Saturday, November 5, 2011

Otters, not Orcas

So, we heard about the Orcas that were seen in the Sound near Vashon Island. We happen to live just across the channel from Vashon Island; here's the northern-most part of it as seen from Seahurst Park:


The Orcas were seen on October 28, a day we had considered going to the park, but hadn't gotten around to it. I wonder if we would have seen the whales from our side if we had gone? We decided that it couldn't hurt to go down to the park on whatever sunny days we could, so we went on Saturday. We didn't see any whales, but we had a great time.



Simone near the creek that runs down the hill onto the beach and into the Sound.


These were weird bubbles in the sand at the waters edge. We had no idea what they were, whether they were some critter beneath the sand or some other natural phenomenon.



Ollin digging, trying to see if there are any critters.

All throughout this, I was looking out in the water to see if I could see any whales, but all I could see were what I thought were birds floating on the water and then diving down underneath the surface to catch fish. On the way back, I saw something moving by a log on the beach. It was this little guy:


He had caught a fish and was eating it among the rocks.


He looked at us, and decided he didn't like our look.



So he dropped off into the sea and swam away. He surfaced again, too far away to get any good pics, but then I saw him float for a bit, and then dive. All this time I thought I'd been looking at birds, they were really otters!