Thursday, June 30, 2016

6-30-16 A Mouth Full of Water

Thursday, June 30th
...out on Peregrine with Capt. Jim we head for Rosario Strait...one of the passengers asked what percent of probability was there that we would see orcas...I told her I would let her know at the end of the trip...we can't guarantee whales but knew there were some in the area...but we had to find them!
...I was glad to tell her when we got back that our percent of probability was 100%!  :)

...another day no Residents...
...another day...more transients...
...and today a harbor seal and her pup...

...so many bald eagles on Battleship Island a passenger asked if the island was called Eagle Island!
...a fish carcass was involved in this altercation...
...and then on to locate those transients...one of the passengers spotted them first!...yay :)


...going through my images later I come across this...looks like this one is goofing around with the water!

...looks like me...open mouth and get in 'trouble' !

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

6-28-16 On the Rocks to Rock and Roll

Tuesday, June 28th
...I heard a brief burst of Transient calls over the Lime Kiln hydrophones (link on left column)...thinking it might have been the Ts that were found earlier this morning...wrong...on the rocks at the park!





...out on Peregrine with Capt. Jim for a two o'clock trip...by now the whales were in social groups, going this way and that...similar to yesterday...only today some would start to porpoise, others would follow, and then they would all slow down and turn back to where they had come from...on a later trip with Capt. Jeff the whales were doing the same thing...there were 23 transient orcas present during the day and it was a social time and was almost overwhelming with all the socializing that was going on...






...by the end of the day they had spent close to 8 hours within about a 5 mile radius...

Southern Resident endangered killer whales are supposed to be here now.
They aren't.
There is no salmon.
Their absence indicates they are finding salmon on the outer coast.  
Let's hope they stay out there eating until the salmon begin to move in here.
And then let's welcome them back with joy!



This chapter is still unfolding.     

Monday, June 27, 2016

6-27-16 Just Where Were Those Whales All Day

Sunday, June 27th
...it was one of those days...orcas had been in the area for days and now none were seen all day today...
...what's in the harbor today?  why, it's a swimming deer!
...and now off the dock..a humpback whale was spotted and it traveled up island and through John's Pass a narrow and shallow pass between Stuart and John's Island...that was strange...
...after leaving the humpback, on Peregrine with Capt. Jim we searched, as others did but, no orca were seen...
...back in the harbor there was the osprey again today...
..when we came back out at 5:30 and were heading for the humpback, Sea Lion, of San Juan Safaris, found ORCAs!  Now where had they been all day?! We can guess but we'll probably never know for sure.
...it was the same group of whales as the last few days, the T123s, T36As, T75Bs, and T124C...and they were quite interesting to watch...then again they always are :)

 

 
 


...of course everyone will be looking for them in the morning...
 

Sunday, June 26, 2016

6-26-16 Transients Going to Unusual Places Again

Sunday, June 26th
...before leaving the dock...an unusual sighting of an osprey in the harbor...

...transients were still in the area...out on Peregrine with Capt. Jim for an afternoon trip...more transients were found coming in the Strait of Juan de Fuca...
...and that's where we headed...we arrived on scene near Albert Head, a bit west of the city of Victoria, BC...the whales were moving east in close to shore, except T77A...

...we waited until he had gone by and then moved in to get a look at the others...
...T75 and her oldest offspring, T75A were present...the T41s - T41, T41A and T41A2...and one that I couldn't figure out who she was...





...they traveled east for a while and then changed directions and as they were going back west they changed their direction again and headed directly into Witty's Lagoon...we were curious to see what they were really going to do...

...oops I spelled the name of the lagoon wrong...


 
 
 
...it was time for us to leave...back to the harbor...the next trip, Capt. Jeff was at the helm...but before we left the dock the osprey was back and a peregrine falcon was there too...
...we headed back out the Strait of Juan de Fuca to see the same whales we had been with earlier...the seas were the calmest in that direction...
...the whales were a bit west of where we had left them...and this time T77A had joined the group...the rest were still there, heading west...
...we were so close in that Race Rocks lighthouse lined up nicely in front of the Elwha Valley...I had not ever seen that before had to pause and figure that one out!


...the whales moved in close to shore and through some kelp...
...and when they approached Bentinck Island, just off Vancouver Island and near William Head we wondered if they would cut through...Jeff looked up the depths on the chart and in places it was only 2 feet deep...well we certainly weren't going in there!...
BUT the whales DID!  Amazing!


...they never cease to amaze me...

...and the Southern Residents...almost the end of June...there just isn't any salmon in here...which means there just aren't any Southern Residents in here either...
BUT...we won't give up hope...the summer Chinook run to the Fraser River is expected to begin soon...we can only hope and pray that there is enough salmon to feed the whales out in the open ocean and enough salmon to make it to the Fraser so they can spawn and start the cycle of life of the salmon again...