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.

3-26-16 T137s in San Juan Channel

Saturday, March 26th
...no whales had been reported in the morning...late morning some whales were seen coming out of Puget Sound...Ivan of the Western Prince heads down that way and comes upon some other whales!
...it was the T137s and they were coming up toward San Juan Island...they kept coming, up, up, and into, and up San Juan Channel...
...from what we heard over the radio, while on Peregrine with Capt. Andy, was that this family of four whales had not stopped to eat all day long...
...we figured they must be getting hungry by now...

Here's a clip of them in action.

3-7-15 T137A and A Harbor Porpoise Fetus

I'll start with March 5th...
...what a wild day...
...whales spotted in Spieden Channel going west...but then not seen...a while later, over the hydrophones I hear transient calls...so figuring they are coming down island, because that's what my friend said, I go look...so far nothing...five minutes later I get a call that transient calls are being heard over the Lime Kiln hydrophones...what?...now that just didn't make any sense...
...so down island I go where I can scan from shore a long distance...
...I didn't see any whales coming down island but I spotted whales coming up island!...and there was no way possible that it could have been the ones that I heard over the Orca Sound hydrophones...but it was the ones that were heard over the Lime Kiln hydrophones...
...confused yet?...I sure was!
...there was a big male in the group and I immediately thought it was T19B...I didn't know I could ID him from four miles offshore!..then again his fin is so broad...he's the one I call Mr. Floppy Fin...
...I went out on the Center for Whale Research boat with Dave Ellifrit and friend Katie...this group of four are called the T18s..and eventually they met up with the T60s and T2B - I'm pretty sure they are the ones who who had come through Spieden Channel earlier, and who were on the Orca Sound hydrophones, based on a few factors...
...it was quite the epic encounter when teenage T19C and T60D, both males,  verified today during one wild breach, got together...it was just plain wild...check out the Center for Whale Research's Encounters page in the coming days for some pics that we took while out there...

...the next day, not a whale in sight...

Now for Saturday, March 7th
...Hobbes found whales on the west side and they were coming up island...it turned out to be the T137s...mom and three kids...
...T137A and T137B were together, mom - T137 and the youngest - T137D were off...I think they were waiting for the other two to bring them their meals...at least that's how it looked during the several times they took something...

...there was one extra stunning moment...

...T137A spyhopped, while trying to get some part of the meal into his mouth...there are a series of 9 images - wished I had had the video going, but if I had I wouldn't have discovered that it appears he has a harbor porpoise fetus in his mouth...notice the tiny pectoral fins...several people got images, so there may be other angles, but all were from this same side of the whale...

...I have never seen spyhop action like this before...nor have I ever seen a harbor porpoise fetus like this before...
...it's not pretty but it's almost beyond words...

I just got an email from Traci who posted a video of the head tossing.

I usually consider March to be Transient month...it's sure starting out that way...

note:  those in SE Alaska or off the Queen Charlottes keeping a look out for J Pod  :)...they're down this way...I heard yesterday that they had been recently spotted up in the same general area where the herring run is occurring...gee, I wonder why...

10/14-17/14 They Sure Do Get Around!

Tuesday, October 14th
...what would today bring in the way of whales?...
...well, it began at about 4:15 this morning, when extremely faint calls came over the Lime Kiln hydrophones...they were so faint I couldn't determine if Transients or Residents...there were only about a dozen calls heard over about 17 minutes...
...someone is out there...somewhere...
...by the afternoon out on Maya's Westside Charters we were in the Strait of Juan de Fuca watching humpbacks...at this time of year they seem to be moving down from the north and some making a stop in these inland waters...

...at one point we saw humpbacks spotted in four different locations on the horizon...I heard that over 10 individuals had been seen...we were heading toward some other humpbacks when, on our way the Capt. made a turn to the south..ah-ha!...something was up...
...killer whales had been spotted by Ocean Magic!
...and once on scene, I knew who I had heard in the night...the same whales who had been in Massacre Bay and by Skull Island yesterday (see prior post)...
...at first there was no big male...then one of the passengers spotted him about a mile to the south...that was T137A...in between the group we were watching and him was one other single...mom - T137...

...they were spread a good distance, but we could see they were coming back together...heading west...

...don't know why, but T137D was way behind the rest of the group...he had to do some porpoising to catch up to the others...

...just as we were leaving the scene we heard that other Transients were a couple miles away and were coming in...the T35As and T38A (see post from two days ago)...
...we made a quick pass at Race Rocks...always an amazing place...

...On to Wednesday, 10-15 - I learn from Ivan of the Western Prince that the T35As, T38A, and the T36As were all together, but the T137s were not seen...
...Then on Friday, 10-17 - I learn from Ivan that those same whales showed up outside of Friday Harbor...
They Sure Do Get Around! 

And the Residents?...well they just happened to make their first fall appearance into Puget Sound on Thursday!...

10-13-14 There Was Only One Way Out

Monday, October 13th
...a beautiful, calm morning...a few clouds in the distance...a day to be on the water...
...I planned to go on the Western Prince...the boat I saw my first ever whales from...so I couldn't end the year without at least one trip on the Prince...
...as I was pulling in to park my car I get a call telling me to get out on the Prince, because whales are not far from Friday Harbor - wow! I was already there!
...killer whales had been spotted from the ferry...actually a couple of times, so we knew they hadn't gone too far, but the options were many, with so many islands they could be behind while we or others were on the other side...but that wasn't going to be the case today...

...we went up past the Orca Island ferry landing, heading west...there were a couple options after that...we turned and headed up into West Sound, a place that 'no one ever sees whales'...except last year members of J Pod were in West Sound, but that was like the first time in 'forever'...

...we slowly went up scanning and scanning...then Ivan spots them, all the way back up on the west side of the sound...they were in Massacre Bay...and by Skull Island...what names!...they were spread out...a couple on the west side and several on the right side...they had been working the top end of the sound...
...they began to move over to the east side and down...

...they came out of West Sound...

...

 

...often in rough seas, when they surface they will bring their heads up...I would imagine it would be to get a good breath...

 

...seeing whales in Massacre Bay and by Skull Island - Amazing!