Taking advantage of the warm sunny weather with a kayak trip to Point Holmes

 by Keith and Heather Nicol

 

Sea kayaks are great vessels for observing wildlife from seals to whales and they are also ideal for observing shorebirds, ducks and other birds. One of our favourite places to paddle is at Point Holmes since it offers ready access to scenic paddling and a variety of shorelines from sandy beaches to rocky headlands. With the exceptionally warm weather of late we decided to go sea kayaking and or most recent outing was on Sunday, April 18 and we weren’t disappointed. We almost always head around Cape Lazo toward Kye Bay since this is where you tend to get the best bird and marine mammal sitings. Also at this time of year the mountains still have quite abit of winter snow which adds to the scenic beauty of this area.

 On this day we were pleased to see so much variety from seals on rocks and lots of blue heron and several eagles chasing each other!  This is also a great spot to site colourful harlequin ducks (see photo above). We went a tide of between 2.7 and 3.1 meters and this meant that many rocks were exposed which gave places for birds to perch on. As well we usually make a point of stopping for a snack at the lovely sandy beach that is between the boat launch and Cape Lazo (See photo below).  Another bonus of paddling at Point Holmes is the fact that the boat launch has a web cam that lets you see what the wave conditions are along the shore. It can be viewed at: http://www.pointholmesrecreation.ca/rampcam/. It is always interesting to see the variety of birds and other wildlife in this area and we look forward to our next kayak trip to Point Holmes.