1-19-15 It Was A Lucky Day

Monday, January 19th
...a boat, not a fishing boat, not a familiar boat, I just happened to see a boat make an abrupt direction change....hum...were they seeing something?...
...with the sun out and the seas calm - after a couple days of high winds and lots of rain - it was time to go see...
...seeing no whales, but seeing some activity out there I kept going down island looking...
...I ended up close to the bottom end of the island...now what?...go that last quarter mile or turn around?...just then the phone rang:  "Cattle Pass, Cattle Pass" is all I heard.  I was already there!...talk about lucky!
...I was hoping to see J-50 before she was 'all grown up'...and today...

...J pod had been north for almost a week...I was hoping they would come down in the daylight, sunshine, calm seas and close to shore - thank you very much! ...but I sure didn't expect them to be coming down San Juan Channel...no wonder I never heard them over the hydrophones :)...
...Se-Yi-Chn was up with his family the J14s, Granny J-2, Onyx L-87, Shachi J-19, and Eclipse J-41...and lots of birds too!

...behind them were the Group B whales and the J16s...

...a very little video clip, with a little whale - J50 - surfacing next to Slick J-16...I didn't even know I got that until I downloaded the short clip...lucky again...
(sorry, it's almost impossible to see J-50 and her little surfacing by mom)

...this little one is almost a month old...and it's more than luck that is needed for this little one to survive...

...luckily they were at the surface almost the entire time they crossed by at the bottom of the pass...

...after which they grouped up and were taking several minute dives...once out of the pass, which way would they go?
...I walked up to the Cattle Pt. lighthouse for a different vantage point...
take a moment and imagine: there you are sitting on that cement bench in front of the lighthouse, sun shining, seas calm, whales and their blows, as J pod heads off into the distance...

...makes a person want to think about what goes down their drain, off their driveway, off the roof, thrown out in the trash...

If you haven't signed the petition or gotten your friends to, hopefully you will now.