Wednesday, December 7th
Oh, what a surprise!
On Dec 5th when J Pod was heard over the Lime Kiln hydrophones I could not determine their final direction...now we know - it was North.
Because today they came South!
...the whales were spread out except for that first rowdy group...
It looked like Cookie J-38 and DoubleStuf J-34 way offshore but could not be sure on that. There were others even farther off than them. CWR was out there so they'll have more.
Tsuchi J-31 was in the rowdy group that came past the lighthouse, others with her were Shachi J-19, Eclipse J-41, Nova J-51, Hy'Shqa J-37, T'ilem I'nges J-49 (?), Suttles J-40, maybe another one or two.
Some of the J16s - Slick J-16, Scarlet J-50, Echo J-42, Mike J-26 came along a while later.
The last seen within camera reach were J17 and calf and one other (likely Kiki J-53 and Moby J-44), but two of them veered offshore before getting an image...J17 was the only image of that group of 3. All three of us saw mom and calf surfacing as they approached...
The last few times the whales have shown up there have been many 'burp' sounds prior to...I believe they are fish sounds...in other words something is moving before the whales show up and then after the whales are gone from the area those fish sounds stop. Here is what the burp sound (fish sound) sounds like:
If you are interested here is the prior post where I had tracked it all...http://whale-of-a-porpoise.blogspot.com/2015/03/3-10-15-observations-of-srkws-and-fish.html
Friday, June 25th
...Group A (which includes the J16s) and the K14s came back down from the north in the night and back up the west side in late morning...
...it looked like they were going to keep going north but of course they didn't - they flipped at Kellett Bluff and headed back down...
...out on Peregrine for a late afternoon trip...the J16s were by themselves before heading toward the other group which we soon went off to see...
...they were crossing the bottom of Lopez Island...
...they consisted of Granny J-2, Samish J-14, Hy'Shqa J-37, T'ilem I'nges J-49, Suttles J-40, Se-Yi-Chn J-45, Lea K-14, Yoda K-36, Kelp K-42, and Onyx L-87 nearby. Behind them a short distance were Shachi J-19, Eclipse J-41, baby J-51, with Lobo K-26 nearby.
...when we left them they were still heading east...
Notes:
...the K14s have spent time with Group A in recent years, so this is not something new...
...the K12s, K13s, and the 15 L pod whales went west in Juan de Fuca Thursday morning...
...I think the most recent day Group B, Cappuccino K-21, Opus K-16, and Sonata K-35 were seen was on June 21st...it is most likely they have gone out west...
...hardly any burp sounds over the Lime Kiln hydrophones in the last few days...
Sunday, June 21st
...early morning Sunday, I hear one whistle (yes, killer whales whistle) over the Lime Kiln hydrophones...out the door I run, jamming my thumb - which would come back to haunt me later in the day...
...when I got to the park I saw nothing except water...down to Land Bank I went - nothing...farther down island - nothing...maybe they moved offshore...
-lookie here!...but it wasn't Residents it was a large group of Ts! - totally cool!
...okay, so miles away...I got a hold of Dave Ellifrit of the Center for Whale Research...and then I tried to keep track of the Ts until he got out there...
...so now I was going back up island stopping to pick up the Ts who were 3 to 4 miles from shore...at least they were heading steadily up...but since they were taking 4 to 5 minute dives...well...
...back at Land Bank I picked up the Ts again and then Residents started to appear close to shore! yikes! off to the lighthouse...
...okay, there...but I needed to relocate the Ts and get pictures of the Residents...no wonder I'm so tired all summer :)...
...a few of the L55s came up past the light, were echolocating and also showing some direction changes...
...and then comes a low flying plane...it was coming up island and turned in toward the lighthouse and got even lower...no floats on this airplane...hmmm...I wonder what the aviation rules are out there about planes with no floats flying so low - two other people who saw the plane said it was about 100 feet above the water...oh, and there were whales present too...
...you can hear the whales echolocating and the noise of the airplane...I think the plane was buzzing the lighthouse - is that legal? - and I don't think they even knew that whales were present because they were looking toward us and not looking down...and they just kept on going...
...I thought it was interesting that as the plane flew over, the echolocating stopped for several seconds...it didn't appear that the echolocating was drowned out by the plane but it more appeared that the whales stopped...but I don't know...curious...
...out on Peregrine at 10 a.m. with Capt. David...we headed straight across to see the transients who are considered exotics (because they are not or are rarely seen in these waters)...very exciting for everyone...some folks saw them the prior day...but I think that's it...it was a first for many others including me...
