Transients and Harbor Seals

Mom harbor seal 
Mom and pup

above - white mark is sun glare

two imaegs - mom and very youngg pup

Mom is still paying attention to what???
 

ah-ha! she was paying attention to those Transient orcas.              Whew!  Safe for today...

This was NOT today but just imagine what that little seal might tell that gull about today's encounter!

Day 1 of the Study and 2 HBs show up!

The Study? Since 1990 a wonderful fella began a study regarding the Southern Resident orcas - J, K and L pods. He has retired now but the study continues.  It begins each year on May 20th and today whales showed up! It wasn't J, K or L pods but it was a mom and calf humpback!

At least the first day of the study there was something to put on the sightings board!  yay! There have been several humpbacks returning to the Salish sea in recent weeks and there will likely be more coming in. They don't come in large groups but instead sometimes there is just one humpback that passes by and other times there is a mom and calf.

Here are a few images of the mom and calf who passed by Lime Kiln lighthouse today and today they were much closer to the San Juan shore than the previous HBs!  More will likely be coming.

It is hoped that the Southern Residents return soon but it's still a bit early and they need to be where their food source is.

May 17th - Can you find the whales

Word of orcas in Haro Strait earlier today - yay!

However, they were far from shore...estimated to be 5-plus miles. 

Oh, that will be a challenge...

Can you see them? (note: most images are out of focus...not easy to get a far-from-shore moving whale in focus! )

What was their location? 

                                 The background is your clue...

Two Humpback Whales Today

They were far offshore when spotted by others.  At first some thought it might be orcas but there was definitely a humpback out there.

Though distant images showed that what looked like it could be an orca it was actually the tail flukes of the adult humpback.

There was another humpback present & it might have been an offspring.

If so this might be the first of this season's mom/calf pair coming up Haro Strait.  Too cool!

The land in the distance is Vancouver Island.  That's when others began seeing the exhale of the Humpback.

This was zoomed in enough to confirm that what may have looked like an orca in the distance was actually the tail flukes of a humpback...and with a smaller HB.

The underside of the tail fluke shows there is a lot of white and the skinny thing sticking up is the other tail fluke.

These next two images indicate that one was much larger than the other....hum...mom and calf??

Difficult to see - there are 2 'things' barely on the surface that are actually the tip of the tail flukes of the larger HB.

Terribly out of focus... it is the left tail fluke & shows a distinct 'hook'.

Shows location...See the blows?

The one on the right might look like an orca but those are the tail flukes of the HB.

Great spotting of these far from shore whales today!  

Thanks everyone!

Fun for Mother's Day on May 11th

...with Mother's Day being May 11th...

...Grandma, Shachi J-19 with the youngest member of the J19 family. 

...taken from the shore at Lime Kiln, this eagle was down on the rocks below the lighthouse - amazing!

Yes, mom was up in a tree, somewhere!

An unexpected Surprise this morning

May 8th

9:00 a.m. I had just gotten to the park (Lime Kiln) and I knew there was a problem with the web cam not streaming...but I stopped at the Listening Station near the Lighthouse and pushed the button...only to hear seconds later, Transient orcas and a few faint vocals. That was a surprise!

Put my things down and grabbed my binoculars because their vocals were quite distant...

It took a while but a few boats appeared so I had a 'target' to focus on - yay!

A fella came along and I told him about the orcas...soon enough he had his chair out and watched those orcas for a couple hours...yep, they were in no hurry to go anywhere and neither was he!

Fun morning surprise and met a 'new' orca enthusiast too!!

I'm guessing the Ts were maybe 3 miles offshore from the lighthouse and possibly more. I was about to get a few images but didn't know what I had until later.  The Ts were heading south in Haro Strait and looked like maybe they might be heading toward Discovery Island.

All that land in the distance is Canada! 

-the image below - the whale might look close to that boat but it wasn't. If it had been close the whale's blow (exhale) would have been much higher if that makes any sense.

You just never know what you might hear on the Lime Kiln or other hydrophones and also that you might just happen to be in the right place at the right time...fun day!