9-19-14 She Was Pushing Around A Salmon!

Friday, September 19th
...they stayed...they didn't even go up to the Fraser last night...
...I could see a few from shore but soon was surprised to hear that some K pod whales were being seen too...
...this was going to be interesting...I just didn't realize how interesting the day would be...
...on Maya's Westside Charters...off the dock and to the whales...Granny and Onyx were the first two whales...they both have such interesting 'back stories' (isn't that the new term these days)...it was great for the folks on the boat to meet these two whales first and learn a bit about just how complex their social world is...
...we saw some of the J14s...Se-Yi-Chn J-45 and his sister Suttles J-40 were foraging together...and mom was several hundred yards away...a couple times tail slapping...

...we heard of other whales farther down island, so we went to investigate...there were whales spread all over...we came upon a large group...some of the K13s because we had already seen Spock K-20 and Comet K-38 a ways back...and mixed in with the rest of the K13s were Shachi J-19, Eclipse J-41 and Tsuchi J-31 - now that's an unusual combination...

...Scoter K-25's tag wound area is looking nasty...I don't know what is happening here but it's getting ugly - to me - looking...I sent my pictures to the Center for Whale Research...

...the whales began to move back in to shore in the afternoon...though we heard there were more whales than we had seen in the morning we saw the same whales in the afternoon...
...these are some of the K13s and they appeared to be resting...that was before we knew that Skagit K-13 was pushing around a fish!...don't see that very often anymore...
..a short clip with lots of 'chins up'...

...then we saw Skagit with her prize possession - until it was eaten that is...

I wondered if they would all continue up island...or if the others would come back down...so I went to the park to wait and see...

...it wasn't long before I saw Tsuchi J-31, Shachi J-19,   Eclipse J-41, and the K13s coming back down island...what an unusual grouping...they had been together all day long...

...then, just about to leave when someone calls out they saw a whale or more...well, what do you know it was Granny J-2, Onyx L-87, and the J14s all coming back down island...they were at least a mile offshore, maybe more, but Onyx's dorsal fin is easy to spot...

...tomorrow might just be another whale day!

note:  I am so tired I just had no energy to post...the whales come first, then rest, and then everything else...