November 28 - what a fun Thanksgiving Day treat!
J Pod had exited Puget Sound in the morning and there was a slight chance they would come into hydrophone range...
...it was at about 2:40 in the afternoon when I heard a very faint call...yay!...the calls were not easily detected but I was listening and watching...
...I figured they could not be seen because the seas were rough and the whales were a great distance away...
...so here's a short clip of some of their calls...
...yes, they are quite distant...but they were there...
...always special to hear them...
11-26-19
It was quite a treat to see this, this morning...
Catching up over the last several days...
J Pod had been north of the Fraser for a few days...
then they came south and were first spotted off Victoria heading west...
and then...and then...
the next day they were in Puget Sound!
...hmmm...were more salmon heading in?...
..and now today (11-24) they are still in Puget Sound...
...sure do wish the water was cleaner down there...
...in the meantime whether from shore on out on the Western Prince, here are a few images...
Those Scratches on the Humpback
...this is BCZ0298 with some unusual 'scratches'
I wonder what it is from?
...fishing gear?
...transient orcas?
...sea lion harassment? (I heard that was going on out in Juan de Fuca)...
...something else?
(note: known as 'Split Fin, BCZ0298 has has had that split dorsal fin for many years.)
...there is a bloody spot in front of the dorsal fin...and there appears to be some kind of 'holes' or something that had...
...no alarm here, just curiosity...
...on another day, and just about everyday for the last several weeks, California sea lions, sometimes one and sometimes three have come by the park...
...one morning I was photographing some Buffleheads, a winter bird, when something caught my eye!
...another day...the blow of a humpback caught my eye, in the early morning...eight minute dives and a challenge to track...that is until it came past the lighthouse :)
I sent this image to researchers, as I hadn't seen this humpback before...MMY0080, which is a temporary ID assignment...
...and then there is the 'daily dependable' -great-blue-heron...
...no Southern Residents...but out on the Western Prince the T18s were spotted in San Juan Channel...we were still at the dock when we saw them passing by the entrance to Friday Harbor!...that was amazing!
...then out on the water we watched them for a while...
...this is my most fun picture of them...silly, but fun...
...the T18s are seen often throughout the year...but of course one never knows when they will appear...or where they will be on any given day...
So, what is unusual looking about this image?
Who is going which direction?
November is not a time for seeing J, K or L Pods...but you just never know...
...always on the lookout...
Interesting and unusual sounds.
The sounds from humpbacks are usually more obvious.
On this evening, there were some sounds that were made either by not HBs or maybe this HB(s) was copying some others!
This is the fourth time I have heard HBs over the Lime Kiln hydrophones this year, and each time it occurs after dark. On this evening it was just after 6pm.
Fun stuff! Enjoy...
...let's first backup a few days...
November 13 - Late afternoon. They are out there. They, who? The J16s.
Thank you, Rod, Eagle Wing WW out of Victoria, for the “coming your
way”. Though you can’t see them in this image, that was their backdrop. At first I heard a few faint calls. A couple was sitting nearby
and heard their calls, which brought 😊
to the people’s faces. It took a good while to locate the whales... offshore a
good ways and far south of the park. Saw a splash-and another...then
twice seeing that tall dorsal fin of Mike J-26. They are an independent
family unit (four in this family) and have been for many years. No telling where they will
be tomorrow, but we know now that at least for a couple days this group
was likely not in Puget Sound with the other J Pod whales. Now I wonder
if there are others from K and/or L with Js in PS.
...it may be a pretty picture...but knowing that some of the SRKWs are down there makes it even prettier...
...I kept scanning.
...the seas were not completely flat but there were NO white caps occurring, so when I saw a splash - oh, about 3 miles distant - I at least knew where to look...bingo!
There was Mike's J-26 dorsal fin...
...the rest of J Pod and Onyx L-87 had been in Puget Sound for several days...
..they were leaving Puget Sound in the late afternoon on the 14th...
...J16s were not seen on the 14th (as far as I know)...
...but who knows maybe they all met up...
...on November 15th J Pod whales were seen heading west in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, but where exactly...hmmm...
...in the wee hours of November 16...faint calls over the Lime Kiln hydrophones...
...yesterday there had been a good rain...more salmon moving in????
...this is beginning to shape up like back in 2013 when the whales were here for Thanksgiving!
...I wish ALL could have a good Thanksgiving.
...keeping in mind all the things we each can do to help this ecosystem recover...which will help the salmon recover and the Southern Residents to recover...
After all IT IS THEIR HOME not ours...
Tuesday, November 5th
...yesterday on the 4th there were members of J, K, and L pods present in the Strait of Juan de Fuca...not all, but evidently many of them...
...so why was I surprised when I heard a call at 07:40 this morning...
...they were coming in from Discovery Island, I thought...
...during that first hour I heard, a few J Pod calls and a few K Pod calls...but later when I learned who was present...well, that changed who might have been 'saying' what...the L54s were here today and they 'speak' K Pod (kitten sounding call)...I've documented that many times in past years...not sure about J Pod though...maybe they were there or maybe just a family group - like the J16s will often split off from the rest of J Pod...or someone from K or L could have been calling out to J Pod...don't know...
...the whales were quite vocal for several hours...'til about about noon or a bit after...
...there was foraging going on, echolocation clicks were heard...
...it is always special to see them...and to see what will present itself as distractions while watching the whales!
...when they were going up island, fewer images because of their distance...when they came down they were still a good ways off...except for a couple of them...
...I wonder if that is a new 'dog' on the bow - ha-ha...I don't see little Eba
...so I had to include this...my favorite pic of the day !
...when will the whales be here?...people ask all the time...well, I certainly would not have thought on November 5th!
