10-20-14 An Unexpected October Day

Monday, October 20th
...no morning-warning sky this morning...too much fog to even see it...
...but by the time we left the dock on Maya's Westside Charters the fog had receded...one of the young passengers was keeping out a 'fog watch'...and luckily she was able to 'report' that it had gone away!
...in its place were whales, orcas, killer whales...and what a surprise it was...

...at first I only saw L pod whales...

...whales had been spotted earlier in the day near Discovery Island coming in...

..well, not all Ls...those who have been briefly seen this year, once again did not make an appearance...the L12s, the L54s and Nyssa L-84 and Wave Walker L-88 who travel with the L54s... 
...they came over to the west side, up island...then down...and now up again...

,,,love this!

...the whales continued up island slowly...a large group in shore...

...Surprise! L-86, Pooka L-106, and Ophelia L-27 were off shore and behind the larger group...

...there were a few others farther behind them - Cappuccino K-21 was one of them...
...Fluke L-105 and Sonata K-35 were playing around a lot...look at Fluke's scratches..

...now check out the other side! yikes...he has had some of these for a long time...and in fact the newer ones he had on the 18th...

...Sonata K-35...his mom was present and Cappuccino - so the K Klik is here!

...we heard of a humpback whale across the way and with this glassy water...well, we were on our way...

...and then back to the harbor...I could see the whales were still coming up island...

...I thought I would hop off the boat and run to County Park...but Capt. hadn't told me we were going back out again with some other passengers...gee, we were all about to be very lucky people...again...
...just out of the harbor we can see the whales coming up...now wait...

...then it looked like Dall's porpoise!  - NO! I was Pacific white sided dolphins - LAGS!

...check out the satin water...it was like that all afternoon...

...it was getting late...the clouds were heavy, but "look there's a rainbow!" someone said...

...and the whales were approaching...would the rainbow last when the whales got there???...you could have felt the suspense on the boat!
Thank you Moonlight L-83 and Midnight L-110 (how appropriate) for being right where you were!

...a few more minutes...a sailing ship in the distance catching some of the last of the sun...

...one last one...

...later I looked back to see if this was normal for just these L pod whales (a group of four families) to be here...from what I can tell it's not an 'ah-ha' moment!...that is unless you want to count the K Klik as one!
...in the October months in the last several years, this group of Ls has been around the San Juan Islands a time or two each October...that is not counting when they have gone into Puget Sound or when Js and Ks have been present with them...
...and K Klik?...well, they are an independent group and have been seen in here in October as well...I remember in 2008 all of K pod was here, but Cappuccino K-21 was not with them...he was off with Ls!

...sorry this post is so long...

...it was such a fun day...

...hope you feel like you were 

out there with the whales today...

10-1-14 Marathon Day of Whales Along the West Side

Wednesday, October 1st
...when I said at the end of yesterday's post that tomorrow could be interesting...well, that was an understatement!
...it began with whales coming up island..I can still only guess that it was Group A Minus (minus the J16s) who had come down last night at about 8pm...but it sure fits well... 
...today Granny J-2, Onyx L-87, Shachi J-19 and Eclipse J-41 were the first whales to pass by...even those four were well spread out...
...quite a bit later a group came up...I was expecting the J14s...okay, they were there AND with them were the J11s...now that's interesting!
...Cappuccino K-21 came up island and I could see others, but I left to go out on Maya's Westside Charters...
I was curious if the J11s were still with the J14s...and yes they were...and so were some Lags!...aka - Pacific white sided dolphins...there weren't a lot, but it only takes a few...

...in shore at Kellett Bluff...then off shore south of Turn Pt....

...then up ahead of Onyx one of the Lags (the first three letters of their scientific name are: lag...that's why they are referred to as lags (only one syllable as opposed to 8 syllables)...could be called verbal shorthand...

...and in between those two places the J14s (Samish J-14, Hy'Shqa J-37 and her offspring Tilem Inges J-49, Suttles J-40, and Se-Yi Chn J-45) and the J11s (Blackberry J-27, Tsuchi J-31, and Mako J-39) at one point it looked like the J11s might turn and go back down island...but when we had left them they were still going north...

...back in and off the boat and to the park to see if I could find any of the J11s...nope...so far it didn't look like they had come back down...

...the K16s and Cappuccino K-21, the J16s and the J17s I saw going back down island...and there were others (the Cookies) ahead of them...

...and then the J17s turned around and came up island and past the park...

...and they continued to move up but they were foraging, socializing or whatever they wanted to do...I watched them in the distance until I got too cold in that wind and it was getting too dark...and then from home I continued to hear them over the Lime Kiln hydrophones until after 9:00 pm.!...it was a great day to listen in to the hydrophones the whales were on them just about all day long...and I wouldn't be surprised if they were on there all night long!

...now did Granny's group and the J11s continue north?...will have to wait and see who is where tomorrow!...They may actually lead more complicated lives than some humans might think!...

...added later:  at 00:05 on October 2nd calls began coming over the Lime Kiln hydrophones...J pod calls...they got to be quite loud...I heard some K pod calls as well...since there were J and K whales down island still at 9:00 pm it could be them...but then the calls got like crazy...okay, I think Granny and the rest of them came back down and they were getting together...but since I was blinded by the darkness and had only one piece of information...once again wait until daylight...

