6-14/15-15 Busy-Mixed Up-Whale Days

Sunday/Monday, June 14-15th
Sunday, June 14th
...it's been a busy and mixed up couple of days...the L pod whales 'had left the building' on the morning of the 14th and were seen heading west in the Strait of Juan de Fuca...
...J and K pods had not been seen the prior day or all day today, Sunday, so when I get word that J pod (at least) was spotted way north of Nanimo, well that is really telling us something. What? - 'where's the food?'  Canada you have food for these animals up there - keep it healthy and abundant, please!

Getting the lower 4 Snake River Dams breached is getting more and more important and the whales are showing us why.  Ordered your shirt yet? - as Mary Ann said - "put your money where your heart is"

there are only 7 days left for you to order your shirt to help support this...it's just $20 and add a donation too if you can...
it's not about a fashion statement for humans, it's about food for the whales...food that, if these dams get breached, will be food for the whales in a few years. We must start now to correct the actions that have gotten the whales' food supply into such a dire situation.
  
...the whales came down from the north on the 14th...at one point in the afternoon while on Peregrine with Capt. Jim, as J and K pods were approaching East Point and the entrance to Boundary Pass, Transients were spotted to the east of them just a few miles...

...we were surprised to see so many harbor porpoise moving past us quickly...then we saw the transients and got the answer to our surprise...

...the whales were spread far and wide...Lobo seemed to get into my camera lens more often than others...this is Lobo K-26 again...perhaps because of his very tall dorsal fin made it a bit easier in the choppy water...

...we had seen Mike J-26, Shachi J-19, the four K14s, Sekiu K-22 and Tika K-33 in the morning in even choppier water farther north not far from the ferry terminal...
...later when they came down, passing the Orca Sound and then the Lime Kiln hydrophones, I was listening for their calls...I only heard J and K calls and of course many echolocation clicks...


Monday, June 15th
...in the mid afternoon on Peregrine with Capt. Jim we met up with some of the whales coming north from Lime Kiln...
Granny J-2, Onyx L-87, the J19s went by us pretty quickly...the J16s lingered a while, and the J14s surprised us by showing up last...it was looking like there was a split going on because these are the members of Group A...
however, with them were the K14s but we watched them turn and head back toward the lighthouse...
...Lobo K-26...his mom and siblings were with him...

...the J16 family group, with two of the new babies, kept changing direction...then stop...then pick another direction...and finally continue up island...but I think no one was quite convinced they were going to continue that way...that is until they did!

...baby J-52 has scratches on his other side too...I guess J-50 was just getting all the attention!

...Samish J-14 and Se-Yi-Chn J-45 were traveling behind Hy'Shqa J-37 and her boy T'ilem I'nges J-49...Suttles J-40 was somewhere in the group...

...from what I could tell later, listening over the Lime Kiln hydrophones, other J pod whales and K pod whales were at Lime Kiln or down island from there...
...it was unusual to hear L pod calls in that too, because Onyx L-87 was up with Granny's group...I guess I'll have to wait and see who was where tomorrow morning...