1-1-18 Orcas Seen and Heard

January 1, 2018
and December 31, 2017

December 31, 2017
-the early morning on the last day of 2017 'acoustical fireworks' from some orcas...and just like fireworks they were very cool and didn't last that long...
...soon the Center for Whale Research was out and located the whales - it was the two moms and babies and one sibling - T75B, T75B2 and new baby, and T75B's sister, T75C and I believe her first known baby...and with them were T49As who have a new baby too! (see prior post about that)
...I went out with Capt. Jim on Peregrine and we were going to head north to that group...when just before we left the dock word came of more orcas coming into Haro Strait from the west...we had to go that way (closer)...
...Eagle Wing tours found them...

...the whales were near the west side of San Juan Island and were heading up island...it was the T18s...
...one of the passengers had mentioned earlier that she had been to Lime Kiln Park hundreds of times and never seen a whale...well, I knew if the whales kept heading the way they were, she would get to see that 'yes, whales really do go by Lime Kiln'...

...they continued up island and passed County Park...

...T19B and his fresh wound...

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...on the way back to the harbor...

...so at the end of daylight of the last day of 2017 it was believed that the group with the three babies had continued north, since they were several miles north in the early afternoon and seemed to be continuing that way...and the T18s had been going east and likely north...

January 1, 2018
...in the wee hours (01:27) of the first morning of 2018, I heard not acoustical fireworks, but soft, intermittent calls over the Orca Sound hydrophones and my first thought was, "did the moms and babies come back down?"...but no, I dismissed that...then I thought I should spend the day over at the northeast side of the island, you know, just in case...I dismissed that too...
...shouldn't have...they were somewhere in that vicinity...I got word of some whales and got there asap, only to see a few blows, far in the distance...but I had no idea who...
...later I learn it was the moms and babies group...I headed down island hoping to see them before dark...but to no avail...however, sometimes when you go looking for one thing something else takes your breath away...
...

...a most spectacular moon as it rose up over the horizon with Mt. Baker in view...
...the whales, I didn't get to see, but I knew they were under that moon somewhere...

...living on the west side of the island, it is not often I am in the right place at the right time to see the moon rise...so thank you whales for getting me over there to see that!...