On wings and dorsal fins: how fall arrives on the West Coast
When you live in the coastal rainforest, you learn the natural indicators that presage seasonal change.
The mornings are getting darker, the days are becoming shorter and the evenings are definitely cooler. We swam on Sept. 3 but the ocean was noticeably colder. And we spent less time out front going through our exercise routines that were developed during the warm water months of June, July and August.
On Sept. 1, we saw the normally resident orca family for only the second time this summer. From our front deck we spied them, two calves, mom and dad, moving east toward the mouth of Jervis Inlet, which faces Texada Island and is bounded by Ball and Scotchfir Points.
This family pod is unmistakable in both its hunting behaviour and the size of the dad’s dorsal fin. They often hunt by swimming in a tight group, close along the rocky edges of the inlet, picking off sleeping harbour seals and Steller sea lions. The dad’s dorsal fin is a wonder of nature: V-shaped, dark black, about five feet high. It’s obviously diagnostic. Locally he is called “the big guy.”