Tuesday, October 28, 2014

10-28-14 The Whereabouts of SRKWs

Saturday-Tuesday, October 25-28th
Saturday
...it started before midnight on the 24th and lasted for a long time into Saturday the 25th...I recorded over three hours, but the calls were intermittent, extremely faint in the beginning, increasing and then fading out again...originally I only heard J and K calls but after listening again I picked up L pod calls too...here's a short clip...the slight breaks of silence you hear are spaces indicating these are all separate and occurred sometime throughout the long event...


...sometime on Saturday afternoon whales were seen in Puget Sound...and again on Sunday...

...on Monday whales were reported in Rosario Strait...that would be unusual for the Residents, but with a reporting of a large group, it most likely was...would we find out??? - wow!...thanks to the Odyssey for locating the RESIDENTS!!
...on Maya's Westside Charters we had just left a couple humpbacks when word came in...okay - how about a longer trip today folks?!  Yes!...and we were on our way...
...the whales were in the Strait of Georgia and the seas were not very friendly out there...we could see whales spread for miles...
...Crewser...
...Scoter K-25
...there were whales way up ahead, off to the east...and even to the south...
...Kelp K-42 zooming on by...
...Patos Island lighthouse and Lobo K-26...
...no J pod whales did we see...but they were all heading in the direction of the Coal Docks...so who knows who was up ahead!

...then comes Tuesday, 10-28-14...12:30 in the afternoon calls burst over the speakers...I just dropped everything and ran...got to south of the park...and kept going...
...the seas were brutal looking, to me anyway...
...and today I was able to fill in some of the ID gaps from Monday...
I can at least say that I saw some members of each of the four family groups of L pod, those who travel as a unit - L26s, L4s, L43s, and L21s...
 ...Marina and Mystic turned back up island for a few minutes...
...nasty seas?...and understatement!
...just to give you an idea of distance...usually called 'killer whale dots'...
...luckily my camera did the long distance work...
...and Crewser's tall fin helped out too...

...and those calls...quite different from the other night...once again, the slight breaks indicate separate calls...

...I didn't see any J or K pod whales...I don't have a clue where J pod went after I heard them on the hydrophones early on Saturday...and I only know that some K pod whales had gone north on Monday...

...the plot thickens...


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