3-24-15 J Pod Today? It's Only March!

Tuesday, March 24th...
...but it's only March!

...I woke up at 4:00a.m., feeling fully rested and got up...I said, "I must be up early cause there will be whales today."
That is just too funny!  Actually there was no hint of whales, as far as I know, until maybe after 11 this morning...
...and just yesterday I thought it was time to make an 'anticipation for the season' video clip....well, thanks J pod, you did it for me!
...oh, to sit there at the park and have J pod, both new moms and babies too, pass by, sort of close to shore at this time of year...special...then again it always is...

...it took them a long time to get up to and past the lighthouse...they were going against a strong ebb tide, might have been part of the reason and there was some foraging going on too...
...as they approached they were quite active...

...Slick J-16 and baby J-50 and J-42 (not shown) were just north of the lighthouse for quite a while foraging...they started going back down island and then flipped again...the J19s came along next, and behind them the rest, except that there were a few who where miles from shore...

...as the whales were approaching a woman, who had just walked down the path, asked if there were any whales around...oh, yes, a humpback - Big Mama BCY0324 - who is still hanging around - in fact she was a couple miles offshore doing cartwheels and making trumpeting sounds too...at the same time the killer whales were slowly making their way north...and then a juvenile bald eagle came flying right at her and then over our heads...needless to say she was about speechless!

...someone has a few teeth (rake) marks...and someone else dug in a bit...it'll heal and just about vanish...salt water is a great healer...

...J Pod took the longest time to travel less than ten miles...then the tide turned...maybe that would move them along...I haven't heard them come back down, not yet anyway...

...now everyone wants to know where will the whales be tomorrow?
..wherever there is enough salmon for them is where they will be...

Last year in March, J pod was heard over the hydrophones on March 3rd.
The year before that J pod was seen near the Campbell Rive in early March.

This year in March: J pod seen: the 9th, the 18th, the 24th...interesting spacing of days...

There were fabulous vocalizations over the Lime Kiln hydrophones...I'll try to get some of that posted soon...I'll listen to see if any of the humpback trumpeting sounds got picked up too...