11-30-14 What Were They Doing?

...yesterday that is..this is a continuation from yesterday's post.
...click to enlarge the cartoon...

...my attempt to show what the whales might have been doing during their unusual foraging behavior yesterday...
...in the center are the small fish...
...surrounding them are the winter Chinook - aka Blackmouth...
...BTW...the Blackmouth are not paying attention to anything but the little fish...
...the orcas, notice the smiles on their faces...waiting...
...and then they would begin going after the salmon...see the video clip on the prior post...

...I hope you enjoy the picture...it took me hours to make - LOL!!!

11-29-14 J Pod Left The Scene Undetected!

Friday/Saturday, November 28/29th
Friday, November 28th
...an audio whale evening...J and K pod calls over the Port Townsend hydrophones at about 10pm...they were coming out of Puget sound...

...Saturday, November 29th
...28 degrees, winds gusting big time, and whales spotted in several places not far from Friday Harbor...it was a great time to try out some of that cold weather gear...and off to Ruben Tarte Park to see if I could spot whales amongst those white caps, wind and chill...no whales...
...but later in the day they showed back up again...having gone west through Spieden Channel...it was still biting cold, but the wind had slowed a bit and the seas were actually not too bad...so....out with Capt. Jim to see who was there...
...as we approached the location we couldn't see a whale anywhere!...there were supposed to be 45 whales here...
...one group surfaced in the distance and instead of going west they had changed direction and were heading back toward Spieden Channel...

...it was J pod and Onyx L-87...Granny was in the lead...

...K pod was here too!

...their behavior was unusual in the way they moved...'almost quietly'...in a large circle and very slowly moved in closer...

...and then...zoom!...zoom!...zoom!-that's on the video clip...they were after something...I commented that it looked like they were going after herring...of course I have no idea what that looks like...
...but the whales were after fish and as my 'go to fisherman for education' told me it's winter Chinook time...maybe the whales were after the Chinook...and the Chinook were after the small fish...that makes more sense!

...and in the end J pod was nowhere to be seen and only K pod was present...
...J pod had 'quietly' left the scene while we were focused on all that zooming by the K pod whales. Amazing!...and they had so many options as to which way to go!
...K pod continued to  traveled down Haro Strait...

...it was getting late...we dropped off and went into the harbor...they continued on down and where they will be tomorrow is a good question!

11-26-14 The Answer Came on Wednesday

Tuesday, November 25th
...it was about 8 a.m. when I began hearing the whales over the Port Townsend hydrophones...the whales were heading out...
...several hours later their calls could be heard very faintly over the Lime Kiln hydrophones...I guessed that the whales were somewhere in the Hein Bank area...
...then another hour or so later they came across the Lime Kiln hydrophones again, only this time a bit louder, though still in the distance...as I was listening, their calls (Js and Ks I only heard) increased in volume...and they sounded like they were reacting to something - they were very vocal!...I made a note:  "fish or more whales?"
...soon they moved out of hydrophone range...and I heard nothing more over the hydrophones until the next morning...

Wednesday, November 26th
...early light (almost). flat calm water...in fact it was so pretty out there I stepped outside and just looked...and looked and soaked it all in...I thought "it would be nice if the whales were here." - I didn't think they were...
...over the Lime Kiln hydrophones I heard a short squeak...then nothing...then a ship's noise began...I heard nothing more until 45 minutes later, when at 7:43 a.m. the whales' calls burst over the Lime Kiln hydrophones!
There was the answer from yesterday: "more whales"!  J and K pods must have heard L pod coming in from the west! (but no one would know that until later in the morning.)
 
...I called Ken Balcomb at the Center for Whale Research...he said he could see them...etc...so out the door and to the park I went...
...when I saw the whales they were heading down island...maybe close to three miles off shore (or more)...I wondered if maybe they had come through Baynes Channel...
...I watched as the whales, I was seeing, got to Beaumont Shoals marker and turned away from San Juan Island...I had expected they would have continued on a right to left direction as I was watching them, but instead I could only see them as they headed away...but that is only from my visual point on shore...and I wasn't seeing 78 whales...
...out on Maya's Westside Charters...Capt. Jim gathered up the people early and we were off the dock...by that time the whales were somewhere in the area of the south Hein Bank marker (it's out there in that big span of water-water, and they were heading for Puget Sound...
...on our way Capt. Jim talked to Dave of the Center...he and Ken were out there and stated that all members of the Community were present!  WOW!
...what a wonderful day it was...at one point I felt like on whale overload!...we have hardly had all members of the Community in here at the same time - a real full Superpod - this entire season...