...you would think this is kelp...but it's not...it's pink and it's guts!
...she has a big 'can opener' kind of notch at the base of her dorsal fin...
...back in 2010 I started cataloging the transients I had photographed in these waters figuring there wouldn't be that many...well, I'm now close to 200 transients from this wide ranging community...and that includes about 12 new ones this year...the transient book that I have is updated every year in about March...but then comes all these 'new to me' ones and of course new babies and it's difficult to keep up with them all!
...we left the Ts and came back over to the other side of Haro Strait...the Residents were spread for miles, several had already gone north...we met up with some of the L47s and Nigel L-95...later on we saw the J16 family group...they were the last of the ones who went north...
...there was another split group today - Group A, the 15 L pod whales, K pod except for Cappuccino K-21 and Opus K-16 and her boy Sonata K-35 - I didn't see them at all but Dave from CWR kept me up to date...
...with other Residents way north and still others south, we headed back over to the transients...the three family groups of Ts, with two new babies this year - T75B2 and T36A3 were all grouped up every encounter we had with them today...
...we saw more of the Ts today than we saw of the Residents...but they'll be back down soon.
p.s. for anyone who is aware of the burp sounds (fish I believe)...well, there had only a few a day, and sometimes none that I heard, for a couple weeks...then starting on the 18th of June and continuing through the 19th, the early morning hours of the 20th, and more, were about the most burp sounds I have heard in months...the whales were spotted on the 20th at 2:30 in the afternoon coming in from the west...no doubt following some salmon in...I can't prove it, but the tracking of the burps is becoming more and more reliable!
here's when I first posted about the burp sounds
You can also search this blog (left hand column is the search box) for 'fish sounds' and it will pull up other posts about it.
Sunday, April 19th
...it seems more like May than April, not because of the weather, but because of J pod showing up so often...
...back to Saturday evening...it was around 9 pm when I heard the 'burp'- fish sounds -...I haven't heard any in several days...then at about 11 pm I heard another...and there were more at about 3:30 a.m...link here to see what I have been tracking...when I first wrote about it...
...so why was I surprised when J pod woke me up at 6 a.m over the Lime Kiln hydrophones this morning?...interesting too is on this audio clip of echolocation clicks - sounds more like tapping hammers - there are two of those burp sounds toward the end...
...Alki J-36 and baby J-52...
...someone breaching in the early morning (6:40 a.m.) as the whales came down island...
...I had expected the whales to be going up island, but instead they were coming down island...well, Slick J-16 looks like she is going up island but she is just facing that way and the current is carrying her down island...
...they didn't get too far down when they turned and began to come back up, against a very strong current...in fact it took them hours...
...waiting...waiting...closer...closer...
...the Center for Whale Research in the April 15th encounter write up, stated that Eclipse J-41 is actually the mother of J-51...I was on the Center's boat with Dave the day we discovered this calf, traveling tight between Shachi J-19 and Eclipse J-41...it didn't seem likely that Eclipse, being so young, would have a calf at this age...Eclipse was just over 8 years old when she got pregnant...she won't be 10 years old until June30/July1st of 2015...
...today Eclipse J-41 and baby J-51 were in the lead as the whales made it back up to the park this morning...
...it was a mixed up kind of pass by...between 10:00 and 11:15 Moby J-44 and Princess Angeline J-17 passed by the lighthouse three times!...once off shore...once close along the rocks...and the last time a bit off during what appeared to be cooperative foraging...maybe it was that salmon in the near vicinity...
...the whales were spread very far, making it easier to figure out which ones were doing the vocalizing...and when they did so right off the lighthouse, it helped even more to watch what could be seen from the surface...
...one fellow kept saying "there's one" and I'd reply with "that whale passed by here 15 minutes ago"...if one didn't know which whales they were looking at they might have thought they saw 40 or more whales!
...one of Princess Angeline's many passes by the lighthouse today...
...in the middle of it all...
...then T'ilem I'nges started breaching...
...I find this interesting...Oreo J-22, DoubleStuf J-34, and Cookie J-38, since December, have been seen traveling with Granny quite often...wonder what's going on there?...and today behind J-22, J-34 and J-2 were Cookie J-38 and Se-Yi-Chn J-45...J-45 is one of Granny's more direct family members...these two boys were goofing around as they came past the lighthouse not far behind the other three...these five whales were the trailing group...
...and as they were approaching close to shore, just up ahead, off shore, J-49 began breaching again...causing a dilemma for those who were taking pictures - which way to look???
