Drop By Visitors

  It seems rude nowadays to perform a drop by visit on someone, as used to be common in days gone by. Now one must call, e-mail, or text to obtain "permission" to stop by and see someone. Kind of sad, in my opinion, as those used to be some of the best visits one could have.

  Things are very different on the ocean. Drop by visits are common, and most of the time welcome. The interesting part of the drop by visits is that you never know who or what your visitor will be.

  I was sitting here trying to think of all the visitors we had around the boat this summer. Of course, the big whales come to mind first. They seem to get your attention by bellowing out a monstrous plume of air and water... hard to ignore. Killer Whales are not as boisterous, but also get your attention right away. When you see a six foot tall fin cut through the wave, you tend to take notice.

Sea Lions seem to be constant visitors, but they are certainly not a welcome guest, as they are looking for something on your hook they can steal for an easy meal.

  We had a little seal pup come around the boat for a curious look, but he did not give us time to film him before heading back to his hiding place in the kelp.

  Then there are the birds. Each day I drop the hook to anchor for halibut the birds come. Sometimes it will be one lonely bird, but most of the time they swarm around the boat hoping for scraps and kibbles to eat. The clients and I really enjoy these drop by visitors. We have the usual gulls, terns, one day a frigate bird, murres, storm petrels, shearwaters, fulmars, and the graceful flying albatross.

  I must say the albatross is one of my favorite visitors. They are a friendly bird and come right next to the boat.

When an albatross takes flight off the ocean he must run on the water to gain speed. It looks like a big B52 bomber lumbering down a runway gaining air speed to fly.

Once the albatross is in the air it transform into the most graceful glider you have ever seen. The spread their long wings and skim the ocean surface with a wing tip

just caressing its surface. Even in rough ocean these wonderful birds can skim the surface and never crash into a steep cresting wave.

Albatross are some of the worst begging birds in the ocean. They will sit at the back of the boat for hours on end hoping for a scrap of fish meat.

The albatross will not eat the guts of fish. I have tossed them out into the ocean and the big birds lunge on them, sample them, then spit them out. They always

then wash their beaks out in the ocean as if to say,"yuck, why did you toss that stuff out!"

  Albatross are meat eaters. They can eat a floating rock fish in no time at all. the big beak rips meat apart in a hurry.

  One day this summer we had our usual gathering of birds doing their drop in visits, when a client commented, "Hey look, one of these big birds has a band on his leg."

  sure enough an albatross was wearing a bright band on his leg. I grabbed my camera and snapped a few photos trying to get a close up to read the band number.

I'm sure the birds are banded on the nesting grounds north of us for some type of research.

  As we watched the banded bird we soon realized that he was banded on both legs.

  I snapped a few more pictures and then it was back to fishing.

  I am always thankful for the drop by visitors on the ocean, but when I really think about it, I am more thankful for the drop by, unannounced visits from friends. It  does not bother me at all. If we are too busy to take time for friends, then we really need to reorganize our lives and make room for a friendly visit every once in a while.