July 23, 2017, Sunday — Kakushdish Harbour—

There’s a fine mist falling when I start paddling this morning.  I was headed back to the creek  near the entrance to Kakushdish when I saw what I thought was a white plastic trash bag on the beach.  I went to investigate and found not a trash bag, but the jellyfish that I saw up the creek yesterday,  left high and dry by the extra low spring tide.  He’ll probably be fine when the tide comes in to float him.  I

 

 

I spotted this immature eagle on the opposite shore, feeding on something. 

 

 

 

 

And then I spotted a momma Merganser and her brood out for a morning paddle.

 

Unfortunately,  she spotted me, and the chase was on.  I quickly paddled to gain a position with the sun behind me.

 

 

She countered with a fake maneuver that had me paddling like crazy to get that sun behind me again. 

 

 

Pretty soon the little guys were getting tired, so they decided to hitch a ride on mom’s back.

 

 

 

 

Mom decided to put it in “R” for race.  They had me.  Game over.  Out paddled again.

Because the tide was still pretty low, there wouldn’t be enough water for me to get very far up the creek, so I decided to head outside the entrance, toward Bella Bella to see what I could find.

 

 

I didn’t have to paddle very far before I came across these Sandhill Cranes on the beach.

 

 

 

 

 

My VHF radio came to life.  “When are you coming back?  I’m getting hungry.”  I suddenly realized that this is Sunday, the only day Al fixes a big breakfast.  I was a bit hungry myself, but I was over an hour from the boat, and I still hadn’t checked out the creek.  So, I told Al I he should go ahead and have breakfast without me. I’d warm mine up when I got there. 

When I got to the creek, I was fortunate enough to get a shot of these Sandhill Cranes before they got spooked and flew.

 

 

 

I also spotted this eagle looking for breakfast.

 

 

 

And, not too far away, there were other eagles.

 

 

 

 

 

This guy finally had enough of the paparazzi and was outta here.

 

 

When I got back to the boat, Al had fried me some ham and tater tots, so that all I had to do was fry my eggs and toast.  He’s so good to me.

At high tide, I decided to take a quick look at the creek at the head of Kakushdish.  Since it was such a high tide, I thought I might be able to get a lot farther up the creek.  Al said, “You’ve got one hour before dinner.”  So, I suited up and headed for the creek. 

The creek was a little wider, due to the higher tide, so I felt a little safer from any wolves or bears that might be lurking in the sedge grass.  However, when I got to the head of the creek I was really disappointed.  It didn’t look much better than yesterday.  Well, now I know.