I once discussed with a neighbor an irony of living with the local whales. They come so close to our beach so often, yet when we have visitors to the homestead, the whales seem to disappear. I assume this is sheer coincidence, but my neighbor, who has lived on this peninsula far longer than we have, had an interesting observation. He said, only half joking, that there seems to be some sort of Karmic resonance that visitors give off, that seems to warn wildlife away. The more we experience this, the more I believe he may have a point! Take yesterday, for example:

We’ve had company at the homestead (or in town) since June 30. That whole time they’ve been here, when we’re at the homestead we’ve seen a few sea lions and harbor porpoises, but the whales have been completely absent. Yesterday morning my sister, the last “hanger-on,” hiked out to town. An hour later, we found ourselves sitting on the veranda, tracking two separate groups of humpback whales of two or more each. Granted, they were mostly near the far shore, best seen through binoculars, but their exhalations could be heard clearly. One pair, a cow and calf, eventually came within a quarter-mile of the beach before we hiked out to town to join our company. When we returned in the evening, we sat on the veranda again, enjoying the late evening sunshine, a glass of wine, and watching a cow and calf pair (presumably the same one) pass back south at about the same distance.

That’s a fair amount of whale activity for one day, and it’s rather strange that it should all happen so soon after our guests left. it’s not as if conditions changed—the previous day’s weather was nearly identical, and we all spent most of the day on the beach. If there had been whales anywhere within several miles, we would have heard or seen them.

This happens so often that it’s difficult to call it coincidence. At the same time, I find it even more difficult to seriously consider that our thoughts and actions could influence these huge creatures. And yet, evidence points to the possibility that my neighbor’s idea is at least on the right track . . . .