Monday, August 24, 2015

8/23-24/15 I Still Couldn't Find That Whale

Sunday, August 23rd
...the whales came down from the north and by mid afternoon were passing by Lime Kiln Pt. State Park...they were spread for miles - north to south and east to west...
...Crewser L-92 has a unique fin shape and since he is an adult it won't change...I call it a 'designer fin'...and now Tika K-33, who I call 'designer junior' has a fin shape very much like Crewser's, so much so that the two are being misidentified often...Tika's fin, however, is still growing and changing and he has a fin that changes its look depending on the angle you are seeing him...always keeps us wondering...
 ...bubbles...

...their calls were heard over the Lime Kiln hydrophones for over an hour and were mixed between J, K and L pods...

Monday, August 24th
...8:30 a.m. and I was actually there before I knew whales were coming...finally I didn't have to run!...after about a half hour, I thought I heard a blow in the distance, but I couldn't find the whale...only one blow and five minutes later, one blow, I still couldn't find the whale...so I knew he/she had to be far enough away that by the time the sound reached my ears the whale had already gone below the surface...
...it took until the fifth blow until I finally found him...it was Cali K-34...he was in the lead and way ahead of the rest of his family...
...then some of the L4s and the L47s came by...
...Nugget L-55 and Takoda above...Takoda L-109 below...
...a pause for a harlequin duck fly by...

...and then no one else...but there were many more whales out there at the end of the day yesterday...hummm...after almost two hours I decided I needed to get some food...so I went to get food...I missed a huge group of some J and K pod whales going past to the north - arrgghhh!!!

...it was 11:47 when I got to the shore line and I had just missed that large group, but right in front of me were the L12s, the J22s, J17s, and the L54 group (includes Nyssa L-84 and Wave Walker L-88), and Ballena L-90 and Crewser L-92...with the L12s showing up it looked like there might finally be a superpod!...it was the L12s who were 'holding things up'...



...they got less than a 1/3 mile north of the lighthouse when they began to change directions, so many were going so many different ways...maybe they were deciding who was going to go where...

...then some went back down island...Spirit L-22 then started to come back up island and was doing some 'fierce' looking repeated tail slapping...

...and a surfacing like this...maybe she had stunned a salmon and was now getting it...I don't know but I would like to think so...

...then Moby J-44 surfaces behind her...

...then Spirit surfaced going down island and with her were Joy L-119 and Notch J-47...Notch seems to be 'everywhere' when the little kids are around!
...I just zoomed in on the two of them...
...for a while it looked like they might continue north, but eventually they went back down island...


...it lasted about 2 1/2 hours!
...I am hoping tomorrow I will see them coming from the north so I can fill in the gaps from today...

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