Neck Point Killer Whales

Hi There,
I was out doing my usual rounds today. I started off at Cottle Lake in hope of getting a close up shot of some tanagers. Just too many people coming and going with their dogs and lots of people on their morning jog. It was extremely hard to get enough quiet time for a photo. I did have a mated pair of tanagers in my sights at one point but they were scared away before I could get set up. After nearly three hours of similar situations and much frustration I set out for Neck Point to see what was happening there. The scene was just the opposite of what it normally was as it was very quiet with only 3 or 4 cars in the parking lot. I had heard on the rare bird alert that there might be some great horned owls about so I set my hopes on that. It had been a nice day but now the rain was threatening. As I climbed up towards the upper viewing platforms I noticed that the aircraft from CFB Comox was on maneuvers again and so I started watching it through the lens of my camera.

Shortly afterward I caught something out of the corner of my eye and jerked my head over to see a pod of killer whales coming in fairly close to shore from my left hand side. You can often see them farther out in the straight doing their thing with breaching and jumping but not so close up as this. I managed to get off a few shots from up on the ridge but I figured that if the tide was out that I would be really close if I got to Neck Point itself. I started running full tilt with all of my gear but by the time I got there they had already passed the point and were on their way towards Piper's Lagoon. Talk about fast swimmers! Anyway, you could say that I really got my exercise on this shoot.

Take care until next time and good wildlife shooting,

Steve