Sea Kayaking and birding at Point Holmes, Comox

by Keith and Heather Nicol

Heather paddling around Cape Lazo

Sea kayaks are great vessels for observing wildlife from seals to whales and they are also ideal for observing shorebirds, ducks and other marine birds . We have noted that recently various ducks have returned to the waters off of Comox and Point Holmes offers a perfect launch point for seeing these new arrivals. On Tuesday, Oct 1 under clear skies and light easterly winds  we kayaked on a tide of about 3.5 meters  We usually paddle toward Cape Lazo and around to Kye Bay. However, most bird sitings seem to occur away from where people and dogs are located so closer you get to the sandy beaches of Kye Bay the fewer birds we typically see. We find our best bird sitings are along the rocky shoreline at the south end of Cape Lazo.

A seal perched on rock

On this day we were pleased to see numerous harlequin ducks with several colourful males in the mix and also many common mergansers seemed to have just arrived. Also many pelagic cormorants adorned some of the taller rocks and we even saw several on a log floating off shore. As well many gulls occupied many sections of sandy beaches along this route. We also saw several seals basking on rocks. It is always interesting to see what new arrivals we can see and we look forward to our next kayak trip to Point Holmes. 

A colourful male harlequin duck

Common mergansers seem to have recently arrived