A fabulous day in Tahsis at the Cook Shack

View of the inlet from the Cook Shack deck

I was at the Cook Shack & took a picture from the deck... the wind was quite high today but with the sun sparkling on the water it was one of those fabulous fall days we have in Tahsis.

While I was taking the picture a couple having breakfast on the deck asked me if I did the newsletter on the web, meaning the tahsisbc.com blog.


Angela & Mick Scribens, having breakfast at the Cook Shack

We chatted a while and I asked if they wanted their pics on the blog, and they thought it would be a great idea to say hi to their friend Darren, who they said checks out the blog every other day and will probably be visiting Tahsis in October.

Angela and Mick and their daughter Samantha relocated to Tahsis on September 1st, and they are very much enjoying the Tahsis ambiance & Samantha is enjoying the local school. The Scribens are 'regulars' at Danny's (The Cook Shack) already, and were even out watching the Salmon egg collection at the Tahsis River last Sunday.

Mick says Hi to Darren in Calgary and adds:

"Hope you're enjoying the 9 to 5, Darren!"


Cook Shack interior

Scuba Divers count Salmon in the Tahsis River

Al Eden and Shawn Hayes return to the Public Works yard after counting salmon in the Tahsis River during our recent run of sunny weather. Al is from Qualicum Beach and Shawn is from Campbell River--both are in Tahsis doing contract work for DFO (Department of Fisheries and Oceans).

I was taking my tin cans to the recycling depot outside of the Village of Tahsis Public Works Yard when I ran into two scuba divers.

I asked them if they were counting salmon, and Al Eden replied in the affirmative. According to Al Eden, his gut feeling is that the Chinook count was up over last year. However, he qualified that by stating:

"We will have to wait till we report our figures to Head Office, where they will run an analysis on the numbers."

Al continued:

"It's too early to tell for Coho, since they are just starting to return. We have counted Sockeye as well, though probably there will only be 400 to 500 in total for Sockeye, they don't have big numbers here."

I asked how the egg gathering had gone on Sunday when the local Salmon Enhancement volunteers had come out to collect Chinook for the local hatchery. Al replied

"The collection went very well, and the eggs are already incubating at the hatchery (Conuma Hatchery)."

Currently, the Tahsis Salmon Enhancement Society is taking their fry to the Conuma Hatchery, since their local water supply needs upgrading before it will be reliable enough to keep the hatchery in town. Currently several local service organizations and businesses are raising funds for the local volunteer hatchery.

Anyone wishing to send a donation can do so through the Village office:

Tahsis Salmon Enhancement Society
C/O Village of Tahsis
Box 519
Tahsis BC V0P 1X0

------
note: speaking of Salmon, I was talking to Lucille Collins of Ceepeecee Cabins, and she had a probable explanation of why there were so many bears in the townsite this fall. She has been out on the hills in the inlet, and she said that the unusually hot weather this summer had dried up the berries on the higher elevations on the mountains, and the bears were coming down earlier and in greater numbers looking for food, berry bushes and fruit trees in town.

Pig Roast raises over $700 for grads

Cook Marco from the Maquinna Resort First Landing Cafe helps out roasting the pig for the Community Pig Roast last Saturday

The Community Pig Roast raised over $700 for the Captain Meares Elementary Secondary School Grad Class. The family event took place on Saturday September 25th from 6 to 8 pm, and was followed by a live band at the Captain Cook's Pub.


The pig is done, and one of the cook's starts carving it up for the hungry crowd

The turnout was excellent, though the crowd had to fill up on homemade bean salad, potato salad and hot dogs as the pig was a bit behind schedule. The cook had been working on the BBQ from 6:00 am in the morning, but it's pretty hard to time just how long it takes to roast a pig...

Everyone had a good time socializing while they waiting, and the sense was that now the tourism season was over, people could really kick back and relax and catch up on what was happening with their neighbors.


The crowd tucks in to an excellent spread

Bears, bears, and more bears

Momma bear crossing the road outside my window

Well, lots more bear activity in Tahsis since I posted Christine Hendrix's photos of the mom with 3 cubs! A few days ago a big black bear came by early in the am and got into our next door neighbour's carport and took out his garbage can, took it to the empty lot across the street and rolled it around for a while trying to get in. Jim and the neighbour found this objectionable, and went out there to shoo the bear away... well, the bear didn't shoo and Jim and Wally finally went back inside.

My opinion... let the bear have the garbage can--but that's just me.


One of the cubs walking across my lawn

I was talking to Cathy at Westview Marina, and she reported a bear went down the ramp to the docks, and went up the side staircase to her upstairs suite on the main marina building. There was a gate at the top which the bear didn't crawl over, but the dogs were quite excited for a while by the visit.


