November 28 - what a fun Thanksgiving Day treat!
J Pod had exited Puget Sound in the morning and there was a slight chance they would come into hydrophone range...
...it was at about 2:40 in the afternoon when I heard a very faint call...yay!...the calls were not easily detected but I was listening and watching...
...I figured they could not be seen because the seas were rough and the whales were a great distance away...
...so here's a short clip of some of their calls...
...yes, they are quite distant...but they were there...
...always special to hear them...
Recorded late in the night on January 3, 2019
For the last couple weeks I have had major internet connection issues.
However, the only thing that seemed to work and work well was the live streaming of the Lime Kiln hydrophones. Lucky me, cause that's my music!
Well, on the night of January, 3, 2019 the tune changed from just stormy sounding seas to some faint 'interruptions'! HA! SRKWs it was!
It was brief...but here's an 'orca hearing test' for you.
And just a short while ago this internet connection is back up to speed. Whew!
Sunday, December 2nd
...as a friend and I were talking yesterday...'always do today what you can because you never know what will happen tomorrow'...
...I did.
...it worked...
...SRKWs over the hydrophones early this morning!!!
...added the following day...
...confirmation that the whales I was seeing the in the distance were the SRKWs because of where they were seen the following day...coming back down and this time in Rosario Strait...but I heard that only K and L Pod whales were seen...so where were those J Pod whales who were in the mix the day before?...hum...
(there are a few very clear J Pod calls - on the clip toward the end)
Monday, July 23rd
...the whales of J Pod have split into different groupings than they had before...we will have to wait until they return to see if they all come back in together...
...for the last few days only the J16 family group has been in these waters...and they have been going up into the Strait of Georgia and then back down Boundary Pass...
...on the night of July 21st and the early hours of July 22nd...J Pod calls could be heard over the Lime Kiln hydrophones...only this time it was a bit different...
...they were not seen along the west side of the island until this morning, July 23, when they all-of-a-sudden showed up coming down island...and who was it?...the J16s...
so...I guess they were the ones making all those calls the other night!
ADDED 7:25 a.m. MAYBE NOT! Lots of J and K pod calls in the early, early hours of the morning on 7/24!
And the Albion numbers are moving up...Chinook and Sockeye!!
Sunday, January 28th
...well, it's back to talking about those fish sounds (sound like a burp) again...when
talking with a couple last week, they mentioned that just because there
is only one burp, that doesn't mean there aren't more that are just in
reaching the HPs...oh, yeah!...
...since the relocation of the hydrophones, I had to restart the listening process comparison all over again...added to that, is the decrease in salmon moving through - but I am not saying it's salmon but the sounds are related to the whales showing up, and the whales show up when there are salmon, so...
...my time frame is from November through March...and since the relocations of the LK hydrophones (which are not there for Jeanne to listen to strange things), from time to time I will hear one of those sounds, but so seldom that I haven't paid much attention to them...usually save the clip or make a notation when I hear one...on January 25, 26, and 27 I heard one or two burp sounds...I didn't pay much attention to them - too infrequent - or were they?
...I had no idea where J Pod had gone, based on the last sighting/hearing of them - hearing was on the 24th, early in the morning and so faint I was surprised they woke me up...but only three calls-2 off Lime Kiln HPs and 1 off Orca Sound HPs...that gave me a clue as to possible location, because the three calls were so close together it had to be where the two HPs most distant reach, crossed...hmmm, only a few spots...but I was so set on them going north I noted the burps but didn't get beyond that...they could have gone either direction...
...so four days later, when word came that J Pod was in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, those burp sounds grew in significance...whatever is moving about ahead of the whales, by several hours (that's when it starts) and ends once the whales show up (really) may not require hearing an increase in burps...since the landscape has changed!
...what does it mean? who knows...I just know there is a relationship between those burp sounds and the whales showing up.
What are they? Who are they?...who knows!...I only know I have increased my 'alert system' for those sounds...
