Wednesday:
...hearing several Transient calls over the Lime Kiln hydrophones in the early morning...but not too early...this time I thought I might be able to find them.
...it took about 1 1/2 hours and giving up the search, walking to my car when something caught my eye...oh, my...miles from shore - an adult male orca!
...doesn't matter how many times, it is always fun when you find one, especially when this one was at least 4 miles offshore...way too far to get any photos.
...there was another with this one...they evidently had come up Haro Strait and made it as far up as Baynes Channel, or almost to Baynes...looked like they found a meal, from that lunging and splashing I could see, and then turned around and went back out...
...I later learned it was T117 and T172...I haven't ever seen T117 before but I have seen T172...she is a great example of the phrase, "Transient orcas never die." That's because you just never know when they might show up again. T172 is a great example, at least for this area...she hadn't been seen since 2012 and then showed up briefly, last year and now this year.
...as I was about to get into my car and was putting my cell phone in my pocket I heard a strange noise...wondering what button I had pushed on my phone, I looked and saw that I had taken a burst of images...
...had I not been looking for those whales, had I not found them, I would likely have not seen the 'happy accident' above my head!
Thursday
...there were other Transients that were spotted to the north...slowly making their way toward the west side...it turned out to be a day of 'will they or won't they' because they kept changing direction...
...it was the T86As (minus T86A1), T101s, and T124A2s...
...after the whales had passed by, quite close to the lighthouse, there were a couple groupings of gulls and they were doing what they normally do when on top of a bait ball...
...when I looked at my images I wondered what the heck they were eating...looked more like spider legs to me...I sent the image off and got a reply that they were sandlance...so it was on to learning more about them...
...I know there are sandlance in these waters, I've just not ever seen gulls eating them before in this area, but am more used to seeing them eating what you can actually see is a bait fish...
...now it is different...
...not sure how long it will stay this way, but as long as they are finding food somewhere else that's okay with me...
...as long as the powers-that-be start taking immediate action to restore this ecosystem...
...in the meantime I will continue to listen, to watch for, and wait for the SRKWs and while I wait I hope more 'happy accidents' will come my way.
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