4-19-16 Bits and Pieces

Tuesday, April 19th
...catching up with bits and pieces over the last week...
...the death of Nigel L-95 and of another Southern Resident baby orca (no word on which matriline or pod - all currently living J Pod babies accounted for) this past week, it just threw things 'sidewards'...
...over the past week I have seen whales while out on Peregrine and while on the Western Prince and last evening from shore by several miles was a group of about 8 to 10 orcas - transients and they were 'preparing dinner'...after all it was about 7:30pm...

...images below I haven't yet posted from some of things seen out there...not always orcas but other wildlife who are all part of this fragile ecosystem the SRKWs call 'home' - or we think of it that way...
...the day the two groups of transients were on the west side of the island...

...a few years ago this whale had a really nasty gash...here's the comparison from then until now...and now the scar barely shows (of course the image isn't the best either)...

...up near Spieden Island a Steller sea lion surfaced with a fish...okay, so not unusual...but it was a small fish...they are usually seen downing their prey and not playing with it, which is what it looked like here...
...after getting word back from the fish expert, I learned that the Steller had two fish, each a different species...a kelp greenling and a herring...

 

 

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...if you've ever seen Pigeon Guillemots you will understand this...they will definitely make you smile!

...Princess Angeline's youngest, J-53, is a female - now that's a piece of good news...
...however, she has to survive and thrive over the next 10 years, at least, in order to have offspring...Eclipse J-41 had her first offspring before she was even 10 years old...hummmm...will others follow in that or is it just Eclipse?...she has always been an extra spunky whale :)

...late yesterday along the west side of the island I thought I would look for whales...perhaps, but not likely...
...an elephant seal was off the point at the south end of Land Bank...
...flat calm out there...and then miles out - something!...what?...whales!...
...I watched them until the light was getting too low...there were 8 to 10 whales...a few really big fins...and from their behavior it appeared to be Ts (transients aka Bigg's killer whales)...
...then over the Lime Kiln hydrophones (link on the upper left column) there were a few intermittent calls...
...then they woke me up at 2:00 a.m. over those same hydrophones, eventually moving over to the Orca Sound hydrophones (also a link on the left column)...between the two hydrophone locations their calls came over for about a total of 1 1/2 hours - 1st Lime Kiln and then Orca Sound...
...but where are they today?...who knows!

...and J Pod, after they all got back together...the Center for Whale Research posted their encounter with J Pod...even though I had seen most of J Pod, there were some I did not...was waiting for their encounter posting...so glad to know that they were all present...

Where is J Pod now?  
Where's the salmon?  
That's where they are.


Think salmon.  
That equates to survival or not.
The SRKWs need your help.
Call your representatives, call the White House...

Click this link to learn more:
SRKW - CSI: