7-12-14 Sure Sounds Like Ts and Not Residents

Saturday, July 12th
...Exhaustion has set in...for me, not the whales! :)...
...the Shuffle...up island in the late morning with Granny J-2 in the lead...

...thanks Dan of Eclipse Charters for that!
...and the J14s...here's Hy'Shqa J-37 and T'ilen I'nges (means singing grandchild in the Coast Salish language) J-49...

...his fin may just be wobbly on this lunge surfacing...

...on the 'fluke prints' of the 10 J pod whales were the 16 K pod whales...Onyx L-87 was way offshore (interesting to note is that Onyx had been closer to shore at Land Bank - a friend showed me a picture of him, and by the time we saw him just a mile north he was way offshore.  A week or so ago some Transients did that)...and up island they went...
...speaking of Transient orcas...there were some very interesting calls over the Lime Kiln hydrophones as the K pod whales were going by...researcher Dr. Bob Otis, at the lighthouse, called my attention to them...I had recorded at home and here's what I got...

...now we are wondering if we've ever heard any of these type calls from K pod whales or any other Residents...that will be quite an exploration of listening - good winter project, that is unless K pod gives us some more of the same...
...two of the K13 family members as they all went up island...

...but don't leave for your car just yet...
...20 minutes later the K pod whales came back down island...in the lead were the K14s and behind them were the K12s and K13s...
Sequim K-12 with a strange look to her left saddle patch - either the lighting or skin slough...that grayish front half is usually just black...

... Skagit K-13 and her 'pretty' saddle patch...she was my first adopted whale many years ago...

...Granny and the others continued north...
...in the late afternoon...zonked out in a chair the phone rings...whales going by my place...they had been completely quiet when the passed by at Lime Kiln...
...less than an hour later they turned and came back down island...this time I zoomed to the park...glad I did!
...porpoising through the sun track...

...it was a great display of their strength and speed...they porpoised, and Spock K-20 leaped, through the park...

...it was the K13s and the K12s...it looked as if the K14s were farther offshore...

...after Rainshadow breached a few times, K-44 did too...
...and down island they went for the night...
 
...this has been an extraordinary year in the last 10 years that I've been watching these whales...but is it an extraordinary year for the whales?

...with the small number of whales in here right now that seems to equate to not much salmon in these waters...but enough to feed those who are here...
...someone asked me today, "who decides who stays and who goes out?"