10-15-15 They Came In and Went Up

Thursday, October 15th
...the whales had gone out the Strait of Juan de Fuca the other evening...and today they were seen coming back in...that was at about 11:00...
...how fast would they come in?...which way would they go when they did get here?...those are the questions I was getting...all I could say is, "do you have food and water, layers, and sun block...if not go now...the wait might be a long one and it might not, but better to have all that with you than to realize you are starving just before the whales get here!"
...those questions got answered in due time...it was about 2:30 when they were approaching the lighthouse...
...of course the sun was wonderful, except for the glare part...it was windy but the lighthouse blocked some of that wind...
...they were coming!

...there were lots of vocalizations and echolocation clicks over the hydrophones...thanks Bob for the use of the radio for broadcasting - the folks loved the added dimension!...
...the whales were working cooperatively to get salmon...

...Granny J-2 was at the front with the J22s...as she was coming up she changed direction a few times, so I don't know if she continued on or if she came up later...the J22s did continue on...
...Blackberry J-27 and Mako J-39 were far offshore and were being harassed by some Dall's porpoise...
...the J16s were present...we saw some moms and babies coming into the park but that was it...did see Echo J-42 and Mike J-26 on the up side of the sun track...
...a Coast Guard boat came through...

...a seiner went by (well, a lot of seiners went by), Shachi J-19 did a cartwheel just aft of the boat...and then she breached...

...a Humpback...actually there were two...

...some of the J17s were coming up...one of the adults surfaced ahead of the others and turned facing down island...she stopped...a few moments later another joined her and they both faced down island...the other two were coming up...were the first two waiting for the other two?...there was a seiner setting their net on the off side of the whales and another seiner not doing anything on the shore side of the whales...the four together moved on through...there was plenty of room between the two boats...

...not sure about the K13s, but there were many K and J calls mixed all through the passby and that's because the whales were in many mixed groups...
...the K14s and the J14s and Onyx L-87 went on by...
...and then about 25 minutes later two of the K12s, Tika K-33 and his mom, Sekiu K-22 came up island, passing the lighthouse just after 6 pm...

...only one L pod whale passed by the lighthouse in the daylight and that was Onyx L-87...
...later that evening from about 9:30 to 10:15 some whales were going back down island...
...then at 1:00 in the morning some whales went up island...and those happened to be at least a large group of L pod whales...

...where are they now?...that's a good question!