Friday, August 29, 2014

8/25-29/14 Talk About Mixing It Up - Whew!

Monday - Thursday, August 25-28
...there have been times in past years - the whales go up and the whales go down - they stay in their 'nice groupings' - well, that appears to be a thing of the past!...at least for this season...and it is getting more crazy...

Monday, August 25th
...on Monday morning I heard that some Js, some Ks (there could only be three because all the rest had gone north the day before), and some Ls were seen west of Race Rocks, somewhere, and they were heading west..bye-bye...

...and on Monday Group A, the K12s, K13s, and K14s family groups and the J10s (Oreo's group)...none of them were seen anywhere!...and there was a question as to where Onyx L-87 was - north or south??? - no one was sure...
...and were the J16s with them? - not sure on that one either...

Tuesday, August 26th
...Ts, Ts, and more Ts (see 2 posts prior to this post)...no Residents anywhere...
...that is until I got a call that Granny J-2 was seen up near the Campbell River!
-okay this is getting freaky...

Wednesday, August 27th
...it was late afternoon, on Maya's Westside Charters, shortly out of the harbor we saw a mom and 2 of her kids...raccoons that is!
...and then we get the call - lots of whales and they were not far...in Haro Strait, in bound and coming toward the island...

...I was so curious as to who was present...
...Blackberry J-27...(notice the sunshine)
...Mako J-39 and...
...the J17s are here...
...and so are some of those L pod whales from the other day...
...and bingo - Onyx L-87!!
...so is it still 'breaking news' now that he has done this twice this season...I think that somehow J-27 plays a role in this...maybe Onyx wants to hang out with other adult males other than Mike J-26 who is very clingy to his mom...
...Nugget L-55 and her group travel with three other L pod family groups...I saw others in her group...
...and I saw Nigel L-95 from one of the other groups...
...we didn't see all the whales who had come in, but I talked with one person who said for sure they saw Cappuccino K-21, Opus K-16, and Sonata K-35 - those would have been 'icing on the cake' to have seen them - they've been MIA since August 11th!...
...still in question are the J16s, who I had heard had gone north with the others a few days ago...

Thursday, August 28th
...bright and early in the morning...
Granny J-2! - yes, here they came back down from the north...but the challenging seas didn't help matters...and fog was trying to interrupt the day...
...I did see enough whales to be pretty sure those who I knew had gone way north a few days ago had come back down...some of who I saw: Granny J-2, some of the J14s, DoubleStuf J-34, Tika K-33, and Shachi J-19...well, she was so cool...
...but looking back north...
...and down they went into some very nasty seas...

...then late in the day whales began coming up island...I did manage to get a picture of Granny J-2 as she had just turned to go back down island...and we needed to get out of those rough seas!


Friday, August 29th
...more than once whales came up island...didn't make it to the lighthouse in the a.m....couldn't tell who and they weren't within hydrophone range - strange how the HPs don't pick them up when they are that close, but they don't...

...then later in the day...this time I wasn't at the lighthouse, cause I didn't think they would make it...this time they did!...well, I think it was 2 of the three - Granny J-2, Shachi J-19, and Eclipse J-41...and they were echolocating and vocalizing over the hydrophones...

...I'm already wondering how the season will 'end up' - there used to be a 'rhyme and reason' for it all or so we thought...actually there is, and the whales know what it is...

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