9-3-15 A Chorus In the Dark

Thursday, September 3rd and early Friday morning

setting the stage:
Some L pod whales went up island early in the day. 
An hour later Ballena L-90 passed by, going up island.

J and K pods were coming down from the north.

Js, Ks, and Ls met up in Boundary Pass.
They headed back down toward the west side.

The L12s and whoever else had been way south and east all day.

It was now dark. 9pm
Both hydrophones were streaming.
I was expecting to hear calls over the Orca Sound hydrophones (the ones located up island of me) first.
But instead loud calls came bursting over the Lime Kiln hydrophones, located down island from me!
They were L pod calls and L12s' calls.

The calls lasted a short while.
After waiting about 15 minutes I stepped outside to listen.
Soon blows could be heard in the distance.
They were coming up island!

A few minutes later calls began coming over the Orca Sound hydrophones.
I walked down the driveway to the neighbors' to get a better listening location.
Blows soon began coming from the north.
They were getting louder.

Blows were coming from the south.
They too got louder and louder.
Then they melded in with the other blows.
Had they turned and joined the others to go back down island?

Going back to where I live the blows could still be heard.
Groups of blows, one after another.
A group there.
Another closer.
Another group approaching.


The chorus of blows continued and continued.
The whales seemed to be moving extremely slow.

I heard that many people along the west side experienced something similar.
The air, wind, and weather may have all played a role in one of the most beautiful choruses of all.
One night I won't soon forget.

And the next morning (9/4)
I saw what the whales must have done when they passed by the park at about 11p.m.
...the the tide was high before dark last night, low in the early morning hours...and this was there at 6:30 a.m...

No human could have reached that in the dark of night at the high tide that it was...I'd like to imagine.