Monday, October 5, 2015

10-5-15 A Social Encounter of the Whale Kind

Monday, October 5th
...it was a long way and it was so worth it for all on board...out on Peregrine with Capt. Jim we were heading in the direction of some humpback whales when the Capt. heard that J, K, and L pods whales were on their way in...but they were really far away...

...as we arrived on scene...
...it was a social kind of encounter...not for us but for the whales...



 


...and some such as DoubleStuf J-34 and his mom, Oreo J-22, were together and then Kasatka L-82 and Finn L-116 surfaced with them...at one point J-34 and J-22 were traveling with Tika K-33 and his mom, Sekiu K-22...all around them were lots of others - males and females small groups and large, but it was the groups of males of various ages all mixed up that got my attention...
...Crewser L-92, Cali K-34, surfacing with DoubleStuf J-34 at one point...
...Wave Walker L-88 and Scoter K-25......
...and later on it was Wave Walker and Moby J-44...
...Cali K-34, Cappuccino K-21, Nigel L-95 were getting around...
...off in another direction was Nyssa L-84 and others...
...I kept hearing Ino L-54's 'flute' sound when she inhales but there was so much going I wasn't sure exactly where she was, but I knew she was present!
...when I looked at my images I saw that she was traveling with Racer L-72, Deadhead K-27 and her offspring Ripple K-44...in this group were also the J19s, including baby J-51...and others...


...and then Cookie J-38 surfaced and the lighting was perfect to show his new rake marks - He's a 'new member of the Rake Marks Club!...that now makes five of the males in less than 12 months who have these marks (see prior post)...J-38's marks are a bit less but they are still there...

...I find it unusual to see so many of them with these teeth marks...I don't know what the other side of his dorsal fin looks like, but these rake marks are slight compared to some of the others...a lot of others in the community have old faint remnants of these type of marks, so it's nothing new...it's just seeing so many obvious new ones, one last fall on L-105 and this year J-34, K-35, K-38 and now J-38...

...we ended up seeing some whales from each of the family groups in J pod...
...K pod - some whales from each matriline except the K14s who were most likely with Granny J-2 and Onyx L-87...
...and L pod whales, we saw some members of all the family groups except for the L47s who might still be being the leaders (they have been recently)...
...also didn't see the L12s...they might have been there, we just didn't see them...and they often 'do their own thing' anyway...

..we'll just have to wait until the next time...perhaps tomorrow?


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