"You’ll enjoy the smell and use of your own private Japanese Cedar hot tub and the sounds of frogs and birds at night, sitting on your balcony looking into the beautiful gardens. Additionally, the access to the beach was lovely and we would often walk down for a morning walk and would see otters, eagles, and lots of other wildlife." Callista R, Apr ‘22
"Highly recommend using the wonderful fire pit. For wildlife lovers, on the property's beach in the evening, we saw seals and a family of about ten river otters swim by. There was also some sort of eagle convention going on." Alexandra J, May ‘22
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Wildlife is Just Part of the Scenery
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You don't have to put much effort into observing the wildlife around here, it's part of the scenery and it often comes to you! This is a 2 acre lot that has been carved out of the forest next to the ocean, and the wildlife doesn't seem to have noticed, the animals just continue to go about their business. It may be a cliché, but it really is a privilege to live so close to nature, and we do get a kick out of sharing it with guests.
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"Each morning, we woke to the songs of the thrushes and robins and the raucous music of the ravens. It’s hard to forget the sound of their wings whipping the air—a sound that became familiar biophony after six days. That and the buzz of the hummingbirds." Tom & Gillian, July ‘21
More Critters seen on, from, and above these 2 acres...
River Otter (22 July '22)
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I don't remember ever seeing a River Otter in the vicinity of a Denman creek, but we often see them in the ocean, usually swimming not far off shore where the fish are found, or lounging around on a rock. Usually large family groups, with the cubs scrapping and clambering over long suffering parents. (Sound familiar?) This particular evening a lone male was preening himself on a rock, he tolerated my getting within about 10 metres, taking pictures with my iphone held infront of me like a shield. You can see he was as curious about me as I was interested in him.
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Occasionally we'll see a lone otter tearing across our back lawn enroute to our neighbour's large fish pond! They come up the steep bank from the beach using a path they've made for themselves, then cross the road and progress via the network of drainage ditches by the roadside and between the lots. Twice this year I've walked out of the drive in the evening and encountered an otter on the road.
Turkey Vultures
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Virtually always seen on the wing, silently circling above us; wherever they choose to roost overnight, it's usually in the treetops out of sight. Needing to warm up on a bright Summer morning, we caught this one sunning itself in our neighbour's dead maple next to what is now the guests' back garden.
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Canada Geese
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Large flocks of Canada geese live on our side of the island, flying back and forth between the pastures intended for grazing livestock on the farms a few blocks either side of us and the ocean. They perform this ritual several times a day (and at night), and they are usually very vocal! Occasionally one has landed on a topped tree to use it as a "honking post".
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more Bald Eagles
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You might just pull up at the bottom of the drive and see an eagle sitting on a branch in front of you across the road; and if you are like me you'll pull out the cell phone, snap a quick pic., and be on your way. After all, one can't spend all day watching eagles...
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(Above, right.) Five eagles sitting in the snag, two adults and three immatures, with another about to join them. During March the "Herring Run" attracts more wildlife in general, and eagles in particular, to our shores. Whist there may be many more in the trees lining our bank, they are difficult to see because of the dense foliage. When they rest in the snag, it gives us the opportunity to see them clearly; and a fine sight it is. Enlarge it and you'll see that most of them look bedraggled; they are wet and drying off after fishing.
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I challenge you to click on this to enlarge it, and count the number of eagles in this feeding frenzy taking place off the North shore of Hornby Island; photographed from the deck. There must have been a sizeable shoal of herring near the surface, and the red pleasure boat just drifted picturesquely on the edge of it all.
Taken on March 11th. (2018) at the time of the annual "Herring Run", the largest wildlife event of the year... |
The Herring Run
↕ Herring Run, March 2019, viewed from the first floor. Overnight the water turns a milky turquoise with all the herring sperm. Sounds delightful...
The arrival of the herring to spawn on the East Coast of Vancouver Island, from Parksville to Campbell River, is traditionally a major global wildlife event, helping to sustain the First Nations People and wildlife alike. Their place in the food chain is vital. California and stella sealions start noisily announcing their arrival in December, joined nearer the time by orca pods, hundreds (if not thousands) of bald eagles, hundreds of thousands of sea birds, you get the picture... Denman and Hornby are right in the middle and the Lambert Channel is reckoned to be the most important stretch of water, the epicentre as it were, with concentrations of the spawning on both sides; the East Coast of Denman and the West Coast of Hornby. We've had a ringside seat for the last 19 years and have sadly been witness to it's recent dramatic and I would say, accelerating decline.
