A few more boats have arrived since we got here.  While I was washing dishes this morning, I noticed a lady on a nearby sailboat rowing her dog to shore to do his business.  As soon as the lady got near to the rocky shore, the dog jumped out, found a spot that seemed to suit it, and then headed back to the dinghy where his mistress was patiently waiting for him

As nimble footed as this dog was, he was obviously an old salt.  He stepped right into the dinghy, like it was no big deal, and sat, imperially, waiting for his mistress to row him back to the boat.

Well, it was time for me to get out on the water.  When I was about half finished suiting up, I looked out the window and saw a Canadian Honker family swimming along the shore.  I quickly grabbed my camera to see if I could zoom them in enough for a decent shot.  They were moving pretty fast.

I decided to finish suiting up as fast as I could and, hopefully, I’d be able to catch up with them.  Finally, when I was ready to go, I looked out the window and saw two Honkers  swimming straight for our boat….moochers.  They came right up to the boat and started honking for goodies.  Being a soft touch, I hunted up some crackers and they seemed to enjoy them immensely.  I was afraid the Honker family I’d seen earlier was going to be completely out of sight by the time I finished with these two guys.  

I needn’t have worried, because I spotted not one, but two Honker families heading for the sailboat anchored next to us.  The people on the sailboat never saw them, apparently, and the Honkers continued on.  I did manage a couple of distant shots of them, but never saw them again.

It’s a spring tide today, which makes for extreme tides.  The low tide has exposed millions of oysters.

The sea stars, like these pisasters, are loving it. 

It’s hard to believe, but a pisaster sea star can pry open an oyster just wide enough to insert its stomach into the oyster, and then proceed to eat it.  I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to pry open an oyster, but it’s not easy.  But the sea star accomplishes this with its hundreds of tube feet, and the ability to hump and pull with its arms in more than one direction.  Its stomach can be extruded and spread over the prey, or inserted into a crack between its shells.  Pisasters are the oyster’s worst nightmare.  And, pisasters also fancy mussels, acorn barnacles limpets and other snails.  

On the bluff above me, I spotted these pretty wildflowers.

All of a sudden I heard a “HUFF!”  I’d heard that sound before, but I never thought I’d hear it inside Squirrel Cove.  But, sure enough, when I turned around I saw the vapor plume of a whale.  How on earth that whale got in through the narrow opening to Squirrel Cove, I’ll never know.  I got as close to the rocky shore as I could and waited to see where he would blow again. I didn’t have much of a wait.  He barely broke the surface. Not knowing where he would be surfacing, my chances for a decent photo were almost zero, as you can see from this photo.  I just wanted to prove to Al that I had seen a whale inside the anchorage.

To my relief, the whale eventually headed back out through the entrance and I headed back to the boat.  On my way, I spotted this seal lying serenely on a rock that is only exposed at spring tides.