7-5-15 A Beer Can and the Whales

Sunday, July 5th

...it looks so very eerie out there...and it's smoke from the forest fires...
...that's why the images from today have a yellowish tinge...

...before I noticed the yellow tinge, it was early this morning when I heard one faint L pod call over the Lime Kiln hydrophones...glad I was ready and out the door fast...to the park...Matia L-77, Joy L-119 and a few others had already passed by...
...Eclipse J-41 and baby J-51...

...the morning sky had some pink to it...unusual for the morning, but I didn't notice it at the time...
...Ocean Sun L-25 passed by, alone...Granny J-2 was not far behind and she too was alone...of course there were whales up ahead and behind them, but these two seemed to be without others, at the moment...

...more whales were approaching...

...very close to shore...

...and more came along...

..then some I haven't seen in these waters since last fall...I was wondering about you!

...Mystery L-85 was mixed in with others...Solstice L-89 and his mom, Spirit L-22 were together but not with any of the other L12 family group...

...by this time I was picking up the phone to notify Dave and Ken of the Center for Whale Research that there were many more whales in here than the last several days...and I had seen Crewser L-92 - first time in these waters this year!...Racer L-71, Fluke L-105, and Ballena L-90...!!!...those were the four whales of the group of 19 Ls who travel together...that is except for this year...so glad they have returned!

...a few hours later the L12s - Ocean Sun L-25, Mega L-41, Solstice L-89, Spirit L-22, Mystery L-85, Matia L-77 and Calypso L-94 and their kids including baby L-121 call came back down island together...so somewhere along the way they 'unmixed' themselves...Spirit L-22 and Solstice L-89 stopped at False Bay area and the rest of the L12s continued on and eventually were seen heading west in the Strait of Juan de Fuca...Spirit L-22 and Solstice L-89 remained behind - I remember something similar to this occurring in 2013... 

...all J pod, K pod, and L pod except for the L54s, L-84, and L-88...have now come in at least once this year...the L54s, L84 and L-88 usually make their own entrance...and usually last...so they appear to be right on their own schedule and not on our calendar!

...out on Legacy we head up to catch up to the large group...along the way we see the J16s...so we spend some time with them...this is when my images got really strange looking...I was shooting directly east, where the sun was shining behind all the forest fire smoke...

...we left them and headed toward the large group...they had split up a bit...and we spent our time with the 19 K pod whales...this is where the Beer Can comes in to play...

...later on, on Peregrine we met up with the J16 family group...and spent our time watching them...

...they were moving along as a group...then there was some surface action  - Mike was doing inverted tail lobs...

...Echo was goofing around or so it seemed...
...Mike and I think baby J-52...

...a few minutes later, on their next surfacing Alki J-36 and baby J-52 were off and behind the other four...they stayed that way until we left except that Alki and baby J-52 were much closer...I imagine that when they got to Active Pass they were back together again and entered the Pass as a group...but I wasn't there to see what they actually did...
...so I wonder what went on with that kerfuffling?
...did it have any significance to them splitting?
...did Alki and J-52 want some alone time?
...did someone get in a huff about about someone else?
...well, all we can do is wonder!

...the smoke was the heaviest coming from the east and though a lot had dissipated during the day, a lot remained...