Wednesday, May 31st
...back up a couple days to May 28th when J Pod came in, disappeared in the fog while in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and showed up off Lime Kiln lighthouse about 6 hours later...they were going north with the current and the current was going unbelievably fast!...zoom-on-by they did!!
...they went up north - somewhere - yet only seen once on the 29th and not seen on the 30th...hummm...so where might they be...
...didn't know, but decided it was time to start going to the park early and just wait...so...nice leisurely drive to the park at 6 a.m....nice leisurely walk along the long path that leads to 'the wall' at the south end of the park...
...a few minutes just taking it all in...flat calm water, chilly but the sun would be over the hill in a bit, looking across at the sun on the clouds and hillside of some of the Candian islands that dot the west side of Haro Strait...AND THEN - a whale surfaces...
...as the whale got closer I could see it was Shachi J-19!
...what luck! Once again Shachi was in the lead of J Pod...the trend is continuing...not far behind her were Slick J-16, Scarlet J-50, and Echo J-42...and the procession continued...I saw some members of each of the J Pod family groups...but no adult males...then maybe about 3 miles from shore I could see Mike J-26......AND THEN I saw Onyx L-87 and another with him...it looked like Cookie J-38...there were others offshore as well...maybe about 6 to 8 but I couldn't tell exactly who...just too far away...
...they continued down island...still in the distance...and after some time the inshore group of moms and kids headed offshore...and then I saw some of those who had been offshore, meet up...nothing fancy just that they met back together and then I watched to see what they would do next...and it looked like they were going west...
...this bald eagle interrupted my watching, however...
...then the whales adjusted their direction a bit and began heading up island...they were still miles from shore...
AND THEN...
AND THEN - they began angling toward the lighthouse!...
...that is until the last two to pass by...Oreo J-22 and Cookie J-38...here's one of them...
...I dashed up to County Park only to be totally surprised to see how close to shore some of the whales had come...
...that is kelp draping off Mike J-26...
...it's not common for the whales to come on the inside of Low Island at County Park...
...off to just one more place where I could peek through the trees...glad I did...
...and while there I noticed a whale way behind everyone else, maybe by a mile or more and way far offshore...had it not been so flat calm it would have been difficult to see him...it was Onyx...AND THEN...there was another male about a 1/2 mile behind Onyx!...and that was Blackberry J-27...
...while watching the whales way in the distance I notice a little dark looking boat far away...AND THEN I noticed they were doing something but I couldn't tell what...it appeared there was some activity going on but what I don't know...it was unusual to see something like this - things being placed in the water with whales approaching...
...AND THEN I saw Soundwatch, on the water boater education program of The Whale Museum, approaching that little black boat...
...AND THEN I saw that little black boat retrieving those things they had put in the water...Thanks Soundwatch!
...later as I was
working on images from the day and I noticed what might have been the same
kind of thing and it was right off Low Island at County Park...way
farther south from where I was seeing that dark-looking boat...
...AND THEN...an eagle approached...
...a short while later an eagle flew in and was being 'yelled' at by Oyster Catchers...these two had some words...
...the whales continued north...which means they'll be back down...
Tuesday and Wednesday, April 7-8th
Tuesday, April 7th
...8:00 a.m. - 'click-click-click' came over the Orca Sound hydrophones loud and clear - whales!
...Lime Kiln hydrophones had been down since 11:30 last night, so who was here and which way did they come from?!
...they were Residents because transients don't echolocate like that...off to County Park...there!...in the distance to the north one adult male...looked like Mike J-26, but so far away...he was foraging like Mike does...so where were the rest?
...it wasn't long before it was known that only the J16s were here...they are an independent group and many times have gone off on their own...
...they didn't get too far north before the flipped and came back down island, passing the lighthouse...
...I thought they might go to Grandma's Cove at American Camp...if you know where I'm talking about you know the exercise I got just getting there and back to the car...and then back to the park because the whales flipped direction again!
...Mike J-26 and his mom, Slick J-16, were in the lead as they came by the lighthouse...way behind them were Alki J-36, Echo J-42, and the two babies...today it looked like Echo had the job of keeping tabs on J-50! (Suttles J-40 seemed to have that job on March 30th)...then just shortly past the lighthouse Mike and Slick, who had been doing some foraging, slowed down and the others caught up and they continued slowly up island...
...then I went up island and watched as they went by...they went on the inside of Low Island (that's the small island just off County Park)...they don't do that very often...
Wednesday, April 8th
...out on Maya's Westside Charters we head north after hearing a report of a few whales...on the way I spotted some blows - it's always exciting to find whales where you don't expect to!...it was the J16s!...
...different day, same 'stuff'...
...Mike J-26 was foraging, sometimes he was a half mile away from the rest...
...Slick J-16 was with baby J-50...
...and for a while we couldn't find Alki J-36, Echo J-42 or new baby J-52...
...then 'out of nowhere' they surfaced, and taking long dives...
...Residents acting more like transients than Residents...
...they were just hanging out...not going anywhere...
...I learned later that the J16s spent the day in that area...
...with two little ones...and some food in the area...they didn't have to go anywhere...just stay, rest, relax and be whales...
...we stayed a short while and then went to see some transients who were acting more like Residents than transients, and boy were they goofing around! ...that will be the next post...
