5-31-14 SOME OF J Pod is Here!

Saturday, May 31st
...6:00 a.m. clear loud calls on the Lime Kiln hydrophones!...I was in shock!...they came back!
...they were coming across from Discovery Island...they were spread out and slowly heading up island...
...here's my first picture of any J pod whale since February...it's been a long, long time...I am so glad to see them...

...I was invited to go out on the Center for Whale Research vessel, Orca, with Dave Ellifrit...and sea conditions were about perfect...

...we were surprised to find that some of J Pod was not present - Blackberry J-27 and his sister and brother and Oreo J-22 and her group...they'll show up...it just wasn't today...

...time out for a bald eagle crossing!

...I think our approach got the eagle motivated to attempt to get to shore faster...the eagle made it to shore and had nothing in its talons...thank goodness it was a sunny and warm day so he could dry quickly...
...on up Boundary Pass the whales went...all along the shore people were waiting at various places to see the whales...

...we know the folks on Saturna love the whales...The Whale Museum even has a whale named Saturna in honor of this place where the whales pass by - Saturna K-43...

...at one point early in the encounter some of the J14s stopped...they must have heard about the T65As and how they did a stop the other day...here's what the J14s did today...

...it was good to see Granny J-2, Onyx L-87, little J-49 and his family, Shachi J-19 and Eclipse J-41, Slick J-16 and her family, and Oreo J-22 and her two kids and her niece...

...and now we think of all the possibilities as to why the J11s (Blackberry J-27, Tsuchi J-31, and Mako J-39) and Princess Angeline J-17 and her family are not here...that's nine whales...

...from 2010 on J pod had split into two groups and I called them Group A and Group B, for the ease of not having to write their names/numbers each time...
...are we in the beginning stages of a new split?
...is it temporary due to the lack of salmon in these waters?
...maybe they have been influenced by Cappuccino K-21, who in the past has sometimes traveled with L pod for a short time...

...oh, there are so many possibilities...

...all we can do is wait and see what happens...at that time we can come up with more possibilities of what they had been doing!