9-30-14 More Food More Energy

Tuesday, September 30th
...off the water for me on Monday...

Monday evening

...Tuesday...of course I was in town and got to the west side asap a bit north of Lime Kiln...in time to see Mike J-26 and Slick J-16 going up island...and then they started to go back down island...so off to Lime Kiln I went...

...that began my confusion of the day...some of the J16s had been seen going up island in the stormy weather yesterday...but they must have split off from the rest of Group A and come back down island in the rain and stormy seas...

...DoubleStuf J-34 foraged for quite a while, along with the rest of his family...they were in no hurry to go anywhere...

...then in the afternoon out on Maya's Westside Charters...we come upon some very playful whales...

...when you have enough food to eat you have more energy...

...and you might just feel like playing a bit more...

 ...Notch J-47 and Star J-46 were goofing around in the kelp at one point...

...the energy level of the whales seemed to be greater today...maybe we were just seeing them at a time of play...maybe it is because they are getting more salmon...whatever it was, they were having a blast!...the J17s and Tsuchi J-31 and Mako J-39 and even Alki J-36 was in on whatever 'game' it looked like they were playing...and all the humans were smiling as we watched these 'people of the sea' having a playful afternoon...
...and just to give you an idea of some of those swells...so difficult to show in a flat image...

...as I was writing this post I began to hear calls on the Lime Kiln hydrophones at about 8:00 pm...J pod whales but which ones?

...Granny's Group A Minus (minus the J16s) had gone north yesterday and as far as I know they were not seen today...
...and we were with Group B Plus (plus the J16s) and the K Klik (K-21, K-16 and K35)...
...so who was it?...have to wait until tomorrow to find out...

9-26-14 They've Been Here and There and Still Around

Catching up on the Rezzies...
...J Pod - all of them were up in the Strait of Georgia...a late in the day trip with Capt. Jim and passengers...at this time of year sometimes the lighting can be quite nice...

...and while we were way up there we learned that some whales were on the west side near Lime Kiln...listening to the Lime Kiln hydrophone recording that night it knew it was K Pod whales...and the report was three or four whales...but who?...I had my ideas but I needed proof of presence...
...early the next morning I saw Opus K-16 and Sonata K-35...I figured Cappuccino K-21 was somewhere nearby but I didn't see him...so after we left the Pacific white sided dolphins (see previous post)...we headed over to where those three whales were...out in the middle somewhere...

...thank you very much K-21!...this time Opus and Sonata were off in the distance...and we had to head for the harbor...these are most likely the whales who were on the west side the day before...

...J pod came down early the next morning and met up with the K Klik somewhere down there...later in the day they all were heading north...I was at the park..there was that humpback - again! - going up and down island...and I tried to get an image of the humpback with a killer whale in the image...no such luck...
...the whales went north...the humpback stayed on the west side...and then late last night the whales came back down from the Fraser River...
...but today, even though the humpback eluded my eyes all day long and the same whales took forever to get up island...I might have gotten the sounds of those two within a few seconds of each other...
...from the Lime Kiln hydrophones...

...I don't know about what I heard from the other night's recording...and this is another...was it a humpback?...I think so, but can't be sure...


...lots of excitement of humpbacks, Pacific white sided dolphins, lots of harbor porpoise, Dall's porpoise, young harbor seals being funny...
...AND with all that excitement please don't forget that the Southern Resident killer whales of J, K and L pods are STRUGGLING to find FOOD - Chinook salmon mainly...
...what will the humans do to help these whales have enough food to eat?
...anything?

9-7-14 More Intra-Species Interaction

Sunday, September 7th
...with J and most of K pod way north at the Fraser River...we headed down island to see who was here...out on Legacy Charters we first came upon Opus K-16...Sonata K-35 was in closer to shore...all of a sudden theses gulls took off...

...since Opus and Sonata were in the area I figured it was one of them...

...Cappuccino should be around somewhere...

...we moved down a bit and saw Spirit L-22...and in closer to shore was Mystery L-85...coming up was Solstice L-89...
...then it got really exciting...a Pacific white sided dolphin was in the mix!

...this is about the third time in the last month or so that one single Pacific white sided dolphin has been seen harassing killer whales...and since a killer whale is really the largest of the dolphin family...

...so much fun to watch what goes on...the Pacific white sided dolphin was just having too much fun with Mystery L-85...

...more members of the L12s were down island...and the rest of L pod with the new baby was way down island and offshore...would not see the calf today...but how about one more pic of the little one from yesterday when on on Maya's Westside Charters...

...if you want to read about the discovery of the new calf (9/6/14) by the Center for Whale Research it's under Encounter, 2014, #53...so just imagine you are a researcher on the boat that day and live their experience through their account of the day...
(I'm not a researcher but I've had the experience of discovering a new calf and it is quite special.)

...back to 9/7/14..it was about 10:00 pm when I began hearing J and K pod calls on the Orca Sound hydrophones...and soon on the Lime Kiln hydrophones too...they lasted quite a while...interesting stuff it was...will be a good winter project...