3-6-11 Onyx Has Take Up Residency with J Pod!

Sunday, March 6th
...I'm at the computer, hydrophones on (of course) it's late morning..."I just heard something. There it is again."...off and running - I knew there were whales out there, but where?
...I went to all my 'watch' places and couldn't locate any...and then finally I spotted someone way on the other side of the Strait...I could see they were heading up island, spread out and I knew by now that it was J pod...
...finally I got a picture - Granny J-2 !...here's a bit of perspective - she was about a mile from shore...

I saw another whale a few hundred yards behind her - thought it might be Spieden J-8 and a male not too far behind her...that might be Onyx L-87, but too far to be sure...
...out with Capt. Jim of Maya's Westside Charters we barely got out of the harbor when a passenger spotted whales to the south and another spotted more to the north of us...we went to investigate -
Granny was in the lead!...Spieden and Onyx, though not side-by-side, were traveling parallel not far behind Granny!
...very cool - Onyx L-87 has taken up residency with J pod!

...Alki J-36 got a bead on a salmon...

...I wonder if she had another one in front of her!
...Echo J-42, Alki's sister was nearby with mom Slick J-16...

...Riptide J-30...

...his mom Samish J-14 and Hy'Shqa J-37 were present, but where were Samish's other two...Suttles J-40 was traveling by herself and Se-Yi-Chn J-45 was with Princess Angeline J-17 and her family group. that's interesting...

...looking back to the south we could see another group of whales - ah...that was the rest of Group B - Rhapsody J-32, Oreo J-22 and her two boys as well as Blackberry J-27 and his brother and sister...
...by the end of the encounter we knew that all of Group A and Group B were present except for Ruffles...
...Ruffles absence was apparent now...it would take a while for that realization to sink in...