7-5-16 Have the Transients Just Moved In?

Tuesday, July 5th

but first...finish up July 4th...

...it was about 7:30 pm when Group A made it down to Lime Kiln lighthouse and continued going down island...the 10 whales passed by spread from front to back with Granny J-2 and Onyx L-87 as the trailing whales...
...gives you an idea of their distance from shore...

Day after day large large groups of transients have been in these waters...have they taken over?...sometimes we wonder...
Tuesday, July 5th
...out on Peregrine with Capt. Jim we head up to the Strait of Georgia where there are, of course, some transient killer whales...
...the T137s, T65Bs, and T124C were traveling slowly, as a group, heading east...and then northwest...then east...and then they made a decided changed and headed north with purpose...

...in the distance we could see other whales heading down from the north west...

...the T137s, T65Bs, and T124C were getting 'excited'...

...and then they lined up...okay - time for the humans to get excited...we were watching the set up of a greeting...

...were they looking to see where the others were?

...the others were coming fast...

...then they slowed...

...and then...well, this about says it...

..two whales did not participate but were about a 1/2 mile south of everyone else...
...when the fast moving group was just about there the others who had been lined up turned and headed east...but soon they were intermingling...
...when we departed the scene the whales had not really gone anywhere but were trending south east...
...out again with Capt. Jeff we arrive on scene with the T137s, T65Bs, T75Bs, T36As, T123s who were all together as a group...T124C was by himself and T51 and a 'mystery juvenile' were together and off from everyone else...
...the large group of 15 whales were still partying...and though they had moved south and east, they were likely less than 6 miles (maybe more but not much) from where they had met up...

...T124C was off by himself for most of the encounter...

...the three who had been away from the main group, joined up...mystery whale is - T49A2 !

...then the socializing began to slow down and they slowly got into what appeared to be a resting mode, when one of the kids would mess up that thought ...their back and forth circular movement became tighter and tighter until they were almost at a complete stop...so cool to see that..."whales doing nothing"...not something we see too often...

...they didn't stay that way for long and continued their 'sort of' resting mode...
...according to the DFO catalog T49A2 was born in 2007...back in 2011 when I first saw this whale...and the times I have seen this whale, he/she has been an interesting one to figure out...traveled with aunt T49B for a while, back with mom (T49B and T49A - sisters - don't always travel together), now seen with T51...last month, on June 22, the T49As, and possibly Bs, were photographed along the Oregon Coast near Newport. I wonder if T49A2 was with his/her family group during that sighting.  I don't know if T49A's sex has been determined...if it turns out to be a female that would make things even more interesting!
T123A from today:

T137A from today:

T51 from today:

...the other adult male is T124C - see 6 images up from this one of T51.

Where's Group A?...Granny and her group were seen up near the Fraser River this afternoon!  Surprised everyone...I don't know if anyone knows which way they went back up - Rosario?  or Haro ?  ...they know and they know where the salmon are - I heard they've been feasting! ! ! !