The next day we took the ferry to Vancouver Island. These ferries are not like the small boats we have around the Gulf Coast -- these are ships! They have multiple decks for vehicles and two for people. The windows all the way across the ferry in the picture are Deck 5, the lower of the "people decks".This is a picture of one of the British Columbia (BC) ferries entering "the pass".
The pass is a narrow straight with a lot of shoals that ships pass through between the City of Vancouver and Vancouver Island. On both ends of the pass are tight headlands where ships have to turn into and out of the pass to get through.
The portions of our vacation where we were out on the water, were where we saw the most birds. Unfortun- ately, the movement, distance and bright reflections off of the water (even with a polarized filter) were less than ideal conditions for getting good shots. 
Here is a picture of a juvenile Bald Eagle flying across the pass. I included the entire shot to show the majesty of the scene, and a somewhat blurry close-up of the bird.
We saw several smaller birds, that were difficult to identify (even once the photos had been enlarged!). These birds are probably Pigeon Guillemots (I'll have better shots of them later on).
Another -- less than fabulous shot is a new addition to our life list -- the Common Loon.
Of course we saw lots of seagulls. While we were told that there were 17 different species of Gulls in the area, I was only able to identify two: Glaucous Gulls and Thayer's Gull. I am fairly certain this juvenile gull is a Thayer's. This is probably one of the best bird shots of the trip! Below is a series of shots of an adult Thayer's flying by.
11 comments:
I like the pelicans, the owl, and the young seagull best.
These pictures are great! I'm looking forward to seeing more. ( always greedy)
Wow what great photos. I sent a link to Jennifer and Pete so don't be surprised if maybe there might be a lurker or maybe even a commenter.
Checking in on you two. How are things?
Hi AW,
I've been struggling with motivation. I guess I need to get a job. ;-) I still have a LOT of pics from this trip to post, but I've just been lazy. But we're doing ok.
-Stormy
Neat trip guys. I'd love to do that one day. Thanks for sharing the pics.
Hi Stormy and Marc,
I popped into say "G'day" - I know I've been absent so far this year, but I've returned - sort of. I'll try to be more "around" from this moment forth, but I've been pretty busy and time has slipped away. I hope all is well with you both.
Hey Neighbor! Your pictures are nice, they bring memories. We did that trip at the end of our Alaska tour and cruise. We went with our travel agent and she organized our private little bus and the Vancouver/Vicoria bit after Alaska.
We live in Montgomery and have a friend family in Brookshire. When we retired we moved up here from Friendswood to escape the hurricane and flooding (we had three feet of water in our home during Claudette--were you around here then?).
My main blog is JIM'S LITTLE BLOG at
http://jimmiehov.blogspot.com/ .
Right now I have two others semi-active at this time.
I was an aerospace engineer for Ford at NASA here for 17 years and then taught business at San Jac for 22 more years.
Are you a ham radio person? I am K1TLT, first licensed, and continuous since, in 1960.
Are you going to Cliff's Blogstock?
..
Jim,
Did you know Michael (Mike) Heidt at NASA? (Ex bro-in-law).
I am not a ham radio person. Interested, but too busy for too many years.
Cliff and I are internet acquaintances, but I don't plan to go to the Blogstock up there.
Hi Marc, no, I don't know him. I worked at NASA for Ford Aerospace Corp from March, 1964, until December, 1979.
Blogspot was really nice. Cliff and everyone there was nice too.
I have some pictures and run downs, plus link to some others here:
http://jimmiehov.blogspot.com/search/label/Blogstock%20%2708
..
Thanks for the report on Ike. Glad to hear you've escaped this one fairly well intact.
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