Richard Wilson moved with his father, step-mother, siblings and step-siblings to the Marringhurst Plains in the RM of Argyle. Richard’s parents were originally from York, England where theiy married but then moved to Ontario where Richard and his sister were born. Richard chose this property to homestead on. He then married his wife Annie in 1863 and together they would raise a family of 8 on this homestead.
The first house on the property was a log home built by Richard upon his arrival to the Marringhurst Plains. At that time he also erected buildings for his livestock. In 1909, the Wilson’s built this “stately” two-storey, red brick home to replace the original log farmhouse.
In 1898 at the tender age of 34 years, Annie died leaving Richard with many children to raise. Richard married Annie’s sister, Louisa and together they had 3 more children.
The children grew up and went off to operate their own farms and raise their own families and by 1970 the home stood empty.
The home has been restored to its original grandeur and renamed the Marringhurst House. The home now operates as a turn of the century farm house museum and is open upon request for tours.
I cannot believe that I have still not posted these photos. I do beleive that part of my hesitation or procrastination was getting my info together for this family and making sure I could identify the whales I photographed correctly.
Now this is likely going to be a long, boring post if you are not at all interested in killer whales. First let’s start of by clarifying that they aren’t actually whales, they are the largest member of the dolphin family.
Let’s also talk about the name killer whale. In today’s society, people do not like the name killer whale and don’t want us to use it anymore. Let’s face it, they are the apex predator of the ocean so the name fits. Well I guess aside from the whale part but you get my drift. Anyways, instead they want us to call them orca. And orca means demon from hell.
So you may know that there is a pod of orca that are considered endangered. They are known as the Southern Resident Killer whales and they travel the waters of the west coast from northern British Columbia down into Washington. They only eat salmon. And this is why they are endangered and are heavily protected in the waters in which they live. Currently there are only 74 of them as at December, 2023. If you were on a whale watching tour, they would not stop to allow you to observe them.
Then there are the Biggs or Transient Killer Whales. This eco-type eats anything. Dolphins, sea lions, baby humpbacks, seals, birds. Given they will eat a wide variety of marine life, their population is a lot healthier.
You read that right, baby humpbacks. And this year we saw a humpback that was attacked by orcas three times. I shouldn’t say attacked because Valiant has started some of these encounters with orca. But that’s a story for a different day. We did see Valiant on our last trip to B.C.
So, some history. Since seeing orca at Vancouver Aquarium at about 8 years old, I have been obssessed. I read books about them and tried to learn all I could about them. Then last summer, last minute, Colton wanted to go watch them. So I went. He has never seen them before and I had never seen them in the wild. So of course when they surfaced, it was pretty exciting.
That day we came upon a Bigg’s family. There were 3 whales traveling together. Sam, Tread and her 2022 born, unnamed calf.
Let’s start with Sam.
In the summer of 2013, this then 2-year-old orca T46C2 or Sam, was stranded in a small cove near remote Aristazabal Island on the North Coast of B.C. for several weeks. He had swum into a shallow bay and became psychologically stuck, afraid to swim back over the shallow sand bar. He was not eating, was quickly losing weight and was calling loudly for his family.
Luckily this little whale was found by the Vancouver Aquarium who monitored the situation for a few weeks before deciding this animal was not going to leave on its own. In Augst of 2013 on their first try to get T46C2 out of the bay, they were successful! The next dilemma this young whale would face would be locating his family again. In October 2014, Sam was spotted swimming with his mother and siblings in Blackfish Sound, near Telegraph Cove.
On July 22, 2023, I took this photo of Sam swimming happily with members of his extended family. Male orcas are said to be the ulitimate Momma’s boys and they stay with their Mom’s their entire lives. Sam doesn’t travel with his Mom often and moves from family to family.
Here is the 3 of them together. Now in the whale world, there are 3 ways to identify a killer whale. Eye patch, saddle patch and for some, dorsal fin because some have a visible dorsal fin injury or a very distinct shape. On this day we were told that this was an entirely different pod of orca. I was able to confirm otherwise with another naturalist out of Naniamo. She is my go-to whale question person now. In this picture Sam is following behind and the youngster is travelling in echelon position with its mother, Tread.
The other two are T46B Tread and her 2022 calf T46B1C.
Firstly, let’s talk about Tl’uk. In 2018 Tl’uk (T46B1B) was born to Tread.
Tread was born in 2003 to Raksha who was born in 1988. Tread has had 3 calves including this 2022 born calf who is not named and as far as I know, they haven’t confirmed the sex of. You will note that the little one has a yellowish tinge to its white? This is normal. As the youngster grows and fattens up, that color will turn white.
I was really hoping that these 3 would do something other than just swim along beside us. I was hoping for a belly flop or some spyhopping or some fluke but they just cruised along beside us. Rules say that there is a limited amount of time that a boat can stop and observe and there were a few in this area.
I’m not going to bore you with anymore whale talk.
To me this was a very successful whale watching tour. We were out on the boat about 5 hours. We seen the killer whales and then headed back to Vancouver. Aside from not being able to identify the whales correctly, the tour was okay. We left from Granville Island and went with the Prince of Whales company. After the trip that Colton and I just made to B.C. where we did 3 trips out to look for orcas, I do think I would try another company next summer and the plan is to get over to the island and try either Naniamo or head up to Telegraph Cove. I think we will decide that once we get ourselves to the coast.
The closest relatives to bears are seals, sea lions and walrus. Pinnipeds (the name given to the scientific order for seals, sea lions and walrus) are the sea-going cousins of bears.
Twice the size and just as ornery as a polar bear, these two creatues have almost identical skulls and are marine predators.
Stellar sea lions are abundant in the coastal waters of the pacific ocean but are still considered near threatened.
Males arrive on what scientists called a rookery. Territorial, this sends other dominant males elsewhere as the reproductive rookery is claimed and within weeks the females and immature young arrive.
I wouldn’t say we were close to this island but close enough to hear how loud these animals are. Especially the dominant male who plays a key role in reproduction.
We found fthese three a little further up from the island covered in sea lions. The one didn’t even move. This buoy is in the middle of the ocean, no island or coast nearby. These three are lucky there were no orca sightings in the area!
CRUMBLING MEMORIES 