2-29-2020 J Pod Can Only Do This Once Every 4 Years

Saturday, February 29

...it was about 8a.m. when I decided to take a walk...luckily it was along the road on the westside of the island...
...and luckily I didn't get very far when I happened to see a blow in the distance - just one blow...hmmm...trees and the angle of the shoreline didn't give me much opportunity to see another, to figure out direction of travel...
...so at a 'quick-step' (ha-ha) I made it back to the lighthouse and Oh, My...here came a whale!
...once again just one whale...oh, but that one whale was important to me - It was Shachi J-19... 

...in the lead...why important?...because she became the replacement for Granny J-2 when Granny died in late 2016.  It still is not known if her leadership role is temporary or permanent and what if any changes may occur because of this...and what does temporary mean to the whales, anyway?

...I soon saw another and another coming up about 1/4 mile behind her and a bit more offshore...Eclipse J-41 and Nova J-51...
...then a few others...the whales were spread out...it was J Pod, of course...
...here came two males...Blackberry J-27 and who?

...it's Cookie J-38!

Behind them was Se-Yi-chn J-45...I remember when I first saw him - he was a brand new baby - the first newborn I had ever seen and that was back in 2009 and it was from shore at the park...

It took a while to locate others...there was a group offshore by more than a mile...
...the whales were moving at a steady pace, going up island...and then Blackberry and Cookie stopped and were actively foraging...

...they were farther to the north when the following echolocation clicks began...very loud...and then Alki J-36 surfaced...!
...can't be sure but it might have been her...

...the seas were choppy at first and eventually settled...the whales continued north...

So what is it they can only do once every four years?
The answer is:  travel in the Salish Sea on February 29.

2-26-2020 J Pod and a Harbor Porpoise Encounter

Wednesday, 2-26-2020

J Pod came back in this morning...that wasn't expected...and what my pictures showed that I took from really far away wasn't what I had expected either!

J Pod calls began over the hydrophones.
As soon as I got to the shoreline I saw three harbor porpoise moving north past the lighthouse.  Moments later another group.
Not long after a couple sea lions appeared traveling the same path as the harbor porpoise - in close to shore, moving north.

That reminded me of 2005, April, before hydrophones were on-line.
It was late in the day and I was sitting on the rocks just enjoying the late afternoon, when along came a group of porpoise and soon behind them a few sea lions...and little did I know behind them was J Pod!

It didn't happen quite that way today, but there may have been a reason the harbor porpoise and the sea lions were moving away from the orcas.  It wasn't until later when I was looking at the few images I took today of the whales, when I noticed something was different about that group I was watching.  I was down island a mile or so, and this one group appeared to be resting, no maybe foraging, or just goofing around.

I had no idea until I looked at my images several hours later.  So here they are. I was really far away from the whales but you can clearly seen a harbor porpoise.  Looks like Tofi J-56 was in the mix too...maybe getting an education about harbor porpoise!  ha!

...the whales have a history of interactions with harbor porpoise...maybe the researchers, who soon arrived, got to see more than I did...

2-25-2020 J Pod Came Down in the Early Hours

Tuesday, February 25th


04:15 oh, so early and oh so extremely faint were the calls of J Pod whales.  As faint as those calls were I thought that maybe they had come down Rosario Strait and were crossing over to the Strait of Juan de Fuca...so here I was, taking my time, after all it was very dark outside...too early to go anywhere,
...but time can go by quickly when you have your eyes and ears focused on what you had recorded...
...it was now about 7 a.m. and 'all of a sudden' there were faint echolocation clicks coming over the Lime Kiln hydrophones. How about just throwing on anything I could to keep warm and getting out the door...asap!
...but when I got to the shore I saw only one whale...well, thank you very much, you're the first whale I have seen in a month!  She was about 1/3 mile offshore going down island slowly and had already passed the lighthouse...I could see no others...hmmm...
...couldn't stand it - had to go down island a short way to see if others were there..I saw her again, still going down island but no others in view...
...scanning farther offshore and everywhere I thought I saw an adult male as he dove...but he was so far across Haro Strait that I could not confirm...

...then I heard a few brief J Pod calls off Lime Kiln...I could never locate who was 'attached' to those calls. 

...so they had not come down Rosario...they had come down one of many ways that would take them to Haro Strait...I say it that way because they were north of Nanaimo a couple days prior.
...they have come down through the Canadian Gulf islands on rare occasions, but only they know for sure...
...I saw a research boat go down island...hmmm, but I didn't think the whales went that way...

...so it was now only about 8:30 and there were no more hearings of vocals of the whales...but at 11:30 some strange sounds began.  I immediately sent a short clip to the researcher and he contacted a research vessel out there...then he asked me where J Pod was...I made a call and learned that they were in the Strait of Juan de Fuca - way out of range of whatever this vessel noise was...

But then came vocals of the whales at the same time as this weird sound was happening.  Strangest thing is that it appeared they were playing a recording from that vessel of the whales...
...this went on until 2:10 pm when they ended and then moved on their way...

...I was scanning and scanning, the water was calm, so if whales had been out there I should have been able to see them...and if you looked at what came over the hydrophones did not appear on the spectrogram like 'real' vocals would have...
...what is most curious is why was that vessel broadcasting vocals of orcas into the water...I didn't think anyone was supposed to do that.

...in addition K Pod had come in with J Pod on Feb 19th but K Pod has not been seen since that day and they could be anywhere, as could L Pod...so...

...I would imagine that that vessel knew that J Pod was far away...they likely had been in contact with someone...just a guess, but I can't imagine any research group doing this...so that's why.

Crazy day...
I saw a whale...
Only the second time in 2020...
Hopefully the third time won't be too long from now!

2-19-2020 J Pod and K Pod Vocalizaiing over Lime Kiln hydrophones

February 19, 2020

Listen and read the text on the clip.
Then...
...just use one of your senses - close your eyes - to be totally focused on what you are hearing.

Special moments these are.

2-12-2020 The Octopus and the Sea Lion

Wednesday, February 12th

2-14 - just got it confirmed  -  that is the eye of the octopus!!! (3rd and 4th image) WOW!

A quiet day...a couple harbor seals...but then...

 This image shocked me...was I looking at the eye of the octopus?  I had to go look up images of one..yes, I think that is!

..the more I looked at it the more it looks like an arm looped up. Maybe an arm is wrapped around the eye!

At first it was difficult to tell what that sea lion had...but there were too many long pieces (arms), so it was likely an octopus...quite fascinating to watch this sea lion right near the lighthouse, take this octopus and the force used when flinging it.
I thought they were called tentacles but I learned octopus have arms, not tentacles.