Friday, March 29, 2019

3-29-19 Transients for Three Days

March 27 - 29

Thank you Western Prince for taking me along!  

 March 27...Rosario Strait

March 28...Dungeness Spit
March 29...Samsun Narrows

...like WOW!

Tuesday, March 26, 2019

3-26-19 J Pod Spending Time Among the Islands

March 26th

...in the early morning I heard faint transient calls over the Lime Kiln hydrophones...not like the unusual ones from the prior day.
That was at about 8:30 a.m. but no transients were seen until the next day and they were in Puget Sound - could have been them...
...then today, at about, noon someone came upon J Pod!

J Pod was spread out in Boundary Pass...they made their way toward San Juan Channel and headed toward Friday Harbor...before reaching FH, they turned around and headed back north and this time it looked as if they were going to continue up President Channel...

...as spread as they were, added to a challenging day for images...


 ...three of the four belonging to the J16 family...


...to see who was with who was interesting...
Mako J-39 and Shachi J-19 were loosely traveling together...
Eclipse J-41, Nova J-51, and Alki J-36 were traveling close together...
...we could see Mike J-26 in the distance traveling by himself...then later with his family...
...and others were too far across to even see them...
...the whales were very surface active today...

...we all just hope they are finding salmon...not sure how much there is around but every salmon they can eat will help them survive...





Monday, March 25, 2019

3-25-19 Listen to those Transients!

March 25th
...there was a large group of transients coming down from the north, yesterday.
It wasn't until about 03:00 that transient calls began to 'fade-in' over the Lime Kiln hydrophones...and they kept on and on, getting louder...figuring they were coming down Haro Strait...their calls lasted for about 1 1/2 hours.
And that's a lot for Ts...so was it that group?...hmmm..

Their calls were somewhat different from what I am used to hearing...
...there was one call that had a whistle associated with it...
...very interesting...


...one of the groups that was coming down was seen in the early morning but that was it...
...the next day there were transients seen all over Puget Sound !! Didn't know if any of them were the ones that had come down...or not...
...more 'interesting' stuff, indeed... 



Sunday, March 24, 2019

3-24-19 Another Day Another Group of Orcas

March 24th
...before leaving the harbor...the first orca of the day...love seeing that Kenmore plane...
...still in the harbor but heading out, now there are two orcas in view...
 ...no word on any other whales at that time...but it wasn't long before someone spotted a group, who turned out to be the T49As...they have been spending a good deal of time among the islands lately, sort of how the T65As had been in recent years...





 ...another Whale Warning flag hoisted!  
Thank you Pelagic, Deer Harbor Charters, for flying the flag!
Not only will people on the boat learn what that pretty flag is all about, other boaters will see it and hopefully slow down and pay attention...the more flags flying the better for everyone !
 

Saturday, March 23, 2019

3-23-19 With All the Stress One Orca Offers Some Comic Relief

Saturday, March 23

...when times are stressful and you get to see Princess Angeline J-17 in the morning, chasing fish, looking like she was successful. it gives you a bit of hope for her and the Southern Residents.


...later on in the day, one of the whales gave the humans, who were at the right place at the exact right moments, to get some breath holding, camera clicking, surprising and 'oh-wow' moments!! 

You could call it A Bit of Comic Relief...or...read more on the image...
J Pod was spread out for miles from early morning until late afternoon...most were farther north from the lighthouse most of the day, but some came back north, eventually met up with the others and were last seen slowly going north toward the Strait of Georgia.

Thank you, Moby J-44, for the comic relief you gave us today!

Friday, March 22, 2019

3-22-19 J Pod Today

Friday, March 22
...sometimes things just come together without any planning, organizing, etc on your part...
...that's what occurred today and wow!
...not only did it occur for some humans, it occurred for the whales...

...humans:  
 "hi"...same place same time...scanning, nothing..."see, ya"
 later "ring-ring" - J Pod
 "got room? ..am in town"
 run...

...and for the whales:
 slowly moving along...
...ship approaching...
...ship leaves a wake...
"let's go surfing" !  









 ...but that wasn't all...they were in the area until after 10p.m. and were heard over the Lime Kiln hydrophones several different times!

...and to top it off, friends coming to visit...told them I would put in a request for the whales to be here (I didn't specify Friday or Saturday in my request -oops!)...they arrived in time to hear the whales over the hydrophones!...

...it was a beautiful sunny day, lucky to have serendipity step in and 'take over'...


...thank you Western Prince!

Sunday, March 10, 2019

March 9/10 2019 Transient Orcas

Saturday and Sunday, March 9 and 10

...so good to get back out on the water...no word on whales, just some nice flat seas and sunshine, but still pretty darn cold...
...would be nice to see the Steller sea lions, harbor seals, maybe the animals on Spieden Island...
...well, just about off the dock and there was word of orcas and they were just south of Friday Harbor...being on the Western Prince...well, that was just 'around the corner'...a few images from the encounter...
 ...the researchers will assign the alpha-numeric for this baby...the fetal folds don't mean the calf was just born, but an indication as to how recent...it was the lighting that made the fetal folds look so pronounced.  I have one image, straight on profile and the folds aren't even noticeable...yep, it's all about the lighting...
 ...love this...looks like a heart shaped exhale from the new mother :) ...



...we didn't see many bald eagles but did see many of the animals on Spieden Island...lots of new baby Mouflon sheep...
 ...annual winter fella - 183R...here again...he was at such an angle, it took two images to get his entire brand...

...and then the next day...3-10
...eagles in many places...several pairs too..,


 ...183R was not there this afternoon...out for a meal somewhere or maybe switching locations...
 ...this is one very cool ferry!
 ...great to see the Whale Warning flag being used today!  Thanks, Capt. Michael...helping other boaters to know that whales are in the area...hopefully others who have this flag will use it like the Western Prince did today!  YAY!



...so what about T137C? Here's a page of the T137s from 2010.
However,  T137D was not born and T137C was a little one, who did not survive. 
...fun to look back and see how much T137A has grown and that T137B did not have any notches, and now has one, small one.