4/11/2024 J Pod Spring Time Passby

 4-11-2024

What a wonderful surprise to first hear J Pod calls over the SMRU hydrophones located at Lime Kiln.  I wasn't there but since The Whale Museum has webcam and SMRU has the hydrophones...  Little did I know that J Pod was in two groups.  The first group had already passed County Park, going north and since I am a bit farther north of there I stepped out the door to listen for their blows.  Yes!  Awesome!  I could not see them and they were far offshore, so when their blows faded into the distance I went back inside and opened the web cam site:  TheWhaleMuseum - YouTube

Oh, my goodness! I just heard a very loud J Pod vocal! So I watched and waited and after a while some showed up going north.  

Ahhh - this was group 2.

It's been a long winter and not many sightings, this was very special, even if they were in the distance at Lime Kiln.  Their vocals were awesome too.

I watched and took pictures, though very distant.  This group spent a good bit of time offshore from the lighthouse...with many direction changes and their behaviors indicated they might have been chasing salmon This is often the time of year for the endangered SRKWs to begin coming in...likely following their food source.  Let's hope!

These are not good images but it gives you an idea...they are heavily cropped and taken from the video cam as the action was occuring...

...there were many direction changes and eventually upisland they went.

Thank you J Pod.