Friday, September 28, 2012
Friday night's canoeing video
Kevin Callan shows us how to make homemade fire starter ... or should I say, how "not" to make homemade fire starter.
Friday, September 21, 2012
Who stole the fish?
It happened two weeks ago on the Bowron Lake Canoe Circuit. We were paddling quietly along the north shore of Indianpoint Lake when we came across a bald eagle perched only a few metres above the water. Since we rarely see eagles perched that low, we let the canoe glide toward the bird to investigate.
We soon noticed a few splashes in the water below the eagle. A mother otter and her two pups were busy pulling a large fish onto a rock. The otters began eating the fish. Engrossed in their meal, they did not spook. While the mother otter and her pup took turns at the fish, the eagle fretted from above. Possession, it seems, is nine tenths of the law not only for humans, but also for eagles and otters.
For the longest of time, the otters did not pay attention to us. The eagle, also focussed on the fish, did not mind our presence. Eventually, though, the mother otter issued a series of grunts, dove in and popped back up ten or so metres from our canoe. We moved on, but not fast enough for her liking. She dove again, and paralleling the canoe, she emerged on our left, again ten metres or so from us. She repeated the manoeuvre until we had paddled a good hundred metres. The pups, apparently deciding that chasing a giant red canoe would be more fun than eating fish, dove in and caught up to mom. From then on, they surfaced here and there, splashing about behind mom.
Once we had paddled a long way from the scene of the crime, the otters vanished. A few minutes later, other members of our paddling group caught up to us. They related how they had seen an eagle flying low with a fish in its talons.
After we told them our part of the story, we all agreed that before the otters had time to swim back to the fish, the eagle had hopped off his perch, spread its wings, and snagged the fish like a thief.
In the end, eagle and otters got a piece of fish. That we know for sure. What remains a mystery is: Who originally stole the fish from whom?
We soon noticed a few splashes in the water below the eagle. A mother otter and her two pups were busy pulling a large fish onto a rock. The otters began eating the fish. Engrossed in their meal, they did not spook. While the mother otter and her pup took turns at the fish, the eagle fretted from above. Possession, it seems, is nine tenths of the law not only for humans, but also for eagles and otters.
For the longest of time, the otters did not pay attention to us. The eagle, also focussed on the fish, did not mind our presence. Eventually, though, the mother otter issued a series of grunts, dove in and popped back up ten or so metres from our canoe. We moved on, but not fast enough for her liking. She dove again, and paralleling the canoe, she emerged on our left, again ten metres or so from us. She repeated the manoeuvre until we had paddled a good hundred metres. The pups, apparently deciding that chasing a giant red canoe would be more fun than eating fish, dove in and caught up to mom. From then on, they surfaced here and there, splashing about behind mom.
Once we had paddled a long way from the scene of the crime, the otters vanished. A few minutes later, other members of our paddling group caught up to us. They related how they had seen an eagle flying low with a fish in its talons.
After we told them our part of the story, we all agreed that before the otters had time to swim back to the fish, the eagle had hopped off his perch, spread its wings, and snagged the fish like a thief.
In the end, eagle and otters got a piece of fish. That we know for sure. What remains a mystery is: Who originally stole the fish from whom?
Friday, September 14, 2012
Friday, September 07, 2012
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