↕ Fishing the Herring, 24/7
The reason is of course, over-fishing, and the worst of it is that most of the catch is only for the roe, destined for the luxury Japanese food market. The herring are dragged out of the water in their thousands by the factory boats only to be mechanically stunned , then somehow the eggs are squeezed out of the females (and I have no desire to know how) then their bodies and all the males, at best, end up as fertilizer or cat food.
I remember standing at the top of the bank and counting over 80 fishing vessels all clanking away, from as far as I could see to the North to as far as I could see to the South. This year the Provincial Government restricted the catch, at last, to the First Nations Fleet; just as well because for the first time ever known, there was no spawning on our shore. For years concerned conservation groups, scientists, etc., have been calling for a serious moratorium on the over-fishing, but as usual, this year's action was too little too late. Let's hope that we can report something of a recovery next year with spawning once again taking place on our shore.
White-Tailed Deer
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Denman Island has evolved its own sub-species of white-tailed deer, slightly smaller than their cousins on Vancouver Island. With no natural predators, population control is a contentious issue which I'm not going to weigh in on, but I can tell you that if you visit Denman Island, you'll see a lot of deer!
They are a delight to have around, but can also be a real nuisance to the gardener and will go to amazing lengths to get at veggies, roses, and other delectable plants. Our solution has been to fence off all of the back gardens and the front gardens for the units, but allow them to roam free over the rest of the front gardens where we stick to (so-called) deer-resistant plants. Thus a "wildlife corridor" connects our 2 acres to the rest of Denman's deer habitat, and as a result there's a family that include this land within their territory every year.
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Does and Fawns Through the Seasons ↕
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"We loved seeing multiple deer every day on the property and in the area." Linda F, Sept '21
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This buck is chillin' about 5 metres from our living room windows; so who needs a lawn?
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I'm sure another reason that we are favoured is we leave some, if not all of our front lawn to become a wild flower meadow. Whilst we can mow it when we want and achieve something resembling green ground cover, we gave up on the perfect lawn long ago. We find the many different long grasses, clover, dandylions, thistles, california poppies, foxgloves, etc., much more interesting to look at; and it's providing habitat for insects, birds, bats (to name but a few), and the deer, who require a varied grazing diet. We're just trying to do our bit!
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Dragonflies
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During the Summer several of these large and thankfully benign insects are constantly on the move, patrolling the air within a few feet off the ground over the gardens; moving fast, darting this way and that, on the hunt for mosquitos and other small flies, bless 'em.
However, they are apt to fly in through open doors and windows, and have to be coaxed out or delicately removed. After exhausting themselves by attempting to fly through a closed skylight for a couple of hours, they will gladly allow you to handle them, and might rest awhile on the tip of your finger and freshen up, before taking flight.
(At least) 80 species of dragonflies and damselflies are known to occur in British Columbia; most of those on patrol here have the blue on black of the Lance-Tipped Darner (above), occasionally the large Common Green Darners, and the little one on the tip of my finger, rescued from the living room window, (in the slideshow) I haven't identified.
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This Common Green Darner was trapped in a covered walkway for a while and gave it's wings a good bashing. Once on the outside it was content to rest on the cedar planking, giving me the opportunity to take some detailed close-ups.
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Red Tailed Hawk
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I've only seen a red-tailed hawk a handful of times, and this one sat on that branch for a long time. Although I was able to identify it with binoculars, the light and the technology wasn't good enough at the time to capture any shadow detail. However, it did have an elegant silhouette.
Besides the Eagles, Vultures and these guys, the other raptors we see are the occasional Merlin chasing down some hapless small bird or perched on a stump consuming same; the very occasional American Kestral, and earlier this year, a big Barred Owl sitting on a fence post let me approach quite close before taking flight; no phone/camera on me at the time, darn it! |
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Breaching Seal
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This was taken through the living room window. I had the camera set up on a tripod, trained on the snag at the bottom of the drive, the eagles favourite hang-out, doing time-lapse photography for four months. One day I noticed some activity in the water and moments later captured this decisive moment!
Seals are very common in these waters, curious and playful, but usually it's just a head up out of the water to say hello, then gone again. Leaping clean out of the water, that must have been one excited seal! |
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