Island Exploring On Earth Day

I always love a trip out to Lucy Island. This was an especially beautiful day to go and it was Earth Day to boot. The wind often picks up in the afternoon and I was expecting a bumpy ride home which always excites some nervousness in me but we were very fortunate to have calm waters both to Lucy and back.

I only snapped a quick picture as we went by but these two deer were seen on a very small island. Perhaps it’s hard to tell from this picture but it would have been quite a swim for them to get out there. They can live peacefully on these small islands without fear of predators.

We saw quite a few bald eagles this day. One sitting near the light house and a juvenile on the beach.

This was the lowest tide we’d ever experienced at Lucy. We were able to walk to an island we’d yet to explore. We bumped the boat right up to the sandy shore, jumped out and quickly went to see what we could find. Keith and Cam kindly dealt with the boat so that Erin and I might satisfy our love of beach combing.

We saw a lot of beautiful vibrant things. Anemones, sea stars, seaweed ‘bunting’, intruding quartz, fat robins combing the beach…

The low tide also exposed some lost commercial crab traps laden with seaweed and dug into the sand. There were even a couple crabs in two of them. Those crabs looked sadly worse for wear so we carefully set them free in the coming tide and dragged the traps up to the beach to save any other unnecessary catches.

The sand was so soft and even, oddly, fluffy closer to the forest. I was exploring the beached wood when all of a sudden a huge whoosh right above my head gave me quite a fright! It was an eagle, not two metres above me in a tree, that had suddenly taken off. I hadn’t see it, or it’s partner there. They were both juveniles and blended in well with their dark brown mottled bodies. You can click on the picture below to see a close up of the eagle left sitting in the tree.

Erin had her own fright when she picked up a moon snail shell from a blobby mass to discover that the blobby mass WAS the moon snail outside of it’s shell. It must of been just as scared because it sucked back in and stayed there. We found a great spot to leave him after we had a good look.

We walked through the forest to the lighthouse. Along the way we saw a murder of crows, none to happy at our passing by on the trail, eagles soaring in the sky and downy rhinoceros auklet feathers strewn beneath the trees.

We sat on the lighthouse platform and just enjoyed hanging our feet over the edge and the incredible display before our eyes. The ocean, the mountains, the blue sky, the seemingly aimless flybys by flocks of birds.

Lucy reminds me that my baby isn’t much of a baby anymore.

Cam goes back for the last load: Erin, who’s trying out the huge net hammock strung on a beached log, and Lily and Lucy baby. Click on any of the photos to seem them bigger or more of them.