8-16-16 Surprise Encounter!

Thursday, August 18th
...no word on where the K12s and K13s were in the morning...knowing they had gone west during the previous night...well...might they have done that again last night?
...no word...
...then fog moved in...uh-oh...
...lots of people at the park watching the fog move in and then recede and move in again, etc...
...it was about noon and the hydrophones were broadcasting in the lighthouse...
...talking to someone I stopped in mid-sentence, "That's echolocation clicks! Whales are here!" "That's K Pod calls! They're right outside!" (couldn't tell I was excited, could you :)...
...the fog was thick...couldn't see 50 feet offshore...
...here we all are looking at a 'blank screen' above the water and listening...listening...
...then all of a sudden we could hear people at the other end of the park (down by the 'wall') exclaiming! They had just seen an orca!...that was hilarious!
...it isn't very far from the 'wall' to the lighthouse...so it would be a few minutes.
...luckily the fog receded just enough to get a few glimpses of the K12s and barely a glimpse of the K13s who were ahead of them.

...it was much later in the day when J Pod and the rest of K Pod came in from the Strait of Juan de Fuca...
...only a few came up island passing the lighthouse and then later came back down...

...was that a 'scouting' trip up and back?...might they be here in the morning?

8-11-16 Business Phone Meeting Interrputed By a Whale

Wednesday/Thursday, August 10/11th

Wednesday - 11:30 pm
...the whales had gone out...but they stopped and began to come back in the Strait of Juan de Fuca...all afternoon...
...they woke me up at 11:30 pm over the Lime Kiln hydrophones (link on the left column on my blog)...as they approached San Juan Island - their calls echoing from offshore toward the lighthouse...and then as they passed by - really loud! - their calls lasted about 2 hours...

...6:30 a.m. August 11th...having thought (that was a mistake!) the whales had all gone north...I was writing my blog post when I heard a faint J Pod call - "What?"...off to the park as quickly as possible...
...flat calm water...here you are looking and can see no sign of any orcas...but then you hear a blow in the distance...you scan...you see nothing...huh?...you know someone is out there...you hear the blow again...the whale is far enough away so when you finally hear the sound the whale is already gone from the surface...
...then finally...

...when he shared about his encounter it was clear a connection had been made...not about getting his 'whale fix,' not about seeing these whales put on a 'show'...he was just there with no expectations when all of a sudden DoubleStuf J-34 surfaced at the right place, at the right time, for this man to be present in his surroundings...

 ...in the afternoon...

...not all the whales of the J and K pod whales who had gone up came back down...the J22s were already down island...those who came down appeared to be the rest of J Pod and Onyx L-87, and only the K14s (they were in the lead as they came past)...
...now where in the world will the rest of them turn up next?
...and who will be the next person to 'make the connection'...

5-22-15 The Shot of the Day - A Gull?

Friday, May 22nd
...My shot of the day! Starting at the end of the day, sitting on the rocks at Lime Kiln a gull was flying by, normal, but then it seemed to make a few circles  - three fish!...gulls are usually gobbling up every little fish they can right on the spot, so to see one carrying fish around like this...maybe it was taking food to its chicks...I wonder where that nest might be...

...as usual during 'whale season' everyone was wondering where the whales would be this morning...two groups yesterday...had they really split?...possibly...not uncommon for the J16s to be off on their own this spring...
...then someone spotted 'J pod' up near East Pt....however, when we arrived on scene, and after talking with others, it was only the J16s who were present...
...Echo J-42 seems to have grown a lot in the last few months, or maybe it's just the angle of her when seen in this image...

...Slick J-16 and 'CatchUp' (my nickname for J-50) were actually together...they were spread out...it seemed they were foraging but no one 'showed' us a salmon so I couldn't be sure :)...
...I love the contrast of big fin/little fin...

...in the middle of it all someone spotted a humpback so we raced over to see Big Mama...we came back over to see the J16s before leaving...Echo began this...

...I wonder if she knew something we didn't...the rest of J pod was coming from 'out of the blue'...always so neat when least expected!

..I enlarged those splashes to reveal whales!
...Capt. Jim had mentioned about how sometimes there is a photo op of Patos lighthouse and a whale...well, what do you know!  Thank you Blackberry J-27!

...Granny J-2, Onyx L-87, Blackberry J-27, and Mako J-39 were together...
...here's the Center for Whale Research documenting those present...

...the presence of J-27 and J-39 - Group B whales, and J-2 and L-87 - Group A whales, indicated that it was most likely all of J pod was soon to be present...they were heading down...would they make it to the park????
...first it was County Park...(between the sign and the ship - look close)

... and then Lime Kiln...

...doesn't get much better than this...
...oh, except for that gull!  AMAZING!

...and while writing this post I was listening to J pod over the Lime Kiln hydrophones...