Tuesday, June 4, 2013

6-4-13 Rest, Wake Up, Play, Eat

Tuesday, June 4th
...the whales always make it a challenge but now this week the road resurfacing in this area has added a whole new dimension...rework the logistics, the duration from point A to point B, etc.!
...so, in order to see who was coming up I stayed put so I would be able to get to the harbor to get on the boat...
...when they passed my place they were quite far from shore and spread out in small groups...
...when we arrived on scene a while later on Maya's Westside Charters the whales were in a resting pattern, Group A was way in close to shore along the bottom of Stuart Island and Group B was off shore, both were aiming up...
...some members of Group B...
...as we were watching Group A, Granny J-2 surfaced, having changed direction and moving back into 'on coming traffic' - that is the others in Group A...
...within a few moments Group B adjusted their travel direction and angled toward Group A...
...but instead of forming into one large resting group, they began to wake up...a whale ahead, a spyhop in the middle, and a whale behind...
...some of the whales were tight to the shore and in the kelp (= salmon)...
...a sail boat and the people on it were watching the whales, but their dog was more interested in us...the dog looks like he has arms!

...someone decided to head offshore but didn't give us advance notice...look at the water she is spitting!
...and with that most of Group B also headed offshore...Blackberry J-27 graced us with a beautiful breach with a great background...
...there were tail slaps, cartwheels and more...then they began to move on...that's when they reminded me of how Transients can look when they are hunting - spread way out and then all of a sudden an abrupt turn in the opposite direction, and they "all came running"...the whales were down for what seemed like a very long time, and when they surfaced they were in the same spot and hung out at the surface for several moments...
...yes, I do believe they got some salmon, shared that salmon, relaxed a bit and headed on to find more...but that's just my little world of belief...then again maybe they were playing 'balance the stick' ...look at this!
...that stick stayed there while these two just hung out at the surface..did she know she had the stick there?...amazing!
...and then they began moving on...
...the gulls seemed to enjoy watching the whales too!

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