Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, Sept 15-17th
...officially it's the L54s, L-84, and L-88...for ease of writing I call them the L54 Group...
...Tuesday the 15th the L54 Group came up to the Lime Kiln lighthouse late in the day and stayed in the area for a couple hours before going back down island...for only five whales they were spread out over a couple miles...
...at the same time the rest of the whales who were in here were heading west, slowly, toward the open ocean...
...in my previous post I mentioned that sometimes you only needed to hear a certain sound to know it was Ino L-54, and on this evening she gave the opportunity of hearing her...
...it is very faint, short, sounds like a flute...you might have to have everything else in your surroundings quiet to even hear her...
...Wednesday the 16th appeared to be a No Orca day...that is until I got a phone call telling me of one lone whale...ah, but soon they saw another...off to see who it was...none other than the L54 Group!...about 6:30pm about two miles down island from the lighthouse...
...so on Thursday the 17th, when I learned of whales down island I already thought I knew who it was...none other than the L54 Group!...after getting a few looks, it was off to the Peregrine with Capt. Jim to go see them...
...then Keta and Coho surfaced together...mom had moved off and soon they followed her...
...by the afternoon trip, as we were watching the L54 Group, Capt. Jim said, "okay, I want all of you in the boat now." I knew something good was up...but what?...I figured it was more whales coming in...and sure enough J, Ks, and Ls were coming back in!...there was a wide spread...we saw Cappuccino K-21 (who is one of the passenger's adopted whales - she was so excited to see him!), Opus K-16 and Sonata K-35...Sekiu K-22 and Tika K-33 no one else around them...J pod seemed to be in the largest grouping farther south...the L4s were traveling together...the L47s were way up ahead and made it to Lime Kiln before turning and going back down island with the rest of them...not sure who who exactly were present except a lot of whales!
...and then someone saw something...that was the surprise, it was a sea otter!!
...yes! really!...for those who don't see them except very rarely (us), this was awesome...and he stayed by the boat for a long time...here's a video clip...I especially like all the 'people to the otter' talk and laughter...it was all quite fun!
Monday, May 25th
...early in the morning I heard transient calls on the Lime Kiln hydrophones...then on the Orca Sound hydrophones to the north...then on both at the same time...by the end of about 30 minutes the last calls I heard were fading off the Orca Sound hydrophones...a short while later whales were seen to the south...confusing...were there two groups going different directions?...
...not out in the morning but I heard that the T36As and T75Bs were some of the whales seen as well as the T18s...we had a long way to go...zooming past Race Rocks lighthouse...still not there yet...
...not much longer...T51 was surfacing up ahead and he was with a group, but it wasn't the group he was with yesterday...
...I noticed something white way up high and then saw some folks watching...
...a better look at the group T51 was with...no little kids, no babies...
...then Mr. Floppy Fin T19B and his brother, T19C surfaced...T18 and T19 were present and just under the surface...
...it's the T124As who T51 was with...
...there was one whale who was not one of the T124As...It's T86A1!
...now I wonder where T86A and T86A3 were?...maybe up ahead with the other group...but we didn't get to them today...
...the whales were heading west and we were almost to Sooke...those are condominiums under construction in the distance...
...we headed back and stopped at Race Rocks...there is a sea otter, who seems to show up each year and hang out there...it's a rare thing to see a sea otter in this area...
...I like getting Lime Kiln lighthouse in images when the opportunity arises...
...we had heard of a couple transients coming down toward us... and Capt Jim found them!...it was T77A and T124C, two males...we had only a few minutes to get IDs and then head in...maybe they would be around tomorrow...
Friday, August 1st
...it was a shore day for me today...I got some work done and the whales passed by the park in the mid afternoon, going down island...
...it was Group A and the K14s...
...I had heard there was a sea otter (yes-really!) but I hadn't seen it until the whales had gone by...
...
check out that webbed foot...
...and the tail...not as long, yet broader than a river otter's tail...
...he was as inquisitive of us as we were of him...
...and he was really big - that size would be a male...
...at one point some kayakers came along and stopped off shore to watch...the otter swam out to the kayaks and swam around under them...we could only see the kayakers looking down along the side of their kayak saying something like: "there he is!"..."over here!"...funny...then he swam back and got out onto the rock...
...it is rare to see a sea otter in these waters...the last time I saw one was off Turn Pt. in June, 2010...and before that sometime between 2006 and 2009 there was one just off shore at the park as the whales were going by!
