, in my opinion. It’s from William Schimmel’s The Tango Project. And this video has dancing.

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  3. Yes, I still want to be a marine biologist! That would be such adventurous daily work.

    On a camping trip at Jay Cooke SP many years ago, I decided to go trail running. I used to do that sometimes, and I wish I’d kept it up. Anyway, there were mowed grassy trails near our campsite which were perfect for trail running. I rounded a curve and smack in front of me was a black bear. I think I startled the bear as much as it startled me and I stopped, backed up, then turned around and ran. At the same time I heard it crashing into the woods.

    I’ve seen lots of animals so I don’t really know where to start with this one, but it sounds like a beautiful place to stay. I’ve always wanted to go there. Someday I will!

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    1. I was somewhat disappointed to learn that the only predators on the San Juan Islands are foxes. No bears, cougars, or wolves. There are no squirrels, either. All the rabbits are descendents of domestic rabbits that were set loose in the early 1900’s. There are lots of deer

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  5. I helped a mom squirrel carry her babies (one at a time by the scruff of the neck) from one nest (top of our martin house pole) to a treetop – I put Charlie-the-cat inside, then sat on the back steps, watched her pass me just a foot away where the gate was open… it was very satifying.

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  6. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    On Election Day, 2016, I came home from work to watch to election results (Uff Da). Lou had been in the yard most of the day putting the gardens to bed. He told me that most of the day 2 Bald Eagles had hovered over the yard where the air currents meet over the edge of our back yard, which is the top of the bluffs and hills that go downward towards the Minnesota River.  He said they would fly off from time to time, then he would look up to find them hovering again. This has been a comforting image over the last 8 years of chaos. We see eagles here a lot, and at times I have one hover over me while I walk the dog, probably eye-ing the family dog as possible dinner, but never two of them, just hanging out for the day.

    There is an active eagle’s nest along Hwy 212 between my house and the Nursing Facility Lou was in. It was a real pleasure to see the adults sitting nearby, guarding the nest.

    OT-Lou has been home since Friday. It is going well, with him being oriented to the day and time, and with him gaining strength. Yesterday while reviewing records with the in-home nurse, we discovered that he was diagnosed with a mild stroke, which was in the records I downloaded, but no one had talked about with us. It was some time until the records were available to me. Hmmmm. But all the interventions make sense. I think in hospitals things are too chaotic and moving too fast and important communications get lost.

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    1. *Like*
      I had a similar experience when my dad had his first stroke. They told each other but not me. I was the only family member going to see him while he was in St Mary’s, so I’m not sure if they were just busy or if the lack of information was an oversight. I don’t think they knew what it was right away. The nurses are not likely to tell you. You’re supposed to get that kind of information from the physician on your case. Sometimes that person isn’t available when you’re there. It’s rough to learn that information from an electronic chart. Next steps are an important part of finding out what happened. I’m so glad he’s doing well, Jacque! I hope it doesn’t happen again.
      ~Krista

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  8. Never wanted to be a marine biologist, but that Seinfeld episode was one of their best!

    Close encounters include wolves on a hiking trail in Banff NP, a bear sniffing around our tent at Sawbill campground, one for sure cougar sighting and two probables that I’ll claim were actuals–none terribly close, but seeing a cougar from any distance is a thrill. A flyover by two trumpeter swans about ten feet over my head in the BWCAW. A herd of horny elk invading our Banff NP campground one September. My golfing group also had to shoo a small herd away from our tee box at Banff Springs Golf Club that same trip. A loon family–mom, dad, baby–let us drift our canoe to about ten feet away on Sawbill Lake one year so we could watch them feed the baby. Also lots of staredowns with deer from 20 feet away while walking in the woods.

    Then of course, there were the times I had to manhandle bats out of my M.I.L’s house, catch and release a bird that had somehow gotten into our townhouse in Bloomington, and fight off a seagull trying to snatch my hamburger off the grill while we were eating dinner at Sleeping Giant Provincial Park in Ontario (near Thunder Bay).

    Chris in Owatonna

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  9. I remember in Grade 5 wanting to be a marine biologist.. of course, I hate being cold or swimming, but all those pretty fish and sea anemones!

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  11. I’ve alway thought Sylvia Earle (marine biologist, often featured in Nat’l Geo) has the best job in the world but I never entertained becoming one. I don’t really enjoy swimming in salt water.

    Close encounters with animals: Several times I have been close to loons, herons, egrets, and even a couple bald eagles while kayaking. The coolest encounters came while on trips to Africa. On a game drive in Kenya we came very close to two pairs of mating lions. It was hard to not laugh when the male would walk a short distance and literally collapse on his side at the end of his performance. In Zimbabwe we got to walk with three 7 month old lion cubs who were being taught how to hunt in preparation for eventually being released into the wild. Later we got to carefully pet one of them (they were not tame!). In the Serengeti our safari jeep was surrounded by Wildebeest during their annual migration – magnificent!

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    2. Did you see the news a few days ago about a 79 year old Minnesota woman who was killed while on a safari in Kafue National Park in Zambia? A bull elephant charged the vehicle they were in and flipped it over. The Minnesota woman was killed, and five others were injured.

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      1. I have two close encounters , both of them from trips to Africa. One of them was an elephant (unlike the poor woman who was killed, though I’m obviously fine.). We were driving around in the Ngorongoro crater in an open air jeep and we saw the elephant coming toward us. The driver stopped the jeep, but he didn’t back up or move or anything, and the elephant kept getting a closer and was waving its ears. I was really thinking that it was going to be one of those stories where the last picture on the camera found next to my dead body was this elephant. But then when the elephant got maybe five or six jeep lengths away from us, he stopped, turned around and walked off. The driver said “oh he’s just a big blow hard.” I’m glad the driver felt safe because he would’ve been the first to go.

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      2. That was terrible! We did see a bunch of elephants – even got kinda close to them a few times but never had one charge us. Mostly they ignored us.

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  12. The second encounter wasn’t scary. This was in South Africa-on the last day of the trip, the client had decided she didn’t want to go in the morning safari run. When the driver came to pick us up at breakfast, (me and the account executive) he said I’ve just heard a report that there might be wild dogs on our side of the camp boundary. “It’ll be a drive but it’ll be worth it if they’re there.” Since we didn’t have a client to keep happy, we went ahead and did it. It was just amazing – wild dogs all over the place. They didn’t seem to mind us at all, coming right up to the jeep and there were probably 12 wild dog puppies. These are the cutest things ever with ears the size of satellite dishes. We sat in that jeep for over an hour, watching the wild dogs and taking hundreds of pictures. We did not gloat to the client at lunch.

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  13. And like Jacque I have never given more than a nanosecond’s worth of thought about being out of marine biologist.

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  15. My only exposure to a marine biologist was Doc in Cannery Row when I was about fourteen. Although I’ve always felt quite at home in salt water and enjoyed swimming in it, a career as marine biologist never occurred to me.

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