..the common denominator for these is that there aren't other related sounds before or after...it's just the one burp sound, nothing else... here's a sample of 4 of those sounds recorded at different times and in different years...
...by the time the whales reached Haro Strait it was almost too dark to get a glimpse of them all the way on the far side, coming out of Baynes Channel...
...it took a while before they were heard over the hydrophones and they were far offshore...but then...
...And this one - the best, but for a different reason than one might think...
...overall, it has been a long time since hearing the whales like this...it was heartwarming...
Tuesday, December 4th
Southern Residents and two different humpbacks, of two different sizes, and at two different times, is about the easiest way to explain the day.
...the day began for a go, look, see what might be out there.
It wasn't long before an adult humpback showed up along the west side, close to shore, going down island. But it took a while to get an image, because it was so close to shore that trees and houses were blocking my view!
I was able to get one image that gave me dorsal fin shape, but that was it.
...it was off to town and home again...walking up to the porch out in the distance I see a huge splash! ...it was a humpback and it was slowly going down island...off to the park...
...this humpback was more active and appeared to be feeding...
...this was a little humpback...didn't know if it would come this way or not...
well, here's the answer...
...that fluke let me know this little one was likely going to be down for a few minutes...now where would it appear next?....off from the front of the lighthouse, having made a big loop and heading back up island...
...I knew that J and K Pod whales were headed in but didn't know how far they had gotten...little did I know their faint calls began over the Lime Kiln hydrophones while I was watching the little humpback!...
...waiting, listening, waiting, listening...their calls were very faint and they would not likely be able to be seen before dark...but I knew they were out there...
...getting home I had both the Lime Kiln and the Orca Sound hydrophones going...I could hear faint calls of the SRKWs, J and K, and likely Onyx L-87...
...their calls did not get much louder, and then, all of a sudden I heard a humpback sound...at first I thought it was on the Lime Kiln hydrophones, but I was wrong it was over the Orca Sound hydrophones - glad I was recording so I could verify which location...and then this humpback - I am guessing it's the little one 'carried on' for close to an hour...and from the sound of it he/she was in the same area the whole time...
...what an interesting day it was!
Friday and Saturday, November 17th and 18th
Friday:
...when I was awakened at about 3:00 a.m. to a humpback making sounds over the Lime Kiln hydrophones, the sounds were intermittent, and it didn't sound like practicing a song...but the humpback just kept on, every so often, I was awake now...
...good thing...because all of a sudden there were J Pod calls...though very faint...I didn't hear any K or L Pod calls at this point.
...I was awake now...
...by about 5 a.m. the calls had ended...
...there had been J Pod calls, some K and some L Pod calls...
...direction?...no way of knowing...
...later in the day I reviewed the recording from last night(11/16)...and I was so surprised to find that there were calls at (general time):
- 10pm - a few
- 11pm - midnight - several over the hour
- midnight to 1 a.m. - almost the entire hour!
...then no calls until about 2:50 a.m.
...that's when the humpback came on the scene.
...and somewhere in it all, what sounded like a barking California sea lion.
It was a very busy night!
Saturday
...8:00 a.m. I hear one high-speed burst of what may have been echolocation clicks, lasting no more that a second...
...once again - hit the record button and bolt out the door, this time remembering to take my cell phone with me...
...I get to Lime Kiln lighthouse and for some reason, instead of my usual of looking south first, I looked north - Oh, my! I see blows!
...then I see three killer whales miles and miles away...
...listening to the hydrophones I hear nothing...
...the next three hours I watch as these totally silent whales make their way down Haro Strait...I couldn't tell how many but way more than the three I had originally seen...
...no vocals, no echolocation clicks...they didn't look to be in a resting pattern as they were spread out, traveling in small groups...
...I know better than to try to ID off of 'killer whale dot' images on my camera...but I looked and at one point one looked like T2C2 because of the shape of his dorsal fin from his scoliosis of the spine...but when I got the image on the computer at home it wasn't even close...looked more like another was surfacing at the same time was all..
...then when Mark Malleson saw the killer whales he let me know there were a lot more than I thought...so I looked at my camera images again...and there - an open saddle patch!
