Personal Blog of Marcus & Christine
Together with some friends we once again went to Whytecliff Park hoping to see some harbour porpoises there.
Well, we saw some wildlife – seagulls, double-crested cormorants, and harbour seals, but where were the porpoises?
Finally, long after sunset, we spotted five harbour porpoises travelling towards Horseshoe Bay.
Seeing these amazing animals was so worth the wait.
I can’t wait to be back!
It was raining all day long but as we had to work, it did not really matter. Besides, we still prefer rain rather than snow.
But especially at night, rain lets all the lights sparkle, and the reflections give the whole view a really nice glow.
I just love the view from our home – no matter if it is raining, if the sun is shining, or if the clouds are drifting through the sky.
And then we knew…
Marcus spotted something in the water – a huge dorsal fin, then another, and we could not believe our eyes as we saw five killer whales, possibly Bigg’s killer whales.
We even spotted a little one with a much smaller dorsal fin.
This was the second time we saw them today which felt somehow surreal.
We came to see harbour porpoises and did absolutely not expect to see killer whales that close, especially as we had seen them at Stanley Park earlier today.
Such a fascinating experience!
In between our morning and evening commitments, we spent a lovely afternoon at Whytecliff Park where we saw lots of harbour seals and various birds, among them seagulls and several majestic bald eagles.
But after a while all wildlife seemed to be disappearing. Everything became eerily quiet, and we had no idea why…
(to be continued…)
Marcus was lucky to be among all the early ones that ran down to the seawall to see a pod of killer whales swim by. Luckily he found me a bit later, and we tried to follow them on their way towards Lions Gate Bridge and past that.
Unfortunately, they were pretty far away, and with only a phone we could not get a decent picture…
But we saw them which was so amazing! Simply unbelievable!
In the late afternoon we went to Whytecliff Park, our new favourite location to spot harbour porpoises. We invited some friends to come along in the hope to show them some harbour porpoises in the wild.
After some waiting we finally spotted some dorsal fins – but these looked different.
And yes, we saw three Pacific white-sided dolphins swimming by and foraging.
This was the first time we had seen dolphins in that area. Wow!
As a special treat, a single harbour porpoise came swimming along some time later as well which was pretty amazing.
We all had a fantastic time and will come back to spot more porpoises – hopefully.
After having spent some hours volunteering we went to Whytecliff Park enjoying some sunshine.
Spring was definitely here – with trees in full bloom and daffodils everywhere.
We saw lots of birds in the water and on land, either swimming, flying, hopping around, picking up some seeds and worms, or just looking at us.
We also saw some seals popping their heads out of the water.
After some hours we definitely felt very much refreshed.
In the late afternoon we went to Whytecliff Park in the hope to see some harbour porpoises – or at least a single individual – at around sunset.
Luckily for us, they really showed up! We spotted about four or five of them, foraging not too far away from our viewpoint.
Later, after sunset, we could still hear their puffing sounds when breathing but it became more and more difficult to spot them in the water. They are so well-camouflaged!
Harbour porpoises are such amazing animals. I simply cannot get enough of them!
