Wildlife at Bold Bluff on Salt Spring Island

Abundant plankton and wildlife!

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Bald Eagle at Bold Bluff	Orcas at front door of Salty's Cabin	Great Blue Heron in Bold Bluff Cove

Bald eagles nest in the forested cliffs of Bold Bluff and the surrounding areas. You can hike up to peek at a nest through our powerful scope and see the yellow eyes blink during April - June when the eagles sit on their eggs and feed their young. Other times there are many eagles soaring the sky and landing on favorite perching trees on the bluff.

Killer Whales (Orca), admired as a symbol of Canada’s wild and rugged west coast, sometimes swim by Bold Bluff. There are two very different types of killer whales. They look the same but act differently. Resident Pods feed mainly on fish. They travel in large family groups and stay with their mothers during their entire lives, which can be as long as 80 years. Transient Orca feed on marine mammals and they travel in small groups, not necessarily related to each other.

But all is not well. The Southern Resident Orca, composed of 3 pods: J, K, and L, have been declining steadily in recent years. Salmon, their main food source, are in historic decline in the region. Habitat degradation, toxics, and the impacts of human population are all taking their toll on the whales we have come to know and love. The 99 whales counted in 1996 have been reduced to about 80 whales by 2001. They are listed as endangered in Canada and the US. Occasionally you will be lucky to hear whales blow and to see their large dorsal fins slice through the sea. For further information, please see www.orcanetwork.org/

The Coastal Great Blue Heron is a threatened species. Until recently Salt Spring Island had the largest nesting site in B.C. at McFadden Creek. Our community bought the 13 acres to protect the rookery. Unfortunately the herons abandoned the site in 2001, perhaps due to logging the buffer zone, which opened up the nests to eagle predation. Nearly every day you will see these majestic birds feed in the cove and fly overhead making ungainly squawks. However, do not take them for granted! If we are not careful these amazing birds will be condemned to extinction in the blink of an eye.

Wildlife abounds: seals, sea lions, river otters, raccoons, deer, kingfishers, heron, swallows, ravens, crows, gulls, bald eagles, red-tailed hawks, owls, turkey vultures, woodpeckers, winter ducks and mute swans.