10-10-14 Whales From Sun Up to Sun Down

Friday, October 10th
...listening to the hydrophones for any hint of whales in the area has not been very fruitful over the last few days...
...covered in fog, so visual was out of the question much of the time...

...I happened upon an online video of whales vocalizations recorded and in the title was the word 'rare'...I immediately wondered where that would be...
Ketchikan, Alaska...
here's the link to the audio... https://screen.yahoo.com/videos-for-you/hydrophone-captures-whales-talking-rare-140843864.html
...it's a great example of hearing the 'language' of other whales...I don't know who they are...there is one call that is repeated over and over...I imagine whoever studies whales in those waters might know...

...evidently 'J Pod heard I was going to write about someone else talking, so they decided to give me something to compare it to'...in other words they showed up on the Lime Kiln hydrophones at 5:39 a.m. thank you very much!
...I only heard faint calls, lasting about 25 minutes...this time I was blinded by the darkness of the hour...and then fog...
...it wasn't until about 10:30 a.m. or so that I heard faint calls...'they're coming up!'...off to the park - completely socked in- arrgh!...but soon it began to lift...enough to see a little bit...

I heard K Pod calls...
...for your listening pleasure Lobo K-26 and his brother Kelp K-42 were passing by...

...then a bit later Lea K-14, Kelp K-42, and Yoda K-36 (not shown here) came back down...Lobo had gone way off shore by this time...

...off to go out on Maya's Westside Charters, I wanted to see all who were present...or should I say 'who got a birthday present' - Toby!

...the seas were rolly and choppy making it easier to spot those with the tall dorsal fins...

 

 ...Mike was offshore and Onyx was more inshore...

 ...the boat rolled one way when i wish it had rolled the other!

...one looked to be spyhopping, but then there was this strange something going on...

...Lobo, who had been with Granny J-2 when we had first arrived on scene, was now with Mike J-26...this was very interesting to watch...

...it was definitely fun attempting to take pictures through windows today!

...then I get home only to find out that the whales are coming up island...I had seen a couple Kingfishers at the harbor...glad I stopped to grab a few shots...

...the fog was gone, the rain was coming, and it was getting darker...

...under some trees to try to keep the camera dry...ha!

...the whales were not in close, but when I looked at my images...there was Moby J-44 having some fun with some kelp on his rostrum...

...difficult to see...he is on his back and has a piece of kelp draped over his mouth...

...the whales sounded more social and less food searching...and I know that at least Moby was having fun!

...by the end of the day, between the shore and the boat encounters, I did get to see some members of Group A and Group B [J11s, J22s (or J10s), J17s], and the four K14s...we had close to 30 whales here...a lot more than I had thought earlier in the day!