...the Residents had come down island for over three hours completely silent over the Lime Kiln hydrophones! I had recorded the entire time and was listening as well during those hours, and nothing. This evening I went back and listened to the three hours and nothing! Silence!
You
may need some really strong glasses to even see the whales in these
images! I know I needed some really strong binos just to see them.
...hope you enjoyed your journey down Haro Strait with the whales today :)
...I went along the road and pulled off...a few minutes later Capt. Jim pulls up and we chat...as he is leaving he said he had room on the boat if I wanted. "I'll be there!"
...gee, maybe I'd get to see who really was out there today!
Adding a footnote: While watching the whales coming down Haro, there was a person standing nearby who received a text message that said: whales were seen between Cattle Pass and Eagle Cove and they were seen from a float plane.
That might have been the K Pod whales who were way south the day before.
There were plenty of whales that came down Haro but not enough to equate to J Pod, the L54s, and K Pod - which would have been over 45 whales.
Thursday, November 2nd
...October 30th...in my last post J Pod calls had been on the Lime Kiln hydrophones very, very briefly...that was it...
...October 31st...they were evidently not seen anywhere...
...November 1st...they were heard over the Port Townsend hydrophones late in the afternoon...and nothing after that...
...November 2nd...today...stormy day...nothing on the Port Townsend or the Lime Kiln hydrophones...AND THEN...4:32pm, J Pod calls 'burst' over the Lime Kiln hydrophones! Wow! What?! They were in Haro Strait...but where...
...off at a run to Lime Kiln to see if I could find them...
...as I was listening to their calls, I heard some K Pod 'kitten' sounding call...I also heard a few of the L Pod 'up-tick' call (S19)...and of course J Pod calls...
...The L54 group makes the 'kitten' call too, but these calls continued on for so long, that it seemed that some K Pod whales were present...
...difficult to know which part of the 2 1/2 hours of recording to share, but here's a bit of what went on...
..dilemma - rough seas and whales miles from shore!
...many want to know who was there...well, with that situation it is impossible to tell who was present, but we do know that some J Pod whales were present, think some K Pod whales were present and know that some L Pod whales were present...from the calls, the K Pod 'kitten call' (S16) was quite dominant, J Pod was as well...and there were many times throughout with echolocation clicks...L Pod signature call (Up-tick) was not as dominant, but I did hear some L Pod calls that we don't hear all the time. Those echolocation clicks - foraging!
...fast forward to November 4, (because I am actually writing this on 11/4) the L54s showed up today coming down Waldron Island (thank you San Juan Safaris for that!)...which adds another piece to the puzzle...were they here on the 2nd or were they somewhere else on that day?! If they were here and they were part of the participants in that spectacular audio encounter, did the others go north as well? If they did it seems they were very quiet when they did...
So it's a mystery and might just remain that way...doesn't matter, we need to focus on the salmon for these whales and repairing this ecosystem too, so these whales will be able to survive.
...why are the whales here now?...well, it seems that chum salmon are still coming in...on November 1st there was a fishing seiner on the west side. I only saw the one and it was setting its net. There could have been more down island out of my view, but I don't know. I also learned from Simon of Ocean Ecoventures that there were fishing seiners up near Samsun Narrows, where evidently chum salmon are as well, why else might seiners be there...that might explain why J Pod went up Trincomali Channel on Oct 24th...it's has not been a 'normal' route for them...
...in addition, in the last few days the birds, bait fish, and seals have been quite active, and next in line should be salmon coming through, though they are not easy to spot...
...HOWEVER...the whales seemed to be doing lots of foraging...lots of echolocation clicks over the Lime Kiln hydrophones over that long, spectacular listening session...
...interested in banning open net pens in Washington State?...upper left column on this blog is a link to a petition...it's not my petition...but I signed and think it would be a good thing to allow the Salish Sea to be free of open net pens of farmed Atlantic salmon...just trying to help the author of the petition get those signatures to take to the State.
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