Saturday, February 27, 2010

Touring the Cowichan Valley - Part 3

Crofton Seawalk on a misty morning

Life with the critters is always entertaining, whether it be polar dogs or mischievous cats, pouty piggies or amazing alpacas. But critters in the natural environment are no less entertaining or fascinating to watch, and last week's travels around the Cowichan area were no exception. Here are some of the many critters we saw on our touristy traipses. (Click on any picture to enlarge, then use back browser to return to blog)

This was a strange looking critter - like a hairy, shell-less crab. I know hermit crabs lose their shells, but never knew the large orange crabs to do so. Yet this guy was clearly alive and healthy - and about eight inches across:







Then, of course, there are the sea birds (I hope I got their names right - feel free to correct me if I've guessed wrong!):

Female mallard


California Gull

Oystercatcher ballet

Mallards in sunshine

Grooming time

Mallard


Female bufflehead

American wigeon

Cormorant


Mallards blowing bubbles


At Osborne Bay Park we saw a purple starfish:



And then there are the crows:



And the semi-feral cats who live in the brush along the shoreline:




And one sad, sad finding: I do believe Gumby has drowned - washed up on shore, like a piece of driftwood:


R.I.P. Gumby. I hope Pokey made it to safety.

4 comments:

Patience-please said...

Your photos are so stunning. Would you consider joining the Friday My Town Shoot Out gang? I don't know how to make a link in a comment, but there's a link on my blog.

Thank you for your kind words, too. They helped.

Jean said...

Thanks for the invite, Patience. I have been following Friday My Town Shoot Outs on yours and Barry's blogs for some time (and occasionally taking a look at others as well). Some of the topics would be a challenge in this small village (let's see - we have ONE church, which closed down at the end of 2009; no plazas; no stores except a small grocery store) but I could probably come up with some creative interpretation of problematic assignments. I confess I would probably miss the "Bokeh" one coming up - the only blurry photos I've ever acheived have been entirely unintentional as I still haven't learned how to adjust the aperture etc. manually on this camera.
I did go to the link, but I can't see how to "sign up" to become a member of the gang. Do I just subscribe to the blog, or do I have to let them know if I want to join?

Black Jack's Carol said...

Three fine tours, Jean, and that "impressionistic" photo at the beginning of this one is stunning! I've never seen anything like the orange crab, and the seabirds were wonderful as well. I'm still yearning to get a glimpse of an oyster catcher. Yours even had a meal in its mouth!

Anonymous said...

Hey Jean!

Do you know if the feral cats that live near there have been S/N? Do you know if someone is feeding them? Is there a local group you can contact to confirm?

If there is anything we can do to help you get them TNR'd from here, we'd be happy to!

I am not sure if the round-up experience we shared with those 2 cats that were abandonned at the property Janice was considering was enough to scare you off! :)

We are already being called about pregnant cats due to no-show of winter, so getting these guys TNR'd ASAP would be a very good thing :)

We can cover the costs... loan you a trap... help with food...

Call or e-mail. Cheers!


Tracey
Katie's Place