...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...
...then this whale with a very distinguishing notch surfaced...
...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...
...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')...
...kids!
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment