7-24-10 Nugget and the Harbor Porpoise

Saturday, July 24th

...as I was taking pictures I didn't know that something else was going on as this group of whales and the L-55s (aka L4s) were moving along in a nice calm, picture opp manner up island along the west side...

...but first their calm quiet travel would be disturbed by an official type boat driving at high speed over them...they actually 'scattered a bit' for a few minutes, turning and heading back down island...

...and then got back together and moved north again...

...what totally amazes me is that the first pic I have of her with it is at 10:17 a.m. and the last pic is more than 5 hours later as she and her family group rounded Turn Pt. heading north...I was on the Peregrine of Maya's Westside Charters in the afternoon and didn't even think to look to see if she still had it...that is until I looked at my pics later...

...she didn't share it...
...her kids were on either side of her..what a great training opportunity...but she didn't seem to want to do anything other than keep it for herself...
...I believe the thought is that the whales play with them, as a toy...and the porpoise has a heart attack...but she didn't seem to even play with it...I have only one pic that shows the harbor porpoise in a different position......the harbor porpoise tail is sticking up on the far side of Nugget...

...when they rounded Turn Pt. she still had it...prior to that, I have just two pics of her without it...but that's it, every other surfacing she had it...these two images verify that it was Nugget who had the porpoise on this surfacing...

 ... over 5 hours - that's impressive...now I wonder just what was she thinking...

7-1-10 Early In The Day-A Mike and Canuck Moment

Thursday, July 1st
I put together several images...it's not video but as close as I can make it...the whales were moving slowly...they stopped right in front of me...

...as Mike J-26 begins to surface part way through the clip, you can see his dorsal fin is laying over and then on Canuck's L-7 back...

...earlier in the year when Canuck L-7 and her adult daughter Lulu L-53 were traveling with J pod...I remember noticing that Canuck was not in the 'place' where she normally would be...and that was next to Ruffles J-1...

...I'd check on her location when I'd see her, and sometimes she was where she was 'supposed' to be, so I figured I must be off base in my thinking...

...when I had this early morning encounter with the whales at the park in July, I wondered what the whales knew that we humans didn't...I'd have to wait to find out...

6-17-10 Let the Babies Play!

Thursday, June 17th
...out on Maya's Westside Charters, with a few kids and their grandparents on board, we came upon some other kinds of kids - baby killer whales...
 

Question: What's a family to do with three little kids?

Answer: Just keep moving along and let the babies play!

The J17 family had three babies in a 12 month time span. This presented an unusual opportunity to watch little 'whale kids' play just about any time and any day...
...Princess Angeline J-17 had her third offspring in January 2009...her oldest offspring Polaris J-28 had her first offspring in November 2009...her youngest offspring Tahlequah J-35 had her first offspring in January 2010...

...so Princess Angeline became a a new mother for the third time, a grandmother twice in 3 months...
...Polaris and Tahlequah each became a sister for the second time and an aunt for the first time...
...there were times during the summer when the kids were very active...

...it was definitely fun for us humans to watch...

...and of course all three were rarely at the surface at the same time...

...Southern Residents travel with their families their entire lives...so there's lots more play to look forward to...

5-12-10 It All Came Together!

Wednesday, May 12th
(3rd post regarding our encounter with Capt. Hook and the T71s while out with Capt. Jim of Maya's Westside Charters...)

...my previous post showed that one of the whales of the T071s has notches on both flukes and is a female...so today I went searching to find a dorsal fin that belonged to that whale...
...I came upon a pic of T071A lunging after the Steller...and realized her tail was partially uncovered from the water...

...drum roll please...NOTCHES ON BOTH SIDES!!!

...her saddle patch mark on the right side is an 'upside down J' - that was the piece I was looking for...that is T071A !!

...so now I knew there were two females - which would be T071 (mom) and T071A (with the 'upside down J'), and that meant the male was T071B (see prior post)...and the youngest one T71C I didn't get enough info on him/her...

...now I only had to match up the dorsal fins for each of these whales...

...with the info I now had, it didn't take long and the rest of the puzzle just fell into place!

...I will probably never have an opportunity like this again with a small group giving away so much information...it sure was an exercise in scrutinizing every image to find the pieces of the puzzle...
 

5-8-10 The Tail Flukes Puzzle Continues

Saturday, May 8th
...more on the 'whale tail' puzzle...of course these several posts about this encounter were all thanks to Capt. Jim and Maya's Westside Charters...

...here's the next puzzle piece...

...the second whale from yesterday's post has the very pretty smooth edged flukes and a bit hookie...so I guess it wasn't too difficult to figure this one out...

above...the top pic on the right shows partial belly marking with the absence of mammary slits and the pic below it shows that it belongs to the whale with the 'hookie' flukes...the two pics on the left also give indication that this is a male...but who?...well my guess would be T071A, but that is only because of the wide fin...but if a male this whale I would think would have a taller sprouting fin...so...could it be the middle sibling - T071B??? 


...whale #3...

...I know this next one is the youngest of the T071s...

...look at how this young whale's white marking appears to look longer as he/she dives...
...and in the next post the puzzle pieces get all put together...