I had just finished sweeping the chimney last Sunday. I refastened the wire harness that secures the chimney cap, and started to ease the cramps in my leg muscles from clinging to the roof peak, when I heard loud splashes out on the water. I saw several bodies hurtling out of the water in shallow jumps, slapping back down in bursts of spray. They moved too quickly, and splashed too much to see what they were. They moved fast in purposeful lines past our beach.
Porpoises move like this when they hunt, but we always see their gray bodies, if only briefly, as they move. I couldn’t see any part of the animal, no flash of skin or scale. I called to Michelle, but she’d already run down to the beach to watch. She looked up channel and shouted, “Killer whales!” A moment later, a small pod of killer whales swept past her, making similar lunges out of the water as they pursued the splashing creatures ahead of them. Continue reading