3-12-16 J Pod - Here Again Today

Saturday, March 12th
...I think a better title would be "Every Way I Went Was the Wrong Way Today!"
...J pod whales were seen yesterday, way to the west heading west...also L Pod whales were seen way to the west but not with J Pod...
...this morning 7 a.m. four 'burps' over the Orca Sound hydrophones...okay four is a pretty small number, when I have hardly heard any all winter long...and these were one right after the other and really got my attention...(a friend mentioned she heard on NPR the other day a researcher talking about Chinook salmon making these burp sounds...could it be?...she's trying to locate that broadcast so we can learn more...)
...even though J pod was far west yesterday didn't mean they didn't turn around and come back in...

...dismissing both of those thoughts, without hitting the record button on the hydrophones, I went outside (about 10 a.m.) to get a few pieces of firewood....outside for less than 10 minutes...walking in the door the phone is ringing...and it's a friend telling me that he heard J pod over the Lime Kiln hydrophones...3 minutes or less...
...(you know the drill)...out the door and to the park...hydrophones recording at home...hydrophones in ears at park...I hear nothing...scanning...nothing...
...down island...nothing...sea state is not very nice down there either...doesn't help for scanning...
...after about and hour, back home to find an email that J pod was heard over Lime Kiln at about 10:20...got it on the recording...they were extremely faint...

...there were several options where they could be...and whether they would come up the west side wasn't known...
...later...it was about 12:45 when I headed for the park only to turn around when half way there...back home...walk up on deck and there is an orca coming up island!..."oh, no not again!"
...while I was taking that 'turn around drive' whales came over the Lime Kiln hydrophones and they were coming up island!

...Eclipse J-41...

...Shachi J-19...

...Eclipse's offspring, Nova J-51, was quite a ways behind them, lunging too quickly to get anything more than a splash...he reminded me of J-50 who I used to call 'CatchUp' because she was always catching up to mom...today Nova was doing that!
...a few others came up island, offshore, and difficult to see in the sloppy seas...
...I could hear some echolocation clicks so I continued to watch from home...but then they stopped, so off to the park I went hoping not to miss too many of them...

...some of the whales were coming up island while others were miles from shore looking as if they were coming in from south of Discovery Island...that would help clarify the general location of some of the earlier vocals heard over Lime Kiln...
...some of the J14s passed by...

...Onyx L-87 was, as usual, far from shore, however, there were others behind him and even farther out...

...Polaris J-28 and her two, Star J-46, and baby J-54 passed by... but of course it was Polaris and the baby who made the day for several folks!

...Traci took a nice video from today...

...it was about 3:30 when I heard some louder calls over Orca Sound hydrophones and wondered if maybe they were coming back down island...after exploring a bit I could see Gold Wing boat from Victoria with a whale, or more, way on the far side of Haro Strait, near Sidney Island...yes, some of the whales were way over there...sort of like the last time they came in - Feb 25th...

...there is a huge herring run occurring up north near Nanaimo, B.C....hoping the whales will find the Chinook up there...
...and hoping my friend will find that NPR broadcast about the Chinook salmon.