Friday, May 31st
...what a day...it began with three family groups, the T65Bs, T75Bs, and T75Cs several miles from shore off Lime Kiln. They were going down island and they were so far out that I could barely even seen the boats that were there...
...but it was not windy, and the air wasn't cold, so I decided to just watch...not thinking anything other than knowing there were whales out there near those boats...but oh, well...
...then the boats slowed to almost a stop...hmmm...then a boat turned...hmmm, interesting...then another boat turned and another...very slowly...the whales were going back up...
...then a boat turned in the direction of the lighthouse...still couldn't see a whale out there, but this was getting really interesting...
...then another boat..and now the boats were actually coming directly toward the lighthouse...
...a fella visiting with his family was telling me that his son's school class had built rain gardens that act as a natural filter to clean the water that runs off driveways, roads, roofs, etc....he asked what I was seeing, at this point the boats were at their furthest...his comment, "If I could see them today that would be just fabulous!" Well, the whales must have gotten his 'desire' because they came all the way across and were close to shore, right in front of the lighthouse. WOW !
...the whales, three moms, two juveniles, and three under the age of two, were very surface active...having a great time...
...in between the above images and the below image there was a boat incident, with a sail boat, motoring, no sail up, appearing to not have a clue as to the presence of whales right in front of him...(incident reported)
...here are four of the eight whales, right after the event...I followed them up island and was able to verify that all were present as they passed by County Park...whew...
...while this was going on today, here...along the outer coast, off Tofino, J Pod was encountered and they have increased in size by one!
There are images on the news, on social media, and all of us in this area and everyone who isn't, hopes J Pod will eventually, when there is enough salmon, make their way here, with the newest member of their pod !
It's been a long time since J Pod had a calf...
The mother is not yet confirmed...but the only images I saw - the calf was next to Tushci (J-31), and with them were Star (J-46) and Suttles (J-40).
...and that's a very interesting group...
...Star and Suttles were both escorts with Tahlequah (J-35) in the early part of her long mourning period in 2018, when Tahlequah would not let her deceased baby go.
...Star helped as best as she could when her mother, Polaris (J-28) was declining and her baby brother was too, in 2016.
...Suttles acted like a playground monitor, traveling behind Scarlet (J-50), as if to make sure she kept up...J-50 was just 3 months old and her mother, Slick (J-16), was helping her daughter, Alki (J-36), with her brand new baby, in early 2015. ...see Blog Post from 3-30-15
...There are more accounts of others...Tsuchi (J-31) has been like an auntie whale...she seemed to be in attendance with Polaris and Star, after Polaris lost her second calf in January 2013.
No matter who mom is...I just hope we all will get the opportunity to meet this new member to J Pod, watch him/her have a long life.
~~~
...on May 29, two humpback whales came up island, then down island and then up island again...and sometime during the night they came back down island and were seen heading west in the Strait of Juan de Fuca...
...this one actually has three IDs - MMX0005 (temporary ID by Mark Malleson, when first seen in these waters), BCY0660, and BCY0458...
..not easy to see but the dots and line on the left fluke match up and on both flukes the raggedy edges match up...what was confusing was the right fluke...
...this is BCY0160...that's an easy one, due to the 'H' mark on the left fluke...
...I wonder what this next week will bring?....
...in the meantime maybe it will bring for you:
- a reduction in your use of anything plastic
- being stingy with your water usage
- reading labels to find how close to your area your food comes from
...that's just for starters...I think we all might agree that each of us must, without delay, make changes for the sake of saving the earth and all that live on the earth...
- have you read about setting up a water dish for bees? - they need water too
- do you bring your cloth bags to the grocery when you shop?
just a few ideas...think of what you can do and then start doing it.
Change isn't easy, but if we don't change we will not make the world a better place.
Saturday, April 15th
...just before leaving Friday Harbor on the Western Prince, Capt. Michael gets word of whales not too far in the distance...
...he waited until we were just about on scene to let everyone know...you know because it's never a guarantee until you actually see them!
Here's who we saw today...
...image above whale on the left - T65A2 has an interesting story that occurred back in April of 2013...link here...see how much smaller he was then and what went on...it wasn't monumental but it was something that we humans don't get to see very often or perhaps ever before that or after...
...continuing with who we saw today...
...those open mouths!
