3-20-14 Could I Believe My Eyes, Or Not?

Thursday, March 20th
...today was about our journey to find a whale...
...ahhh, the first day of spring...the sun shining, the seas flat calm...I better scan...stepping out onto the porch...scan to the south across Haro...then back again...one more time-wait! what was that?! A blow...and then more! I could hardly believe my eyes!  I had seen 4 or 5 blows at the same time - like wow!
...over the next 1 1/2 hours I scanned and scanned, drove down island and scanned again, but nothing...oh, no! maybe I couldn't believe my eye...
...out on Maya's Westside Charters for a mid afternoon trip...out of the harbor with Spencer at the helm, he spotted some Dall's porpoise riding the bow of a deep sea that was heading south...earlier in the day I had seen many groups of Dall's off from Lime Kiln lighthouse...so we headed toward the deep sea and figured we'd find some Dall's on our way...
...we stopped at Kelp Reef for some Steller sea lions...

...and a bald eagle...

...and then we got word that one of the Prince of Whales boats out of Victoria had see one adult male killer whale heading our way!...so we headed that way - down island -...Spencer spotted the whale and then I saw two more blows off to the west...and then nothing...
...we all scanned we went west, south, back to along the west side of the island and up past the lighthouse...nothing...the other boat...nothing...

...we headed up island to Spieden Channel to see the animals on Spieden Island...one new lamb, an eagle sitting on the rocks at the shore line having just finished a meal...lots of Steller sea lions hauled out at Green Pt. ..branded sea lion, 16Y, was hauled out there again...

...on our way back to the harbor Spencer decided to take the outside down Henry Island...I think we were hoping that those whales would show up, but really doubted they would...
...and lucky for us Prince of Whales (thank you very much!) had a second trip in the afternoon and they picked up that male killer whale!  And we got to see him!
...T87...we saw him up ahead briefly twice...then he was gone again...for several minutes and when he surfaced he was past us...

...we could see why he had been so difficult to locate...he kept changing directions...
...he showed up with a fresh wound on his dorsal fin...which I didn't even notice until I was looking at my images...
...hardly noticeable from a distance...

...upon closer view...

...it's look like a fresh wound...

...hang in there ole' T87!
...maybe tomorrow we'll find the other blows that I saw this morning!

...and now I can believe my eyes!