10-4-14 Twelve Thousand Pounds of Cuteness

Saturday, October 4th
...middle of the night calls over the Lime Kiln hydrophones...I heard a specific K pod call...so I figured it was probably the K Klik, J Pod and Onyx L-87...but one can never be sure...then, no whales seen until late morning, when all of a sudden there they showed up near Lime Kiln coming up island...
...Granny J-2 and her group were in the lead...by the time I got to the park I had missed them..but off in the distance little J-49 breached - pretty neat, eh?

...soon others approached...the J17s, the J16s, some of the Cookies...etc...and there were some Pacific white sided dolphins zooming around the whales! - that's now day 14 in a row for Lags to be here!

...off to the boat...arriving at Snug Harbor I see booms set out...uh, oh...but it was a practice drill...whew!

...out on Maya's Westside Charters to see whales...and they weren't very far...like right outside of the harbor...and the Lags were coming up too...they were zooming in and out around the whales and the boats...

...we got excited to see some Grebe's...a winter bird for around here...

...oops, almost didn't get out of Cookie J-38's way!

...in the middle of our travels Capt. Jim spotted something...upon closer look - lookie here...this might be the leftovers from the Transients' breakfast yesterday morning...not sure what animal it had been, but it sure looked pretty big...the whales don't eat the lungs or the ribs...

...we saw Tucker at work...

...the whales were moving slow but steadily up...Princess Angeline J-17 spyhopped at one point...

..whenever I see this boat I think of family I have who live in Homer...

...it poured rain for a short while...just long enough to get good and wet...and then the skies cleared...
...Cappuccino K-21 surfaced coming toward us...one of the passengers said he was 'cute'...I replied with "cute?...he's about 12,000lbs of cute...and about two minutes later he showed us how 'cute' he can be!...

...what? does he hear what we are saying??? !

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

...I know Jackson was amazed at the Pacific white sided dolphins as they swam along the front and sides of the boat...he then was wanting the killer whales to do that too...once explained the size of the whales in comparison to the size of the boat. I think he decided it was okay if they didn't!

6-5-14 Two Reasons for Whale Pics Today

Thursday, June 5th
...as it turned out being a shore day for me was perfect for a couple reasons...
...when I looked out the window and saw two whale watching boats heading slowly down island - yikes! what was I missing!
...I made it to the park and to the rock with about 2 minutes to spare...today I was hoping to see all the whales from yesterday, and Granny J-2, Onyx L-87, and Rhapsody J-32...
 ...it was shortly after 10a.m. when they came charging down down past the lighthouse...

...thanks Granny!...I knew you were there somewhere yesterday...glad to confirm you for today!
...Alki was farther off shore, as were some others...

...Onyx was even farther...at least he was here!

...I think I got a glimpse of Rhapsody J-32, but not enough to be positive...
...in the afternoon the whales began coming up island...

...some kayakers were hoping for a whale encounter...Success!
...little did I know at the time that the next day I would meet two of the people who were in this group of kayakers...yep...I sent them the picture!
Reason #1

...not all that many whales had come north but some had passed by the lighthouse...a few others had come up, foraged for a few minutes before turning back down island...
...the last to come back down was a group of four who were traveling together...at the time I didn't know there would be some significance to who these four whales are...

...three females, one male...cool, nice pics...blah, blah, blah...
...then on the way home I heard someone talking to Tucker the whale poo sniffing dog boat and they said they had gotten a sample but didn't know who the whales were - Bingo!...Reason #2
...now they do...hope it helps them in gaining some information...interesting enough too is that 2 of those whales had come in on May 31st and the other two came in the night of June 2nd...I am so curious as to what they were eating out on the outer coast...salmon of course, but maybe more...and it may have been too many days for that info though...


...so all who were here from yesterday and today were now down island...and it was late in the day...would they come back up tonight or would they leave...
...I noticed that over the last couple up island 'trips' they would not go as far up as the previous time...makes me think they run out of salmon so the come back down...