...when we saw them they were in mixed groups...
...with Blackberry and Comet were Spirit L-22 and Mako J-39...there were others with them as well...

...off in the distance was a large group...

...they too were all mixed...they don't all surface as a full group at the same time and this was a good example...best I got in this group were 8 up at the same time...and all the images I took of this distance group showed that there were at least 12 whales - ...Racer L-72 and Fluke L-105, Shachi J-19, Eclipse J-41, Matia L-77, Joy L-119, Ocean Sun L-25... Tahlequah J-35, Notch J-47, Cali K-34, Tsuchi J-31, Calypso L-94...and more I couldn't get a positive IDs on...
...the farthest to the left is the tail fluke of Fluke L-105!...everyone else was moving along and he was 'goofing along'.

...one of the whales spyhopped and then on her next surfacing had kelp on her head...

...she continued on and then surfaced again with the most kelp I have ever seen a whale carry on its head...maybe she had a salmon caught in it!

...a different group surprised us...they too were all mixed...
Moonlight L-83 and Midnight L-110 in front...not sure who is behind them...also in this group were Hy'Shqa J-37 and her boy T'ilem I'nges J-49 and Solstice L-89!

...Ocean Sun L-25 started doing these 1/2 breaches!  wow!

...Capt. Jim caught sight of a submarine next to a ship - whales and ships heading in the same direction...

...when we last left them it was just 1:00pm...

...it was 6pm when I began hearing them over the Port Townsend hydrophones...

...those in Puget Sound may have Thanksgiving whales this year like we did in the San Juans last year....and who knows (well the whales do) we might just have Thanksgiving weekend whales too!

11-23-14 Going Into or Coming Out of Puget Sound?

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!

11/17-18/14 Vocal J Pod, Humpback, and Barking Sea Lion

Monday, November 17th
...at about 2 a.m. Transient calls on the Lime Kiln hydrophones...only for a few minutes and very distant...

...two nights ago at about 11pm I heard K pod calls...not sure about Ls or Js...but I didn't know a direction...so when I heard, via the grapevine, that Simon of Ocean Ecoventures got word that lots of whales had exited Active Pass going north yesterday morning (11/16)...well, that must have been them...but it was still a mystery as to who and where...
...then at 8:45 a.m. this morning (11/17), I'm talking to Ivan of the Western Prince who is telling me that Traci saw Residents at Turn Pt. and they were heading down...oh, goodie..."wait, I hear calls right now, but they are faint!"...so some were coming from the north...but were there others to the south?...throw on the winter clothes, watch the icy roads and get to the park to go find out...
...all I did was wait and wait but no whales in sight...then my phone rang and I was soon on the Center for Whale Research boat, Chimo, with Dave Ellifrit...we knew that whales were spread out...but that far?!
...one here, one there...they would surface once and be gone...who was present?...
...the first whale we saw was Onyx L-87 - ATTENTION PLEASE! - he is the one who travels with J pod and mainly Group A of J pod...so we started to look for the J pod whales...nope...not over there, or over there...
...by the end of the time with the whales we knew that we had not seen any J pod whales and at that time we didn't know of anyone else who had either...later I learned that both Traci and Monika had gotten a picture of Granny J-2!  what?...wild!...she and Onyx L-87...no other J pod whales were seen at all by anyone! - I think!
...click here for the Encounter page on the Center for Whale Research site for the write up by Dave and some of our pictures from the encounter...this encounter may not be posted just yet, but you can check CWR's encounter page... (11/18) Tuesday, 3 a.m. J pod calls loud and clear on Orca Sound hydrophones....
they were there for a while and then stopped...
...after re-listening to the recording I heard faint J pod calls behind some loud ship noise...
...then at 4:10 a.m. they started up again on the Orca Sound hydrophones again...
...and they had an accompaniment - a humpback whale!!!

...two hours later there was a strange sound...a barking California sea lion! - barking under the surface...

both were over the Orca Sound hydrophones...that was at about 6 a.m.
...it's pretty wild out there...

...I spotted the humpback whale from shore at about 8 a.m.
...at about 10 a.m. five California sea lions swam by in front of my place...
...but no killer whales did I see today!