Sunday, May 4, 2014

5-4-14 A Slice of Life - Orca Style

Sunday, May 4, 2014
...it was May 4th 2009 when J pod and the K13s showed up in Haro Strait  but that wasn't going to happen today...they were in California!...
...instead we had word of transients (Bigg's killer whales), marine mammal eating orca, a large group coming our way...
...out on Maya's Westside Charters for an afternoon trip...the rain was subsiding and the seas were calm...and when we arrived on scene the whales appeared to be heading east...
...as the scene began to unfold we could see there were some individual males up ahead - T102 shown here...also T101A and possibly T87 were spread out close to a 1/2 mile ahead...
...one of several groups...

...the T90s surfaced and the T65As (not in this frame) were near by...
...wow! T124, so the rest of her family is around somewhere...
...members of the T100s, T101s(because T102 is here- I know-confusing), T90s, T65As...and we were only getting started!
...then this whale with a very distinguishing notch surfaced...
...I don't stop to try to figure it out while out there...if I do then I miss images that I could get...so I wait...and was I ever surprised and excited - I've only seen her in 2011 - it's T023!!..now meet the whole family!
...the two youngest I've never seen before...T023C3 and T023D3 are in the DFO (Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans the official book on the transients), but the youngest one (in the middle) isn't...so I've sent my images to the Center for Whale Research...

...soon they stopped traveling...so we all stopped too...and enjoyed being surrounded by a 'slice of life - orca style'...
...it didn't require breaching, or fast travel, or wild leaping or them coming up close...they were just hanging out on a springtime afternoon...it was amazing to watch and not easy to capture the event because the groups were spread all over...
...some groups playing around, others moving slowly in large circles...

...above - the taller fin belongs to T100C...here's a bit closer look...

...luckily I got a picture of him from his other side...

...then I compared his dorsal fin from the last time I saw him (2012) to another image I took of him yesterday and I could see no indentation...
...it might be that with his dorsal fin beginning to grow taller it can be a bit 'wobbly' at the top and that might be causing the strange look...it will be interesting to watch how he grows - he's like a 6th grader who is 'heads above' the rest of his class - tall and gangly!


...the very youngest in this large group of about 27 whales, T65A5, taking a rest next to mom...

...naps don't have to last a long time in the whale world...T65A with baby T65A5 on the right...oh, so sweet...I noticed T65A was doing a lot of resting today...I guess a mom with 4 kids, one a brand new baby, needs lots of rest!
...her oldest,T65A2, and friend T101B were 'whaling around' (as opposed to 'horsing around')...
...heading toward the Swartz Bay ferry terminal...
...a different group heading away from the Swartz Bay ferry terminal...



...kids!
...the folks on that sailboat were about to enter a Slice of Life - Orca Style!
wild and free,
free to roam,
they raise their kids,
teach them the ways of the whale world.

There is something special
that touches our hearts
when we get to see a 
slice of their life. 

Thank you whales.
 

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