3-16-17 J Pod Being J Pod

Thursday, March 16th
...no one was sure as to where J Pod had gone the other night, but it was believed they had gone north...the last of their calls I had heard over the Orca Sound hydrophones and that was at about midnight...but without eyes on them one can be certain...
...today they 'magically' appeared just north of Friday Harbor, in San Juan Channel and they were thought to be coming down toward the entrance to Friday Harbor...but they stalled out a short distance north of there...my guess is that they got into some salmon, because soon they were heading up the channel...
...off to the north end of the island...

...J Pod was spread out...Mike off foraging in one area, Onyx in another, and Blackberry was way off from others...some were very close to the beach on Waldron Island...while others were going every which way...

...Onyx appeared from off in the distance to right here!

barely there, but - wow!

...it is the first time I have heard them under the surface without hydrophones...likely because everything 'lined up'...in an area where there is no possibility of ship noise, happened there we no other boats moving through the area, no one on the boat was talking, seas were calm, no wind...and luckily chatty Onyx and a few others...a special moment I think all of us on the boat felt.
...and this image sums it up for me...

...peace, calm, living, being...
...everyone has moments of all kinds throughout their day/week to cherish...we just have to stop long enough to realize some of them...

...a different kind of moment that brought out the 'hurry-get the camera!'...

...thank you Maya's Legacy Charters and Capt. Jim at the helm!
Who/what did I see today?  All the J16s, all the J19s, one/some of each of the other family groups, Onyx L-87, foraging, babysitting, some goofing around, breaches, tail slaps...and relaxed looking whales...J Pod being J Pod!
 

3-12-17 Looking for Spring

Sunday, March 12th 

...a couple days ago, my attention was drawn to many gulls that were skimming the surface of the water...they were going after bait fish - that's a sign of Spring...
...so the next morning I thought I would go look for more signs of spring - like more birds skimming the surface or a bait ball or two...didn't find either of those but I did find 'someone' else who might have been looking for some signs too

...then the rain started and looking for signs of Spring could wait for another day...


...there were other ways to 'look for' signs of spring - the hydrophones!..and two of them occurred the next day (today)...

 ...so maybe Spring isn't too far away!

...and then the whales came back in this afternoon...right now it is 8:25 pm and there are/were very faint and intermittent echolocation clicks over the Orca Sound hydrophones...
...there were intermittent calls over Lime Kiln and some echolocation clicks about a half hour before but for now they have gone out of range over the Lime Kiln hydrophones...however the whales could show back up on them too...
...no telling where J Pod will be tomorrow morning...

...with all this going on...yeah, Spring isn't far away...

3-10-17 J Pod in the Night

Friday, March 10th
3:30 a.m. - yes the middle of the night...
J Pod came back in...

...they were vocalizing and echolocating for over 2 hours on the Lime Kiln hydrophones...
...I heard them a bit on Orca Sound as well, but they seemed to have gotten a lot quieter...that's sort of the opposite of the other day when they came down...
...it sounded like they were spread out...
...while I was listening to them I got creative...
for you...it should print on an 8 1/2 x 11...a calendar for the rest of March, starting with March 10th - today!

...and while you are printing out the calendar you can listen to a clip of the whales from today...

 
Enjoy!

3-4-17 J Pod Adjusting After the Loss of Their Leader

Saturday, March 4th
(note: correction added 9:40 a.m. 3/5)
no rain, no wind, no snow...
and there was sunshine and word of whales!

...J Pod whales were heading in...
...they were going against an ebb so they weren't moving very quickly...
...it took them a very long time to cross Haro Strait, before they began moving north...but some stayed offshore a couple miles...
...from shore in different places throughout the day I saw foraging behavior...
...echolocating over the Lime Kiln hydrophones and later over the Orca Sound hydrophones...and vocals too...

No telling what we will see as the whales adjust...but there will be many eyes watching and wondering...

What ended up being most interesting to me was the 'line up'...
many people are wondering who will emerge as the leader...
...here's who I saw and the order they passed by:

-Shachi J-19 was in the lead as they came up island about 1/2 mile south of the lighthouse...I 'assume' she had already passed the light by the time I got there because I didn't see her again...(I just found her in a sun glare image, just ahead of J-16, off the lighthouse - so she was in fact the lead whale!)

...I was now at the lighthouse...
...here is who I saw passing the lighthouse...

...CORRECTION

...the dorsal fin looked too 'hookie' to be J-49 but also short to be Se-Yi-Chn J-45...it bothered me since last night "where was J-49"...going back through the images I was glad I had gone to County Park...looking more closely at those images... 

Notes:
Who I saw: at least one member of each J Pod family group except for the J17 family...that only means I didn't see them...other folks may have. Onyx L-87 was present.

Shachi, Slick, Oreo, Hy'Shqa, and Tsuchi are each the oldest female within their family group.  The only one who was not present with them was Princess Angeline J-17.

My previous post was about the potential for the herring run in the inland waters way to the north...maybe the whales are heading that way to check out the salmon that would be going after that herring...that is if the California sea lions don't eat it all first. (part of the herring story)


~~~
Added Tuesday, March 7th
Reported today that 2 1/2 million lbs of herring had been off loaded on Saturday, March 4th.
This was in the area of Comox, B.C.

 

3-2-17 Herring Run in Canada - hopefully soon

Thursday, March 2nd

Finally tonight on the CTV, Victoria, Vancouver Island News was a piece about the herring run...or when might the herring run occur...

I've been looking for information because herring means salmon and salmon means orcas - Southern Residents...

In the last few years it seems that the herring run has been a bit earlier, but maybe not.

...listen to what the fisherman says about the number of sea lions...ugh...

Here's the link to the video clip on the news 
Title is 'B.C. Fishermen Eager for Herring Season'
posted March 2nd
you might have to look at the clips to locate that specific one.