Tuesday, July 9, 2013

7-9-13 Patos Island Clockwise and Counter Clockwise

Tuesday, July 9th
...a funny sounding squiggle on the Lime Kiln hydrophones got me running out the door this morning, to the park...running down the hill I could hear blows...

...I missed some, but would hopefully see them later on Maya's Westside Charters, on our morning trip...waiting on the folks to arrive, I stood at the end of the dock at Snug Harbor with my binoculars and could see whales doing what looked to be foraging...that would be a good thing...
some of the highlights of the day with L pod whales...
...the L12s didn't make it very far past Lime Kiln lighthouse before turning back down island...Mystery L-85 - a member of the L12 subgroup...

...Calypso L-94 and Cousteau L-113 going back down island with the rest of the L12s...


...the group of 19 L pod whales continued moving north - mostly moms and kids with Crewser L-92 currently the largest male in that group...Kasatka L-82 stopped to do some foraging...(Lulu L-53, is the 20th whale of the group just mentioned, she was traveling with J pod...something she and her mom, Canuck L-7 used to do when her mother was alive...)

...others were moving in toward shore at the south end of the park...

...a harbor seal was watching all the action on shore...


...during the afternoon in Boundary Pass and Mt. Baker looking magnificent...

...a deep sea ship came by...some of the whales were tail lobbing and speed swimming in the wake of the freighter...


...they continued up Boundary Pass...
 ...when we came back out later...the L12s were still down island...Js and Ks were in Rosario Strait...and the group we had seen earlier, had turned and were heading south east...
...what they did next was very interesting...they were on the north west side of Patos Island, approaching the island, looking like they would travel east on the north side...
...there was a kerfuffle for a moment and three whales hung back from the rest of the group while others moved on ahead...
...those others traveled clockwise around Patos Island... Nugget L-55, Takoda L-109, and Jade L-118 traveled counter clockwise!
...here is some of the larger group as they came around the south east side of Patos heading west...



...they traveled west along the south side of Patos...we saw Nugget and her two kids about half way approaching the larger group...their slow travel changed into some action...Crewser L-92 was...

...some whales moved on ahead, so there were now two groups and some spyhops and tail lobs, etc...
...Takoda L-109 with a great spyhop to end an amazing trip around Patos Island!
...it is not uncommon to see Transient killer whales go around Patos Island, but it's NOT common to see Residents do that...

...it's the food issue...I think this is one more event to add to the unusual travelings the whales are doing this year...


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