6-28-14 Afternoon With the Whales at Lime Kiln

Saturday, June 28th
...it was time for some shore days for me...so much has been going on both along the shore and from the boat...I'm very fortunate I have choices...so today I made the choice to stay on shore...
...J pod, Onyx L-87 and members of who I call the 'Blackjacks'...once upon a time there were 21 of them in these four family groups - L4s, L26s, L37s, and the L21s...so the name sort of stuck...
...it was mid afternoon when the whales began coming up island...there was some interesting behavior...not sure if they were corralling salmon or playing a game...

...the spyhop in the one image and the adult in the above image are the same whale...Tsuchi J-31...maybe the other two are the same in both images, but I couldn't tell...

...though it would be great to see a big salmon in her mouth...

...someone surfaced facing the shore...

...it was Blackberry J-27...he was with his brother Mako J-39...as we were watching them, someone else surfaced even closer and in the kelp!...but didn't straighten up to see the dorsal fin...I would think it was their sister, but she was up ahead with a different group...or did she travel back and join her brothers?...

...there was a storm brewing on the Vancouver Island side making the lighting quite interesting...especially when things are usually back lit in the afternoon...
...this would normally be full of glare, but not at this moment...

...the storm moved on to the north and east of us...and the skies got clear again...

...the whales traveled north...and came back down later, when it was almost dark...they passed by my place shortly after 9pm so I decided to enjoy them as they went down island...I heard their loud calls on the Lime Kiln hydrophones and I hoped those who were at the park got a chance to see them before dark set in...