...will this beautiful spring weather be here tomorrow?
Part 2 from Friday, May 15th
...after leaving the T65As we headed up to see Chainsaw T63, T65, and T65B and her offspring T65B1...
...and then, during one surfacing
there were more whales than we had thought...oh, the excitement set in...now we had to know just who else was here...
...we were now 'on a mission!'...when other whales just 'magically appear' it's totally exciting to me...I think the folks on the boat thought I was nuts...
...I figured I would have to wait until later to ID those others - there were three additional whales...
...then one surfaced coming toward us...I could see her lumps - It's T90!
...the whales were in travel mode today...this is the first time I've seen Chainsaw and the T90s this year...
T65, T65B and T65B1 were here too...and now there were 7 whales...
...T65B looks closer to T90 than she really is...they are very wide around the middle, so two whales, well just imagine what that span might be...
...that eye patch belongs to T65B1...
...and then I wondered if any more would show up...they didn't show up for us, but I learned from Dave Ellifrit of the Center for Whale Research that another whale met up with them a few miles up ahead...read CWR's encounter post from today to find out just who it was...
...and Thanks to Mike and his 'lucky penny' we had whales today :) !!
Thursday, April 30th
...it was not nice water, but out with Capt. Jim we went...there had been no sightings of any whales of any type so far this morning...
...oh, but we came upon a harbor seal...eating an octopus!
...then we headed north to look for the two humpbacks that eluded everyone the day before...the seas were nastier up here, so when Capt. Jim spotted the blow of a humpback, and with the wind and choppy seas - what a find!...MMY0006 aka Windy was the one I saw, so I imagine BCY0324 Big Mama was there as well...somewhere in those breaking white caps!
...then we get a call..."killer whales"...and off we went...and adding to the choppy seas were the whales so very close to shore...
...it was the T65As, a family of 5, and the T65Bs a family of 2..two sisters and their kids...they have been around a lot lately...the T75Bs had been with them, but they split off and are somewhere else...wherever that might be...
...that tail belongs to a female...it's straight across...
...T65A2 - and his FIRST notch...I imagine he may get more!
...once the tail action began, it just kept on and on...
...one of the little guys, either T65A4 or T65A5 breached a few times, giving the folks from Pennsylvania a thrill!
...we heard that J Pod was on their way in...oh, goodie...except that I haven't heard any of those burp (fish sounds) at all lately...(I've been tracking a certain sound that has preceded the presence of J pod over 90% of the time this past winter).
I heard some J pod calls over the Lime Kiln hydrophones at about 7:30 tonight...they were very far off and sounded more like they were heading due east and not toward the west side of the island...at least not just yet...okay, time to set the alarm for zero-dark-thirty-a.m. ...it's getting to be that time of the year...it will be up and out the door really early, just in case...
Thursday, October 2nd
...after hearing those calls at 5 minutes after midnight...I thought that Granny J-2 and group had come back down island and met up with Group B Plus and the K Klik...but I couldn't be sure with all that darkness...
...out on Maya's Westside Charters in the morning we head toward Discovery Island looking for some transient orcas...
...Phillip, one of the passengers, spotted what he thought were Dall's porpoise...on closer look - LAGS!...Oh, my, Pacific white sided dolphins again - this is amazing...I think it is actually the 12th day in a row that Pacific white sided dolphins have been in the area - wow!
...transients?...oh, we forgot...oh, okay...let's go see them...and oh, boy did we...
...the report was that there were 5 or 6, but we at first saw three and then only two...they were moving fast and we had no time to look around for others...
...along came....
...video or images...I couldn't decide!...it was all happening so fast...
...shortly after that amazing experience we saw more whales over near the shore...and when they got all together...it was the T49As and the T49Bs and the T65Bs...
...I found this interesting...look at the three different colorations...
mom...her grayish saddle patch, youngest one T49B3 in the middle with the still yellowish tinge, and older sibling T49B2 whose white is now white...
...one of the young fellas on the boat asked me for some tips when photographing killer whales...well, this sailboat in the distance lent well to that...
...we left the whales heading into Swanson Channel...but would they continue that direction?...they had been quite sly all day today - and the other day when Ivan of the Western Prince was with some of these whales they were split apart then...so they are in sly mode these days...what will they do tomorrow?
