12-28-15 Great Day on the Water!

Monday, December 28th
...calm seas, no rain, trip?...oh, yes!...no whales...no matter - calm seas and no rain!

...but then about an hour before the trip on Peregrine - Ts showed up...and they were coming our way...and so was Ron on Eagle Wing...I just had to say 'Hi!!"

...it was the T10s and they came into Haro Strait from Baynes Channel and headed up island way over on the Canadian side...

...the lighting was pretty spectacular...winter light...

...one of the males was after a harbor seal...

...I love the size difference - yikes!
...when the meal, or should it be called 'snack' was ready...

...the T10s were miles from Kelp Reef where this Steller sea lion was...

...and on back to the harbor...

...nice to see some friends while out there today...Ron, whales, and even some ancient murrelets!
...and our Resident friends...no telling where they are except that at the moment they don't seem to be anywhere near these parts!
 

12-24-15 Season's Greetings

12-20-15 The News Came from the Ferries!

Sunday, December 20th
...at first it was at about 8:15 and 5 to 6...no make that 6 to 10 or 12...no make that 2 females and a juvenile...okay, take your pick!...seen from the ferry that was coming across...it was on the south side of Shaw Island coming to or leaving Friday Harbor...but then it was Wasp Island...not...(note to self - take navigational map with you next time)...
...getting to Ruben Tarte Park and seeing a friend and his family there too...we could pick up blows way, way in the distance...
...the last of the blows we saw were on the San Juan Channel side with Shaw Island behind them...that was at 9:15...they looked like they were coming up the channel...and that was all...hummmm..

...at about 9:50 a.m., Andy spotted a humpback whale coming down from Flat Top area into San Juan Channel and going down island...(distraction #1)...

...a few minutes later a boat comes down from the north west and appears to be going across the channel but then stops...hummm...(distraction #2)...
...during distractions #1 and #2 - we were looking across and to the north...J Pod had evidently just appeared coming west along the south side of Shaw Island...had they come north we would have seen them soon enough...
but as it stood the distance was great and the whales turning the corner and going away...well, we might not have even been able to see their blows...

...by 11:00 and no killer whales seen for the last two hours, the wind picking up, the rain starting to spit, and being the only one left standing there getting really cold...time to leave...
...it was because of something Hobbes said..."they might have split up."...with that niggling on my mind I decided to go to Cattle Pass...what the heck, the sun was shining on west side of the island and I needed to get some miles on my car (after a big repair job), so down island I go...half way to Cattle Pass I get a message from Capt. Jim that 20 to 30 killer whales had been seen going west along Shaw Island toward San Juan Channel and that was about an hour ago (during distraction #1 and #2!)...

...would I make it?...it had been over two hours since that large group was seen...I drove faster...and now the question was, "do I stop at the top of that huge hill and scan out into Haro Strait in case those whales had already exited the pass or do I go all the way down to the Cattle Pass parking area."...something said..."keep going!"...

...just as I am pulling into the lot I see dorsal fins just to the up island side of Goose Island - "oh, my goodness, I made it!"

...it looked like all of J pod was together today...saw the big boys - Mike J-26, Blackberry J-27, Doublestuf J-34 for sure...saw lots of babies too...
...they went by quickly and pretty nicely grouped up...I snapped away...thinking that my camera was capturing all those cartwheels, a spyhop and the south end of Goose Island, a breach or two...
...then they got a bit distant so I took a bit of video...

...I followed them out of the pass and watched as they appeared to have found some fish...they had split up, were lunging this way and that, for several minutes...and some even looked like they might head up island...
...taking a picture of a couple of them with the grasses along the shoreline looked pretty neat...I looked at the picture - IT WASN'T THERE!...neither were all but a couple of the other images I had taken - arrgh!  What have I gone and done now?

...I watched as they got closer to Salmon Bank marker...this time the image registered in the camera...

...seeing that they were heading west, well, I was glad...a dear friend of mine was going to be on the big boat of Eagle Wing this afternoon, and he hasn't had the opportunities to see the whales much this year...today he would...and he most likely will get to see all those J pod babies...

A Merry Christmas to all who know and love these whales.

Now let's give them a good Christmas and years to come 

with lots of wild Chinook salmon! 

And if the whales show up again before Christmas...I'll say it again :)
And if I get those images out of my camera I will post them!

12-16-15 FIVE J Pod Babies Passing the Lighthouse Today

Wednesday, December 16th  (This post is updated 5a.m. 12-17- I was waiting for the Center for Whale Research to make the announcement.)  Scroll down the page to see Polaris and NEW BABY J-54 as they passed the lighthouse the morning on 12-16!

