This began similar to the previous encounter - whales far offshore, but this time the seas were calm, the sun was shining and a few of the whales surprised those of us along the shore as they passed by Lime Kiln lighthouse.
The whales were quite vocal too. There were a few people there and the whales really surprised them. Then I turned up the volume on the hydrophones and they were amazed that they were actually hearing the whales! Fun stuff!Just past the lighthouse, in a spot that used to be common for them to take a look for salmon, one of the whales changed direction and was actively foraging. Always hoping they are successful, and it sure looked like it! Nugget gave a great demonstration of what it looks like when they are chasing a salmon - lots of direction changes, two others came and joined in and then they were under the surface for a few minutes - eating? Likely. Because when they surfaced, they were in the same location and began to calmly move down island again.
There were many L Pod whales, those who went north with J Pod a couple days before. Later I learned that the L12s had shown up south of San Juan Island. Read the Center for Whale Research's Encounter from that day. Some awesome images...makes me smile while I'm typing this.
I don't know where J Pod is...still up north? came down a different way? Once again, only J Pod knows for sure! That reminds me to turn up the volume on the hydrophones :)
