4-4-17 Killer Whales the T11s

Tuesday, April 4th 
...this image is from March 30th...male? female? if it's a female she might be looking for a place to molt.

...then on April 4th while out on the Western Prince...the T11s, two animals, who are not usually seen here often during the season...in the past it seems they are seen coming in, this time it was through Baynes Channel, and up Haro Strait, miles from the west side shoreline...often they will turn and go back out in the next day or two...we'll have to wait to see if/when they show up again...

...they appeared to be in hunt mode...about 1/4 mile apart and slowly moving along...looking, listening for a possible meal...perhaps.

...April 6th

...lots of bald eagle action...soon the eggs will be hatching and there will be even more action in the eagle world!

5-14-13 Four Days With the Same Ts!

Saturday through Monday, May 11-14th
...the same transients have been just about everywhere these last several days...
...on Saturday...at East Point, a California sea lion in the middle of all those Steller sea lions...we only saw him because we heard his bark!

...T49B was just starting to speed swim to knock seals off the rocks at a long reef in Trincomali Channel...

...thing is, she actually 'washed' them up onto the rocks as she scared the heck out of them!

...on the way back to the harbor Capt. Jim spotted an elephant seal...

...on Sunday the same whales were in the area, but this time they were way at the bottom end of San Juan Island...by late in the day the whales had come north...they went up the east side of Waldron Island, past Skip Jack Island...

...and then took a harbor seal...and now time for some play...

...on Monday they took us on a long, round about trip...it began in the morning at Spieden Island where they beat up a Steller sea lion for a few minutes and then moved on...

...they traveled across Haro Strait and on the way over a bald eagle was after something...I noticed how the eagle's tongue was sticking out...something that looked rather strange to me...

...over to Sidney and down Cordova Channel to Cordova Spit they traveled, where they turned around and took out a harbor seal...lots of surface action going on too...

...in the middle of it all I got a breach and belly sequence of T49B2 to reveal the sex of this young whale...

...and on Tuesday they were still in the area...traveling up through Active Pass in the late afternoon...

...on the way through Active a bald eagle got a fish - a big one too!

...we left the whales as they continued to head north west...as we passed the buoy outside of the pass I noticed a sea lion hauled out...not sure if this is a female or a young Steller sea lion...

...being so in to the transient killer whales and the lack of the Residents presence, we anticipated more transients tomorrow...little did we know things were about to change!

4-23-13 Elephant Seal, Banded Peregrine, Hydrographic Surveying, Calls in the Night

Tuesday, April 23rd
...middle of the night...Transients wake me up...

...about 9:20 I see an elephant seal offshore from Deadman Bay...
...1:30 a trip out with Maya's Westside Charters...not very far out of the harbor we see an elephant seal!...I looked up the tide chart and it was an incoming tide since 9:00am....could very well be the same elephant seal...and this time I got a picture...

...we were looking for those 'midnight Transients'...we saw Dall's porpoise, Steller sea lions, harbor seals, but no killer whales...
...we went to look for one of the Peregrine falcon pairs and located one of the falcons...he/she is banded!!

...the Steller sea lions, some who have been hanging out at Kelp Reef marker were not there today...wonder if it had anything to do with the Transients who came through last night...but there there several groups of Stellers over in Spieden Channel, all who looked very relaxed...

...at the computer at about 6pm there is some tapping that starts up on the hydrophones - not again! ...this occurred a couple days ago....I alerted the hydrophone experts, since I didn't have a clue - related to the hydrophones?? or not??...it appears it may be hydrographic surveying - I guess you could say - mapping of the ocean floor...
...so if you listen in and hear some rhythmic tapping - that might be what it is...it may drive you crazy after a while!...oh, it's going to be a long night - hope some whales show up and break up the ping-pong monotony!