Momma and one cub at the edge of our property crossing over into the neighbours yard

And, two days ago we had a visit at our house by a momma bear and 2 cubs... most likely the same ones photographed by Christine Hendrix. Here are a photo of the mom bear crossing the road outside our house, one of the cubs crossing our yard, and one of momma and one cub at the edge of our yard walking over to our neighbours yard. We could hear the progress of her and her cubs by listening to which dogs were barking in the neighborhood. I went out in the car to see if I could get a photograph of them on the river bank, but didn't see them again. Of course, a 1979 pinto with a broken muffler pipe is not the best thing to go bear scouting with.

I've put a call in to the Conservation office and the Nootka Sound RCMP with a request for a comment and more information on the unusual level of bear activity, and hopefully I'll have something from the to post later today or tomorrow.

Mother bear with 3 cubs raids Alpine View apple tree

One cub in an apple tree while mother looks on

The last few days bears have been wandering through Tahsis looking for berry bushes, fruit trees and attractive garbage and compost bins. Christine Hendrix has seen quite a few bears on her property at 523 Alpine View ( Gentle Valley Guest House & Chris's Art Gallery ), and she finally had a good photo opportunity when a mother bear with her 3 cubs started climbing the next door neighbors apple tree.


Two cubs in an apple tree...

"Steve (my husband) was working on our fence doing repairs when he spotted the bears and called me. I went to the window in my art studio and had a good view of the bears in the apple tree so I took a dozen pictures on my digital camera. Then, thinking I might want to use more pictures for a painting, I went into our guest suite at ground level to get another angle. I took another dozen pictures."


Three cubs in an apple tree!

"I wanted to go out to the back yard and get closer, but I thought that would be stupid. Especially since I had seen the mother bear chasing off a male bear in our back yard last night."


More cub antics... one cub takes a precarious position to get that last apple...

The pictures of the bears in our backyard next to the next big rocks were taken last night, of the same bears. I have a picture that didn't come out very clearly of the mother bear confronting and chasing off a male bear."


Male bear about to enter Gentle Valley Guest House's back yard on Sunday at twilight


Mother bear confronts male bear and successfully chases him away


A cub follows his mother closely

Sadly, we heard today from Ted Enfield that a male bear had killed and eaten one of the mother bear's 3 cubs today, at a close by spot across the Tahsis River. However, Steve Hendrix remarked that the mother bear was looking very scrubby and skinny, so it is probably for the best that she only have the 2 cubs to take care of over the winter.

There have been many more bears about town this year than last year. Last week Debra Connibear saw a bear break down a the fence and break a big branch on a neighbor's apple tree up on Discover Crescent. She described the bear as the biggest one she had seen, at least 3 to 4 feet at the shoulders when down on all fours. She has also noted that a lot of her favorite berry bushes have either been stripped by the bears, or are in the process of being stripped.

The Salmon have not yet started to go up the river in big enough numbers to provide the bears with food, but the bears have already come down from the hills in anticipation of the salmon run, so they are rummaging around the Tahsis berry patches and fruit trees in the meantime. Many locals have remarked there are many more bears about the town than last year.

What to do about a Black Bear in your compost at 4:00 AM

1. Yell "Hey" and startle your cats, and get the black bear to look up momentarily from it's position on top of your compost box.

2. Realize that if the black bear thumping on your compost box didn't wake up your neighbours, yelling "Hey" probably did.

3. Get your camera and realize the bear is too far away (far end of the yard) to photograph with your flash, and that it is NOT WORTH IT to get within flash range.

4. Resign yourself to a few more claw marks on the lid of your compost box, and go back to bed.

Note: The next day we figured out he was a male bear, because he left the compost lid up.

Community BBQ raises $1045.35 for Tahsis Salmon Enhancement Society improvements

A hungry and enthusiastic crowd lines up for the Salmon BBQ

Corrine Dahling and Alison Arsenault of the Tahsis Trading Post organized a successful Community Salmon BBQ on Sunday August 29th that raised $1045.35 for the Tahsis Salmon Enhancement Society. The Tahsis Salmon Enhancement Society needs improvements to the water line for maintaining the salmon fry over the winter.

The BBQ was held at the Maquinna Mall, and the rain didn't dampen the spirits of the local crowd that came out. Randy Musfelt barbequed the Salmon for the event, and received multiple compliments and requests for his grandmother's secret salmon BBQ recipe.


Alison Arsenault takes a break from co-hosting

Russ Nickerson won the draw for the Gift Basket, Fishing Guide Gilles Darvault won the Head Bay Station basebal cap & movie rental coupon, and Roger won a trinket box painted by Alison Arsenault and several movie rental coupons.


Co-host Corrine Dahling entertains Madison

Special thank to Lindi Edwards and Matthew Lechot who looked after the kids attending the event and organized games.


Nicole Musfelt, cook and helper for the BBQ, ladles up some hot choclate while Joe Scott husks corn in the background

Anyone wishing to donate to the Tahsis Salmon Enhancement Society, can send a donation care of the Village of Tahsis,

Village of Tahsis
Tahsis Salmon Enhancement Society Fund
Box 519
Tahsis BC
V0P 1X0