...I had heard that K and L pod whales were heading in yesterday...I heard nothing from them over the hydrophones during the night...
...I had also heard that J pod had showed up in Puget Sound the day before and were pretty far down in there yesterday...
...so off to town to mail a Christmas package to Alaska...(the receipt says it was 9:33 -it does play a role in this)...it was calm the sun was shining, so I decided to go home via the water view way...when I got to the west side the water was flat calm...wow!...so I stopped at the corner...get out of the car...don't even get the binos, when I see a dorsal fin!
"Yikes! There's whales!" I saw a couple fins and long dives...no time to wait..."get to the park." Residents or Transients?...at that point I had no idea...
...you know the story...run, get to the lighthouse area...they weren't close to shore and if I hurried I could make it...
...and here they came..it was just about 10 a.m....I still didn't know who was there until I heard echolocation clicks over the Lime Kiln hydrophones - "Rezzies!"
...listen for the tapping sounds...I tried removing as much background noise as possible, so any sounds other than the tapping were not from the whales...

...okay so, who?...
...Talk about mixed up whales! They were moving around, switching places so much it seemed like there were twice as many babies as there were.
...at first Alki J-36 had her offspring, Sonic J-52 with her...

...then Sonic J-52 was traveling with Eclipse J-41...

...her calf is Nova J-51, he was behind them...Sonic's mom, Alki J-36, was on the offshore side from them...
...there was some foraging, so some 'kid looking after' may have been going on...
...I thought I saw J-50 somewhere in the group..."oh, there's 'CatchUp' catching up again"...actually it's Scarlet J-50...though I saw her I wasn't successful in getting a proof of presence image of her...

...I could see some blows miles offshore...

...not sure how many whales were offshore but there didn't seem to be a lot...I concentrated on those in close...

...Slick J-16 and Shachi J-19 came by...no babies with them...moms'/grandmas' social time perhaps...
...then came Princess Angeline J-17...I so hoped that baby J-53 would be there...not with mom - arrgh...

...ah, but there, behind Princess A. was the baby, in between the baby's brother, Moby J-44, and cousin, Notch J-47...

...Notch's mom and baby J-53's aunt, Tahlequah J-35, was nearby...
...there were some direction changes for a several minutes, a few surface behaviors, and some porpoising (too far away at that point for images)...they were catching up to Tahlequah and Princess A.

...ADDED - and when I put in this line: 'a few more whales came past the lighthouse and then no more' it was a place holder for this:
...I saw Polaris J-28...since she has always been rather independent my caution lights didn't come on...she was about 10 minutes behind the rest of the J17s...

...but then!...

...I immediately called the Center for Whale Research (link to read the rest of the story on their announcement page) - of course! 
...I could hardly contain myself, but I knew I had to keep it to myself until CWR confirmed it...look to see the awesome photos Dave Ellifrit got of the newest member of J Pod~ - WOW!
...Polaris' offspring, Star J-46 was traveling off from Polaris and new baby J-54 as they passed by the lighthouse...

...after about a 1/2 hour I thought I would scan down island, one more time, to see if there were any others coming up...
...little did I know a humpback was coming down island and surfaced about 200 yards from shore right by where I was standing...needless to say...surprised me to pieces with that blow!

...but that wasn't all...more on this day later...with what was added about the new baby - that was all - isn't that enough!!

12-14-15 Early Morning Calls Over the Hydrophones

Monday, December 14th
...not only was it nice to have a night without those massive winds, it made it possible to hear, at first, some extremely faint sounds...that was at about 3:40 a.m.
...it took until after 5:00 a.m. to be able to tell it was Transients...
...that was over the Lime Kiln hydrophones...no telling where they actually were because the calls were too intermittent and too faint...
...but then they began over the Orca Sound hydrophones...

...the calls faded off as opposed to stopping abruptly...did they go behind one of the Canadian islands?...hummmmm...will they show up again in the daylight or over one of the hydrophones...I hope!
...oh, I just heard them again (7:12 a.m.)...way distant and very faint...just a couple calls...


...the Ts showed up at the perfect time for me...I'm reading the book Into Great Silence, by Eva Saulitis...'A memoir of Discovery and Loss Among Vanishing Orcas'...for me it's a wonderful account on many levels...and it takes you right there...last night I was reading a section about the Transients, she was studying, and their calls...
...so being awakened to Ts in the early morning...very nice...


...that book may also cause you to think about the Southern Residents and the issues they face...
...as far as where the Residents are???...last I heard that Ks and some Ls were heading west, but no Js were seen with them...that's another 'hummmmm'...could Js have been way up ahead?...or way behind?...or are they still up north or...or perhaps they came back down silently...