November 30th - Discovery and Chatham islands (#67

I went for a late morning/luchtime paddle with Dan around the islands. The tide was especially high (high enough to cover the white lichens in some places), so we explored a few places that we usually don't go. We saw harbor seals and a Steller sea lion as well as at least 16 kinds of seabirds. https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S50329819 . The prickly pear cacti on "cactus islet" seem do be doing well in spite of some of them being occasionally covered by the tide
While paddling through the northern part of Chatham we found an aluminum flare canister that had been used by the military. It has now been reported to the military so they can clean it up.

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16 km, YTD 535 km

November 23rd - Golden Gardens Park, Seattle (#66)

I joined Setsuko, David and Marc for a Greenland rolling/paddling session at Golden Gardens Park in Seattle. We did a bunch of rolls and had fun experimenting with a Greenland paddle. The park is right beside Shilshole Bay marina.

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3 km, YTD 519 km

November 12th - Chatham Island (#65)

A quick morning paddle with Olivier who was over from Salt Spring Island out to the islands. It was a bit windier than we expected, so much harder work that planned - especially on the return leg! :)
I managed to get a little surfing in by the sluice by Vantreight!

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11 km, YTD 516 km

November 11th - Cadboro Bay (#

I went for an afternoon birding paddle around the bay - this time I brought my good binoculars - what a difference! Other than the usual suspects, I saw a white winged scoter (immature) and a rhinoceros auklet that were new for this week. https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S49871145

The air was pretty clear and I could see both Mt Baker AND Mt Rainier (215 km away!)

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7 km, YTD 505 km
(made my revised annual goal! 😊 )

November 10th - Chatham Island (#63)

I went for a late morning paddle out to Chatham Island. I was focusing on birds again this time and got some different species than other days- western grebe and ancient murrelet - and a total of 18. Out at Cadboro Point I ran into David K and we paddled together, catching up, to the south end of Chatham. https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S49837989

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10 km, YTD 498 km
(I think the 500 km goal is within reach! :) )

November 9th - Cadboro Bay (#62)

I went for an afternoon paddle and focused on birds again. (I did see a few harbour seals!) It was a beautiful flat calm afternoon and I saw most of the usual suspects...
You should be able to view my bird checklist on ebird:

https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S49814035

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7 km, YTD 488 km

November 7th - Cadboro Bay (#61)

I went for a short morning paddle around the bay and did a bit more birding again: bald eagle, great blue heron, bufflehead, hooded and common mergansers, marbled murrelet, common murre, black oystercatcher, harlequin duck, greater yellowlegs, Bonaparte's gull, double crested cormorant, northwestern crow, and probably some more! Nice conditions and I ran into some friends who were paddling around ten-mile point. You can see my speed was slower heading into the northerly wind!

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7 km, YTD 481 km

November 5th - Oak Bay (#60)

I went for a mid day paddle over to Oak Bay. It was a little breezy from the SW, so I decided to hug the shore of Cadboro and Oak Bays.Lots of sea lettuce washed ashore by the fall winds. I saw a good number of birds, including: black oystercatcher, great blue heron, american wigeon, harlequin duck, hooded merganser, common merganser, a large murder of crows(!!)pelagic cormorant and double crested cormorant. I am also pretty sure that I saw some buffleheads, but they were too far away to be sure. Oh and I forgot the pesky Canada geese!

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9km, YTD 474
(looks like I might make it to 500 km this year instead of 1000! too much time travelling!)