...on the 14th the whales had come north in Haro Strait at 4:00 in the morning...I learned several days later that they showed up in Puget Sound in the afternoon of the 17th and departed by the next day...last seen heading west...
...so, just in case, I was listening to the Port Townsend hydrophones and late this afternoon I began hearing something, but it was the same sound over, then nothing and then over and over...it drifted onto audio and out of audio and I couldn't figure out what it was...it sounded like a call, but I didn't hear any other calls...
...finally after close to an hour there was a distinct J pod call...
...so who is the caller of that one repetitive call?
...what are you saying?
...are you lost?
...who are you calling to?
...do you belong somewhere else?
...do you just not want to follow the rest down into Puget Sound?
...or are all of you on the edge of the hydrophone range and your calls are being picked up as you move around?
...this audio clip has a few segments, each separated by a slight pause...the first two are of the repetitive call, then there is a J pod call, and then the longest has the repetitive call and some faint other calls in the background in a couple places:
...four the last four hours at least...it's now after close to 9:15 pm and this call, along with the sometime additional calls who sound to be J pod - but not many of them...it's still going on...maybe some K pod calls now at 9:23 pm...
...this is the first time I have heard one call repeated over and over for such a length of time...
...however, if the whales were in travel mode, one of them could be doing that as they traveled along and we would never know it...
...it's another piece of the mystery of these whales...and a fascinating one too!
...back to listening to hear what else they might do tonight...
...added: Here's what they did...
2 comments:
Do you think it may be related to J50's birth? or is it too early for that?
That's an interesting question. I believe this is a common call, but it isn't known what most of the calls mean.
I imagine the only way to know would be if there were other similar instances in the past that had this scenario.
Your question is a great piece to add the the puzzle pieces of the last few weeks.
Thanks for asking!
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