7-2-13 Surprised by L Pod Calls!

Over the last couple days...
Monday, July 1st
...a fledgling bald eagle...whether it was his first flight or not, we could see that he was hesitant to take flight...Capt. Jim turned the boat at just the right moment...

...lift off!

...he flew a very short distance...

...and landed safely!...

...that evening at about 9:15 pm I was surprised by the sound of L pod calls on the Lime Kiln hydrophones...the calls lasted only about 10 minutes...

Tuesday, July 2nd
...so I wasn't surprised to learn of whales off the west side of San Juan Island in the morning...out on Maya's Westside Charters we went to see who was here...it was the L12s, a subgroup of L pod...there are about 10 whales in this subgroup who are very independent of the rest of L pod...

...common for them to be spread out for a few miles...here are a few highlights...
...Spirit L-22...

...Solstice L-89 about to slap the water with his pec...

...Skana L-79 who appeared to be concentrating on foraging...

...we saw Matia L-77 and baby L-119 off in the distance, and Mega L-41 and the rest of the group were spread out down island from where we were...

...on the late afternoon trip we learned that some Transient killer whales were not far, so off we went...
...T77 and two of her three kids...T77C and T77D...

...her oldest living offspring, L77B...has he ever sprouted - nice!

...an even larger male was with them...T75A...

...his mom was present too T75...

...they all went off into the sun glare!...and no one could find them for about a half hour!