...looking back at the recording the calls actually began at about 5:30 a.m.,woke me up at 6:a.m. and I didn't leave Lime Kiln until after the last whale had gone north...12:25 pm...
...someone asked why the whales were so spread out and if they did that often...answer: lack of food - lack of Chinook salmon
...have you heard or read about the four lower Snake River dams? click on the link to read about the Southern Resident Killer Whale Salmon Initiative and consider signing the petition and get others to sign it too. That is not the answer for immediate food for the whales, but it is a start to make sure they have it in the future. It's important for the survival of this community of orcas.
Did you see them today or at anytime? Were you touched by their presence? Make sure they are around for future generations of humans and whales.
Live in Puget Sound?
Participate with Whale Scout as they team up with PenMet Parks for a beach cleanup and
restoration event as part of Parks Appreciation Day. This area is
occasionally traveled by Southern Resident orcas and is a favorite for
whale watchers! Enjoy being outdoors on the water with friends and
fellow orca lovers while making the south Sound a healthier place for
killer whales...
link here to learn more about Whale Scout
Wednesday, March 18th
...if this sounds strange refer to my blog post of 3-10-15...
...on Saturday, March 14th, with basically no burp (fish) sounds heard during the day of really nasty seas, J Pod showed up at 5:00 p.m....they were on the hydrophones for over seven hours...while they were here there were some burp sounds heard...and it couldn't be determined which way they ended up going...
...Sunday it poured rain all day, seas were nasty...didn't notice any burp sounds...
...Monday - there were a few burp sounds over the Lime Kiln hydrophones...
...Tuesday - burp sounds over the Lime Kiln hydrophones in the middle of the night and intermittent throughout the day...10:00 p.m. and a few more after that...
...Wednesday - 7:15 a.m. - J pod!! -loud and clear over the Orca Sound hydrophones...
...now if only I would make a plan once I hear those sounds!
It sounded like they were coming down from the north...
...so off to the park...but when I located them they were miles from shore and moving up island!
...the Orca Sound hydrophones are north of the Lime Kiln hydrophones the whales are heard over the hydrophones which are closest to where they are arriving from...usually that is...they were loud over the Orca Sound hydrophones and there was nothing coming over the Lime Kiln hydrophones until about 45 minutes later...those calls were fainter...
...so the other night they had gone back out...and today they were coming back in...okay, that question resolved...
The next questions that came up for me are:
-Why were there no burp sounds before they arrived on Saturday?
-Since they had been here for several hours that night, with basically no burp sounds in advance and a few during the time they were here and then the left, did they run out of salmon and then turn around and leave?
Because now, over the last couple days those burp sounds were heard and then J pod shows up today, Wednesday, and they go up island to the north...still heading that way late in the day...
(I don't know how long these burp sounds will be the 'Paul Revere' of the 'whales are coming' a happy alert, not one of alarm...but it sure seems to have that tone...at least at this time of year...it will take more years of this to know for sure...)
I went out on the Center for Whale Research boat with Ken Balcomb this morning and we found the whales spread all over the place...today their version of zigging and zagging was a mile across this way and how about two miles back across the other way...
...they were actively chasing fish...however, with being spread out as they were one would think that the salmon were pretty well spread out too...at least there were some going through these waters and the whales were certainly chasing them down...
note: When I'm on a federally permitted research boat the pictures I take belong to the permit holder - the Center for Whale Research...(check their encounters page for pics from 3-18-15)...
Catching up to November 23rd...
...the last several days have been time for listening to the hydrophones and for catching up!
...one of the most interesting things I've heard recently over the hydrophones are these unusual sounds...and I don't know what is making those sounds, but I think it's fish...
...and I wonder if there is some relationship to those sounds and the whales showing up, because it often happens that way...
...those
'fish' sounds started showing up on the Lime Kiln hydrophones a couple days
before the L12s showed up...then I didn't notice them as
much...but when those 'fish' sounds began to increase in frequency...it got my
attention...it wasn't long before more whales showed up...
...and now the whales have been spending lots of time in Puget Sound...hearing them over the Lime Kiln or PT hydrophones as they come or go, as I did this morning...their calls were very faint and intermittent, so I put together 7 of the calls with a space between each...
...but I don't know if they were coming in or going out!
...if those 'fish' sounds start to show up on the Lime Kiln hydrophones again and then the whales show up along the west side of San Juan Island...well, then just maybe...
...it's a long shot, but always fascinating to try to figure it out!
