12-14-15 Early Morning Calls Over the Hydrophones

Monday, December 14th
...not only was it nice to have a night without those massive winds, it made it possible to hear, at first, some extremely faint sounds...that was at about 3:40 a.m.
...it took until after 5:00 a.m. to be able to tell it was Transients...
...that was over the Lime Kiln hydrophones...no telling where they actually were because the calls were too intermittent and too faint...
...but then they began over the Orca Sound hydrophones...

...the calls faded off as opposed to stopping abruptly...did they go behind one of the Canadian islands?...hummmmm...will they show up again in the daylight or over one of the hydrophones...I hope!
...oh, I just heard them again (7:12 a.m.)...way distant and very faint...just a couple calls...


...the Ts showed up at the perfect time for me...I'm reading the book Into Great Silence, by Eva Saulitis...'A memoir of Discovery and Loss Among Vanishing Orcas'...for me it's a wonderful account on many levels...and it takes you right there...last night I was reading a section about the Transients, she was studying, and their calls...
...so being awakened to Ts in the early morning...very nice...


...that book may also cause you to think about the Southern Residents and the issues they face...
...as far as where the Residents are???...last I heard that Ks and some Ls were heading west, but no Js were seen with them...that's another 'hummmmm'...could Js have been way up ahead?...or way behind?...or are they still up north or...or perhaps they came back down silently...

12-9-15 It's Been So Windy!

Wednesday, December 9th

...at 4:00 a.m. on December 8th a humpback whale woke me up...over the Orca Sound hydrophones...

~~~
This Saturday at Lime Kiln lighthouse are their annual festivities... 
With all the wind and storms...

Watch out for flying Christmas Wreaths!!

 

...in the interest of saving the whales by saving salmon and getting the four lower Snake River dams removed, here's a catchy little poem...

The phone number:

202 456-1111 Eastern Time, 

Monday through Friday 

Feel free to pass it along.

12-7-15 Were Those Pacific White Sided Dolphins?!

Monday, December 7th
...late morning, while just arriving in town, I hear that 'orca' - 1?, 10? how many? don't know...were seen near Sidney Island...well if it was the Residents who I think went up in the wee hours on 12-5, then I wanted to find out...U-turn and on my way back...
...just as I charge in the door I hear what sounds like 'chirping birds' on the Orca Sound hydrophones...but it lasted only a few seconds...hummm...
...scanning along the west side revealed nothing especially with the seas not so nice and the rain coming down...
...however, I was now recording...later on I looked and there on the Lime Kiln hydrophones were 4 additional times of those 'chirping birds' sounds!...I was quite surprised...so they were there between 11:30 on Orca Sound and the last over Lime Kiln at 1:45, each time for only a few seconds...

...It sounds like it was LAGS - Pacific White sided dolphins...which would be really neat...they have shown up here in December in the last few years...
...here's what I heard:

...maybe someone will spot them, that is when the seas decide to calm down, because right now it would be near impossible to tell Lags from white caps!

...winter hydrophones...excellent!
 

12-5-15 FOUR Hours Over the Hydrophones!

Saturday - 00:04 - in the middle of the night...

...after having learned they were going west Friday afternoon...to be awakened by J pod calls and then K pod calls over the Lime Kiln hydrophones...the calls increasing in volume "they're coming up!"...well, that's music to my ears...
...then after a short while they started coming over the Orca Sound hydrophones and it sounded like they were continuing up Haro Strait...but I am still hearing J pod clearly over Lime Kiln...

...it is stormy, so instead of ship noise it is ocean noise...

...the whales are very faint over Orca Sound hydrophones (00:57 a.m.) and a bit louder over Lime Kiln...

...at this time of year, these are the encounters that are more common, especially with the stormy seas...

...oh, they are getting louder over Lime Kiln now...

~~~
  ...on Dec 2nd in the middle of the night I heard about 10 seconds of Transient calls over Lime Kiln...
...then on Dec 3rd at 9:30 pm I heard J pod calls over Lime Kiln, in the distance and could not tell a direction...then on Dec 4th in the afternoon, word came that J, K and L pod whales were in the vicinity of Race Rocks heading west...
..."okay, now I know where they were, it's back to dealing with the firewood,"
~~~

 ...so when they woke me up just a bit ago...well that was very unexpected...

...and now, 1:01...I can still hear J pod calls, they aren't as loud as they had been over Lime Kiln, but I'm not hearing any over Orca Sound (4 miles to the north)...
...hummm...did they change their direction and go down island?...they might have come around Discovery and headed up a bit and across and that's why they were heard only briefly and very faint over Orca Sound...
...now nothing over Orca Sound hydrophones and surprisingly a ship coming into range over Lime Kiln...I guess they are getting through before the really nasty day that's coming, or so the weather lady said...
...I still heard J pod, but much fainter over Lime Kiln until about 1:08...and nothing since then over either set of hydrophones...
...it makes me wonder about the previous time they had come back toward the island but it was not ever confirmed as to where they had gone and J pod was not seen until 10 days later...the day they were seen in San Juan Channel then Spieden Channel and some down past Lime Kiln...


...okay, now back to the present: ...it's now 1:32a.m. and that ship is really loud - it's passing Lime Kiln now...I can see its lights...LOL!...yep, that's the ship...

...2:05 a.m.  no telling which way the whales went..."good night"...

...NO WAIT ! - 2:20 a.m. they are on Orca Sound hydrophones now! and clearly!!...also on Lime Kiln but they are definitely going UP now!...and another ship...and the wind is starting...it's supposed to be a nasty day...

...and louder and on and on...it's almost 3:00 a.m. and I can't think of a better way to spend the middle of the night than listening to the whales...

...3:37 and I'm hearing them again on Orca Sound - louder and closer too - coming back down?...maybe?...well just a few it seemed...
...then by 3:58 a.m. the last of them drifted off the Orca Sound hydrophones...
...I'd say they went north!  ...and now it's good night...

...it's later now...11:26 a.m. and it is very nasty out there...here's my version:

...stay out of the way of falling tree branches too!  

12-1-15 Wild and Crazy Calls

Tuesday, December 1st
...I thought about J pod this morning, but didn't know I would actually end up seeing some of them!...their whereabouts have not been known for about the last ten days...so when whales showed up coming up San Juan Channel this morning and one adult male was seen...hummm...well, that sounded like transients...
...so I was on my way to see who might be out there and not knowing anything except that I had to go and see, because that is what I do :)...
...I learn from Ivan, Western Prince, who had gotten out there to see just who was present - it was Group A and the K13s!
...they were on the far side of the channel...

...after leaving Spieden Channel they began coming down island...but only the K13s did I hear over the hydrophones and only the K13s did I see coming down island passing the lighthouse...
...when they did, there were some fascinating calls over the hydrophones...I stopped video tape so I could get ID images of who was going by...that's why this video clip is sort of strange...video/images/audio all together to help give you the idea of what the whales were doing...

...I have heard similar 'wild and crazy calls' just before porpoising...so this really got my attention...
...there were only a few people at the park...after all it is December and it was cold and very windy...after a while and no more sightings of anyone else coming down everyone left...
...no sooner do I get on to the next thing for the day..."whales in San Juan Channel" - yikes...off and running again...this time toward the bottom end of the island...oops!...they turned north...back up island...I actually made it before they got there but they were so extremely far away...there were a lot of birds flying above the whales...which will sometimes have one thinking it is Ts. Not this time.
...I learned from Ivan of the Western Prince that it was Group B whales!...very cool...so it seemed that all of the family groups were represented even if not all in the same location at the same time.

...so where will the K13s show up again next?...and will all of J pod be together next time we see them?