Whales and Worms

Almost as soon as I returned home from work I learned that my mother had been planning on the three of us having dinner at Cape Spear. She hoped that we would be able to see some of the whales that CBC reported were there the day before.

After a few preparations (I had to make my sandwich among other things) we were ready to head out, that is after we picked up my father.

Soon enough we were making our way through Shea Heights and then along the final stretch to Cape Spear. Almost as soon as we pulled into the driveway we noticed that there was a CBC satellite truck and a fairly large number of cars.

As we made our way from the parking lot to the shore we noticed a fairly large number of groups eating picnic dinners, and many more just looking for whales. On our walk down we heard from a number of people that there were whales, but that they were around the headland.

Just about as soon as we moved to the far side of Cape Spear the temperature dropped and the wind became much colder. We eventually found a rock with a good view to sit on and eat our dinner.

Soon after we started eating my parents noticed a blow in the distance. Within a few minutes we started to see animals breaching in water a little nearer to shore. Eventually, typically after a few breaches, we saw what looked like mouths coming out of the water open. Presumably, the whales were eating capelin, or some other fish, that they had herded or stunned with their breaching.

Soon after we finished our meal we started to make our way back across Cape Spear. Soon after we entered the warmer part of the outcropping my parents ran into a couple that they recognized. As we were standing talking to the couple a number of whales became visible. These whales, which happened to be humpbacks, eventually came quite close to the shore, so close that we were able to see the white sections of their fins.

The couple also clued us into why CBC had been at Cape Spear. Instead of reporting on the presence of whales and sight-seers, it seems that they were there to report on a rescue that had just taken place. The story, as we heard it from this couple, was that a guy from Ontario (I think that was the province that they suggested), who claimed to be an experienced mountaineer, decided to climb down the a cliff but then realized that he couldn't get back up. A friend called for a rescue on his cell phone. The rescue crew then had to rappel down the side of the cliff to rescue the stranded expert. Apparently the entire process took about an hour and a half, all remnants of which were gone by the time we arrived. (CBC presents things a little differently in their version of the story).

Though several of the whales were still being quite active we had to make our way back to St. John's to get to the second exciting activity of the night: spraying for elm span worms.

Almost as soon as we returned home my father and I changed into spraying clothes (otherwise known as work clothes) and prepared our equipment. The main complication is that the spray has to be mixed in a buck and then syphoned to the power washer. If one is not careful the hose can fall out of the bucket or the bucket can run dry, both of which would cause the syphon to become non-functional.

Fortunately, just as we were about to start spraying some friends showed up. While one of them talked to my mother the other was able to help my father and I with the spraying process. While the friend was there to help I climbed up on the roof of the shed and then the roof of the house to hit some of the higher sections of a few of the trees.

Eventually our friends and my mother left. They were going to see the house that had recently been purchased and as of today come into the possession of our friends. This meant that we went from a three person operation to a two person operation, causing a noticeable effect on our efficiency.

Eventually we worked our way through our yard and the neighbours' yards, climbing to roofs when needed or just spraying from the ground when there wasn't a roof that would allow us to get a better angle.

At one point, while I was standing on the front porch roof, a woman stopped to ask if we could be hired. While my father indicated that we were just doing our own place he did suggest that if her husband was interested that we could help him do his own spraying. So I guess we should be hearing from him in a day or so and will possibly have to suit up sometime soon afterwards.

Just as the sun was starting to set we ran out of our bacterial soup, thus halting our spraying program for the evening. Actually, I think that we basically achieved all that we could have hoped. What was particularly impressive about the entire operation was that almost as soon as we started spraying a given tree the worms began to vacate the trees. In some cases several hundred worms began to dangle from certain trees, many times in places were leaf damage wasn't even particularly visible (yet). Presumably, if we had left the spraying much longer many of the trees would be well on their way to having serious leaf damage, something that can't be good for long term tree health.