11-13-13 Inter Species Interactions

Friday, November 8th
...out with friends to go north to look for the Lags (Pacific White Sided dolphins)...however, just off the dock and we learn of killer whales inbound and there was a small group of Lags with them...okay, change of direction...
...we pass two humpbacks on our way...on past Race Rocks to try to see the killer whales, who had now turned west and were moving fast away from us...
...we came upon 4 to 5 humpbacks, some were trumpeting (making a sound like an elephant) evidently made when they are agitated...

...another humpback was...

...but it wasn't eating...I think the humpbacks were being bothered by the Lags...the lags were all over them...they too were heading west...and just past them were the killer whales - we learned that between Mark of Prince of Whales and Dave of Center for Whale Research they had determined these were members of G pod of the Northern Resident Community!...first time I have seen Northern Residents...and since no internet access for a while, I had no idea who I was meeting for the first time...

...they were very spread out on both sides of us...interesting to watch their travel behavior...maybe just different from the Southern Residents or maybe because they were somewhere not well known to them...

...soon the Lags caught up to them...

...off to the east a couple humpbacks were very active...

...over the last couple weeks there have been a lot of humpbacks in the area...on Tuesday, November 5th, as I was leaving the house I saw two humpbacks just a 1/2 mile from shore, slowly heading north...on Wednesday, November 6th we saw two humpbacks in Haro Strait, near Morseby Island...they were NOT the same ones as seen on the 5th...then today on the 8th besides I the ones I already mentioned, there were two in another direction...

...and two humpback blows way in the distance to the south west...

...we figure we had counted at least 10, but there were many more there...
...Lags and Humpbacks, Lags and killer whales...3 species, not just on the same day, but all in the same place at the same time...what an experience!