Wednesday, November 5, 2014

11-5-14 More and More Humpbacks This Year

Catching up on the Humpbacks I've seen since October 26th...and it's been almost daily, sometimes at close range and other times blows in the distance...

...October 26th...on the Western Prince, flat calm seas, sunny skies, north end of Haro Strait...



...October 27th...on Maya's Westside Charters...two elusive humpbacks...they were taking close to 10 minute dives and going in huge circles...
 ...oops, I said 'he'...I haven't a clue if Split Fluke is a male or female...

...October 30th...the helicopter at the lighthouse day...I was watching what the helicopter was doing and could see two humpbacks in the distance...


...November 1st...that was the morning when humpback sounds had awakened me...later in the day out on the Western Prince we encounter...


...we went down Haro Strait about another mile and met up with...
...Split Fin and this other whale...I have no idea who this one is...

...there were a couple other whales farther south than these two but we didn't see them...

...a few days later a friend emailed me some fabulous images of a humpback in the kelp near Kelp Reef...the whale in the image she sent me was the one I call 'Three Circles Left'...the only way I can remember it...but it's actually CS280 - CS stands for Clayquot Sound, on the outer coast of Vancouver Island, north of Tofino...I've seen that whale before, in 2011 and 2013, and I'm sure others have seen it too...

...November 3rd...there they are again...even though far from shore, I pointed them out to a couple...one of them had never seen a whale of any kind before and she was thrilled...
...then the humpback surfaced higher and she saw its back...more excitement!

...November 4th...taking a walk at County Park...there's the humpbacks again...same place as yesterday...don't know if they are the same ones...too far out...

...November 5th...I get a phone call from Ivan of the Western Prince that humpbacks are in San Juan Channel and they were continuing down the channel...so off to the south end of San Juan Island...Ivan got the images and from what I could tell, it was 'Three Circles Left' aka CS280 and MMY0024, both who have been seen in the last few days...






...each year there seem to be more and more humpbacks showing up...glad that there is a 2014 Humpback Catalog put out by the Center for Whale Research !


...this weekend is the Round the County Sailboat Race - totally fascinating to watch over 100 (I think at least that many) passing by...
...last year several California sea lions were just up ahead of the racers as they got to the park...
...maybe some humpbacks will lead the way this year...
...I'd rather the Residents show up when it's a bit less crazy...

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