We made another short hop down the coast to Kwakume Inlet, where we were hoping to find drier weather.  Unfortunately, the rain followed us.

Rain or shine, like the ducks, I paddled every day.  I managed to find these very cute hooded mergansers one day.

 

 

 

This very shy pair of harlequin ducks made a very brief appearance.  They were on the move as soon as they spotted me.

 

I was out at the entrance to Kwakume, looking for harlequin ducks, when this BC ferry filled my view of the entrance.

 

 

I didn’t find any harlequins, but I did spot these surf scoters.  I spent over an hour trying to get close enough for decent photos, but they just kept out-paddling me

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The wildfires currently raging in other parts of British Columbia are depositing ash on our decks and creating weird skies and views of the sun.  This photo was taken near noon one day.  

 

The weird colored sky created an interesting background for this heron shot.

 

Our next door neighbor, in Redding, California, called to let us know that a fire originating at Whiskeytown Lake, called the Carr Fire, has burned thousands of acres and hundreds of homes, and is getting pretty close to our neighborhood.  Whiskeytown Lake is where I paddle during the winter.  It’s been a terrible summer for wildfires in California and British Columbia.  

Near the entrance to Kwakume, I spotted this least sandpiper scouring the beach of tidbits.

 

 

 

 

 

As I was photographing the sandpiper, something incongruous, just above the highwater tide line, caught my eye.  How on earth did this chair get here?  Another mystery.

 

I noticed this heron fishing along the shore. 

 

 

 

 

He has his eye on he prize…..

 

 

Uh, oh.  He missed…. and, he had a few choice words on the matter.

 

There are lots of ripe berries around this time of year, like these red huckleberries….

 

….and, these bunch berries.