Monday, September 15th
...no sign of Granny and Group A, but the T60s were seen again...so off we went on Maya's Westside Charters to see what they were up to...especially after yesterday!
...nice group...and there was one other with them...T002B...
...I don't know if she is always with them or just some of the time...I've only seen them a few times...and this time I noticed that T60 had some tagging lumps on her...at least there wasn't any metal sticking out...
...I noticed T60F with a newish scratch...now these types of marks are naturally occurring from the way they live...the tagging marks are something that was done to them by humans...
...I noticed all these things because the whales became very active...it looked like a couple of the kids were getting in some hunting practice...and then later the adults came in and completed the meal preparation...
...while we were with the T60s group we got word that Group A had been seen out in the Strait of Juan de Fuca...so the mystery of who had been on the hydrophones at 11pm last night, remains just that a mystery...
...Granny J-2 and the other 12 whales of Group A were coming back in...but they took a very long time...
...when I got to the park and to the lighthouse and was sure the whales were coming up island, I heard some young ladies talking...and with what I heard I figured I better let them know that they were about to see whales...and when they did...well, need I say more!...always special when I get to hear/see people who are seeing killer whales in the wild for the first time...and especially the Southern Residents because many people have been adopters of these whales...sometimes they even get to see 'their' whale...
...but the J16s didn't come up...they stayed down island...
...a few other times this year the J16s have split off from Group A...remember when they were down by the Deception Pass bridge (post 8-13) when Granny was up at the Fraser...well no telling where the J16s will be tomorrow...
Sunday, September 14th
...no word on whales this morning...Ts too far away...no Residents...ah, but a couple humpback whales within distance...like I have said so many times in the past 'you just never know what we will see after we leave the dock'...the folks on Maya's Westside Charters were so excited and said they had been waiting for this for months and months...oh, boy I sure hoped some KWs would show up...and boy were we lucky!...the T60s were coming our way...whew!...
...they were mainly in a travel mode and keeping us on our toes looking for where they would surface next...
...in the afternoon we went to see the T60s again...
...their travel mode didn't last long before they got hungry...
...there were several surfacings when they were chasing it...
..I didn't see the porpoise after this...
...after they finished their meal they continued on slowly...
...in September 2012 I first met the T60s...back then T60E did not have a notch...now he/she does...
...there are two others in this community who currently have this kind of notch, but they are much younger/smaller whales...T86A3 and T137D...
...then, at one point one of the younger ones surfaced up ahead at the same time that I saw another one surface on the other side of a pleasure boat back behind us...and then two surfaced in between those two whales...but then three surfaced by that pleasure craft..."wait a minute!...there are more than 5 whales here!"
...it wasn't until I got home and looked at my images...yes! there was a 6th whale - T002B, who looks very similar to T60...and in The Book it says she was traveling with the T60s when I saw them back in 2012.
...then back at home, at about 7:15 I heard a few calls on the Lime Kiln hydrophones...they were coming up Haro Strait...
...then at 11:00 pm (the seas were calm) I heard lots of water disturbance then a few seconds of heavy sounding (for lack of a better way to say it) echolocation clicks and one call on the Lime Kiln hydrophones...was that Ts or was that Residents?...Ts don't usually echolocate and Residents usually do much longer and are more chatty than just one or two calls...
...I knew that Granny's Group - Group A - was coming down but I didn't think they could make it from East Pt. to Lime Kiln in three hours...
...oh well, tomorrow should be interesting...
