Saturday, August 31, 2019

8-31-19 SRKWs Aug 25-Aug 31

Sunday through Saturday, August 25th through August 31st.

...August 25th  (note to self- camera messed up, so only a few pics)

  ...early morning
  ...passing Lime Kiln
  ...coming down at about 4pm




...August 26th J Pod came north then back down island at 10:00 a.m. and again at 1:00p.m.
...August 27th
J Pod was south of Lime Kiln and wee moving north at about 10:00 a.m.







...the day ended up windy...and the whales had gone north...
...August 28th the whales stayed north... 
...August 29th a windy afternoon when the whales came down...










...August 30th  J Pod spent the day south of Lime Kiln and to the bottom end of the island, foraging. At noon the J16s, came up but they were barely seen from Lime Kiln before they turned and went back down island.
...August 31st  J Pod spent most of the day south of Lime Kiln...and then nearing 7pm some came up to the lighthouse and then turned and went back down...and it seems that likely they went back out to sea...
 
...it was a pretty active second half of August...


Thursday, August 22, 2019

8-21-19 SRKWs Were Still Here

Saturday - Wednesday   August 17 - 21

...very glad to say that because of J Pod being here I am very far behind on my blog posts!  In addition there have been multiple transient encounters along the west side (will add those later)...
...will do my best to catch up a bit...
...August 17th...



...August 18th...
...August 19th...J Pod came down the west side at about 9:00 pm...
 
...August 20th...J Pod had been down island and the next morning they were first sighted at the top end of San Juan Channel, on the other side of SJ Island...so did they go north up SJ Channel in the night or silently up Haro Strait and east through Spieden Channel...not sure if anyone figured out the answer to that, yet...

...August 21st...since they had gone north the prior day and up toward the Fraser River, they were coming back south today...
...K and L pod whales had come into Haro Strait in the afternoon and were off the south west side of San Juan Island...
...J Pod was coming down from the north...they reached the lighthouse at almost dark...and as they were passing their calls seemed to get more animated and one breached multiple times and others seemed to have picked up their speed...it made me wonder if they had come into vocal range with the Ks and Ls...only they know for sure!
 
...August 22nd...they had left the area in the night and headed back out to the open ocean...






Friday, August 16, 2019

8-16-19 The Sea Continued to Wake Up

Friday, August 16th
...it was a busy day watching...it was a busy day for the waking waters off Lime Kiln...this image may not be very impressive, but when there hasn't this activity in this area all season long..well, it's a big deal...
...J Pod was still in the inland waters...they spent a good portion of the day down island...I think that was the foggy day...and by the afternoon the fog had left and the whales came up passing the lighthouse...
...the whale warning flag was out and ready...
...as they were approaching...

...under the surface there were more...

...they traveled north for a while...looking as if they were going to continue...
...but just after thinking that, they turned and came back down island...

...in the meantime...


...they were spread out and moving at a leisurely pace...
...some were far offshore, others midway, and some a bit closer...

 ...no matter their distance, it is moments like these to cherish - stillness, calm, peaceful, being one with the orca...just sitting and watching in the quiet time of the evening.
 


 
 

 

Thursday, August 15, 2019

8-15-19 What Had Been Missing - SRKWs and Salmon

Thursday, August 15th

...I have blogged several times in the last few years that the waters along west side of San Juan Island, north and south of the Lime Kiln lighthouse a couple miles in each direction, were just about void of life in the waters for a good part of the summer...that is except for small forage (species I don't know), and sometimes harbor porpoise...
...there were very few and sometimes one gull that could be seen for miles...
...the SRKWs had not been here since early July and that was for two days only...
...the whales were on their way east in the Strait of Juan de Fuca on Aug 14...
...they arrived to Haro Strait on Aug 15, being heard over the Lime Kiln hydrophones at about 3:00a.m....
...the seas came alive...stunning to see pink salmon leaping their way up to the north...long lines of them leaping throughout the afternoon, sometimes lasting for 20 minutes...then soon more would come through...
...the whales spent a good deal of the day foraging in an area where they usually do, they came up island in the afternoon...

...they didn't get too far out of view when they turned and came back south...



...it was about 3:30 now...
...later, at about 6:30 a couple whales came up and past the lighthouse...they were not traveling close together, about a half mile apart some of the time...they soon came back down island...

...those two were heading back toward the rest of J Pod...
...if it hadn't been for the whales being where they were, at this time of day, I would not have gotten to see this sunset...
...would they be here on the 16th...?

...it is said that the whales don't eat pinks because of their small size - 4 to 6 lbs - they need the biggest bang for their 'energy buck'...so there are likely sockeye (which they eat some, but they are about 8-10lbs) but more likely Chinook salmon (bigger) passing through too...
...the Albion test fisheries in B.C. had a bump up in their counts of Chinook salmon...  Yay!!