8-14-13 - A Surprise Late in the Day!

Wednesday, August 16th
...what a surprise it was when I got a call from Capt. Jim to meet at the dock with his passengers at 5 o'clock to head out to meet L pod whales who were coming back in!
...I hadn't expected them to return so quickly... perhaps that is a good sign...let's hope.

...the closer we got to where L pod might be we learned that Transients were even closer...first we stopped at Race Rocks to see the goings on...

...and then to the Ts...our favorite Mr Floppy Fin, T19B, and family members...they are known as the T18s...

...as we were about to follow the T18s going in the direction we soon would need to go, I spotted the L pod whales coming in from the opposite direction, less than a 1/2 mile away, and coming in fast!  They were less than a mile behind the Ts!

...porpoising behind mom...

...Crewser L-92, Lulu L-53 and Ballena L-90...

...Mystery L-85 and the others angled to the south of Race...the Ts were up around the rocks at Race...

...it appeared that most if not all L pod was present, based on the number of whales I could see near and far...I had also heard that J pod whales had been seen earlier, but no one was seeing any of them now...

...tomorrow may tell another story...

5-30-13 A Day Full of Whales!

Thursday, May 30th
...I love being awakened by the whales...

...and then to run out the door to meet them...
Slick J-16 and two of her offspring were in the lead as they came down...whales were spread for miles...I saw a big splash at least 4 miles away and then several moments later the sound carried over - yep, that was a whale...
...there was a play group of kids, Slick's other offspring Echo J-42 was in the play group with one other female - Star J-46...

...that image looks like there are only 4 whales, but on closer look in the next frame...

...the others were Mako J-39, Se-Yi-Chn J-45, and Notch J-47...I would have expected Moby J-44 to be in that group, but he was with his mom and Polaris J-28 and they were the trailers as they passed by the lighthouse at about 7 a.m.

...and then home I went to get ready for the day (ha!)...and then run back down to wait for them...
...I could see dorsal fins in the distance but up close a California sea lion surfaced!...maybe he saw them too...

...as some came in close to shore at the park...

...looks like Polaris may have added to her 'body art'...

...someone having some fun...

...then back home to watch from there...
...Hy'Shqa J-37 and baby J-49...

...a different playful group from this morning...

...Samish J-14 and Rhapsody J-32 with some others...

...and then one more time...the whales started to go back down island!...a quick trip to the park to see if they all came back down...and then to the boat - whew!...out on Maya's Westside Charters in the afternoon we went down island to see the whales...but of course they were coming back up again!...
...in small groups, spread out...
...Se-Yi-Chn J-45 lost his brother Riptide J-30...who did not return in 2012 and is believed to have died (Center for Whale Research)...Riptide and Se-Yi-Chn were seen together often...and it was so neat to see the 'littlest one' (that's what Se-Yi-Chn's name means) with his brother who was 14 years older... 
...so when I saw Se-Yi-Chn and DoubleStuf J-34 (who is 15 years old) together today it reminded me of how often I had seen the littlest one with his big brother...now Se-Yi-Chn has a nephew, baby J-49, who maybe he can be 'big brother' to in the future...

...with them was Cookie J-38, also a male - 10 years old this year...Cookie is DoubleStuf's younger brother, and the three of them were being very playful...
...Cookie J-38 and Se-Yi-Chn J-45...

...the last group of whales to come up were the J16s and this time all four were traveling together...
...Harlequin ducks flying along behind Alki J-36...

...as they were moving up island they abruptly changed direction...looked like Mike J-26 might be after a fish...a few minutes later Alki was off to her self...she was far away, I couldn't see a fish but I could sure see her teeth!

...I hope she had a salmon in that mouth of hers...
...and not to miss the Victoria Grace a fine sailing ship...

...like I said before...it's like 'magic land' around here!

5-14-13 Four Days With the Same Ts!

Saturday through Monday, May 11-14th
...the same transients have been just about everywhere these last several days...
...on Saturday...at East Point, a California sea lion in the middle of all those Steller sea lions...we only saw him because we heard his bark!

...T49B was just starting to speed swim to knock seals off the rocks at a long reef in Trincomali Channel...

...thing is, she actually 'washed' them up onto the rocks as she scared the heck out of them!

...on the way back to the harbor Capt. Jim spotted an elephant seal...

...on Sunday the same whales were in the area, but this time they were way at the bottom end of San Juan Island...by late in the day the whales had come north...they went up the east side of Waldron Island, past Skip Jack Island...

...and then took a harbor seal...and now time for some play...

...on Monday they took us on a long, round about trip...it began in the morning at Spieden Island where they beat up a Steller sea lion for a few minutes and then moved on...

...they traveled across Haro Strait and on the way over a bald eagle was after something...I noticed how the eagle's tongue was sticking out...something that looked rather strange to me...

...over to Sidney and down Cordova Channel to Cordova Spit they traveled, where they turned around and took out a harbor seal...lots of surface action going on too...

...in the middle of it all I got a breach and belly sequence of T49B2 to reveal the sex of this young whale...

...and on Tuesday they were still in the area...traveling up through Active Pass in the late afternoon...

...on the way through Active a bald eagle got a fish - a big one too!

...we left the whales as they continued to head north west...as we passed the buoy outside of the pass I noticed a sea lion hauled out...not sure if this is a female or a young Steller sea lion...

...being so in to the transient killer whales and the lack of the Residents presence, we anticipated more transients tomorrow...little did we know things were about to change!