Got Fish?

Look closely!  I bet you can see it!  That tiny little fluke, poking up next to big brother or uncle's fin?
Today we are graced with the Southern Resident Orca whales presence as a mixed group of K and L family slide up the westside of San Juan Island in the sunshine and flat water.  What a day!

Fin 'n Fluke

It's always amazing to me how wildlife has a way of attracting everyone's rapt attention.  The voices are in awe, the cameras click off frames of digital memories and the questions pop.  That's one of the most pleasurable things about the job of marine naturalist on a whale watch / wildlife boat.  The questions!  Any teacher will tell you that when someone really wants to learn and has a question...that's the best an educational experience has to offer.  Even if you don't have the instant answer, and have to think about it a little bit...it's the best!  So it goes today.

SRKW female headed north

Family Time

It's always amazing to see such a jumble of fins mixed together seemingly moving in perfect sync with each other.  Doesn't anyone ever say, "Hey...move over!"?

Tucker the Whale Dog

What will Tucker find today with his super nose sniffing techniques?  Tucker works for the Center for Conservation Biology and is a big winner at locating whale poop in the water.  Once collected and sent to the lab, lots of information is recorded about the individual whale who provided the valuable sample.  Tucker's reward?  A few tosses of the coveted ball!  (this one's on an elastic band so it doesn't go off into the great blue beyond)  His work for the season is almost over.

Picking Up Speed

Our time with the whales comes to an end, but the trip is not over until we turn up some more incredible wildlife on our way back to Friday Harbor.  Eagles anyone?

Watching

Talk about an "eagle eye," this bird is focused on something other than our boat full of admirers.  Silent and still, he / she has perserverence.  It's easy to imagine the efficiency of that hooked beak!  What a tool!

Hello Harbor Seals!

Back among the Cactus Islands (yes, cactus...here in the San Juans) we find a local Harbor seal hang out.  They are alert to our arrival, but stay put.  Gotta catch a nap sometime!

Steller Boys 

Headed for Groceries?

Our last stop is for a group of two Steller sealions...that turned into a group of four or five!  These amazing sealions prowl the San Juans all winter looking for food.  I've seen them tossing salmon into the air, gulping down large skates or rays and with octopus hanging out of their mouths.  What's on the grocery list for today?  Hard to say!

T is for Transient

The T-10s ....Transients on the prowl!

 Today's trips are graced by sunshine and warm temperatures!  With no sightings as we start the morning we spend lots of time searching the shorelines and all the rocky habitat where seals and sea lions hang out.  Where you find the food...you just might find the Orca whales!  There are plenty of Harbor seals, and lots of Steller sea lions, many birds indicating bait fish, but no Orca.  We find a Minke whale diving by the shore and get many good looks.

The news for the afternoon is different.  There are three Transient Orcas heading our way, although at the moment a bit far away.  Determined to give it a shot, we head out across Haro Strait toward Victoria, B.C.  The water is flat!  Yay!  The sun shines.  Yay!  And, after a long run, we see them!  These three whales are known as the T-10's.  The adult female (T-10) is with her two adult males, T-10B and T-10C.  The Transients are all assigned the letter "T" and this would be the 10th transient identified by researchers.  Her offspring will keep her number, "10" and the first one born is then, T-10A.  I have no idea what happened to "A," but she now always has with her the two males, 10B and 10C.  The information on Transient whales is sketchy compared to all the data that has been compiled on our Southern Resident Orcas.  We know they are organized in much smaller family groups, offspring still sticking with their mother.  However, the families don't seem to grow past three to five whales.  What happens if they have more offspring?  How is it decided who goes and who stays?

We have a wonderful hour to watch the T-10's as they clip on past Victoria, and head toward the Discovery Islands marine park.  Perfect place to find Harbor seals?  They split up and cruise in and around the shoreline, huge black fins slicing through the kelp beds and popping up around the back of rocky areas.  How can such a large large whale slip in and around the shore almost un-noticed?  They are hard to spot!

T-10 has a big notch carved out of her fin.

Big boy brothers - T-10C and B

Mom leads as they cruise around the kelp beds.

Easy ID fin - T-10 and look who is tagging along right behind!

T-10 C

Our run back to Friday Harbor is shorter as we have been traveling in the company of the whales for an hour, all in the general direction of home.  Lucky!  It's too hard to resist a stop at Whale Rocks to check out the Steller sea lion action in the late fall afternoon light.  We notice two of the sea lions are branded.  This is a strategy researchers are using to discover the movements of the Steller sea lions.  When I find one with a brand, I photograph it and send it in to the folks who keep track of the data.  I have seen 311 - R (for Rogue River in Oregon) before.  He's back again!  224 Y is a new sea lions for me and I'm anxious to find out river is indicated by the Y.  This will be the river of origin for the branding, which takes place when they are juveniles.

311 - R brand indicating Rogue River

224 Y is a brand I've never seen before.

And yes, here are a few shots of sea lions that were just too full of character not to add to my stash of sea lion photos!

Buddies?  For the moment

Dang...I know I was thinking of something...just now...what was it?

Another week on the water....gone...the season is slipping away....

Eagles, Seals and....ORCA Whales!

J-19 rockets into the air!....with flare!

Good news!  The Southern Resdients are back in our range today!  It's been a week since I've seen them and I am anxious to get back out on the water.  Today there are 26 passengers who are also excited to see the whales.  Our trip takes us north to the top of San Juan Island and out into Haro Strait.

 We find a group of six or seven whales headed north.  Here's a little bit of "Fluke and Fin" between two K and J pod family whales!

Granny, J-2, in the lead and Lobo, K-26 keeping her company!

Interestingly, Granny, the oldest of all the southern resident killer whales with an estimated birth year of 1911, is swimming along with a young adult male from K pod today.  Lobo, K-26 is keeping up and right along with them is the rest of his family.  His mother, Lea, K-14 is there and two more siblings.  Little Yoda is one of my favorite whales as I remember the day I caught him spy hopping and his chin sports a dimple!

Granny in the lead, and Lobo and...

We have a whole hour to watch the whales and suddenly are surprised by a giant breach.  One of our young passengers is counting...and as he says, "One..."...I add, "Two" and suddenly, J-19 flies out of the water on our chorus of "Three!"  What a surprise!  I just barely get the photo to prove it.

We keep trying our  counting trick...but the magic only works once.

After a stunning hour enjoying Orca whales foraging and cruising along San Juan Island, we turn to begin our trip back to Friday Harbor, but there is more to see on the way home.  How about Bald eagles?  We find three different adult Bald eagles on the shore of Spieden Island.  One walks a fallen tree, way out into the air over the water.

Always Alert

Checking us out...

Flashy Dresser

Here's one practicing for Halloween....going to dress as a tree branch!

Can't see me....can you?

It's hard not to stop and admire the Harbor seals basking in the warm autumn sunshine.

Two or Three?  Can you see?

My rock....MY rock....

Marveling at the magic on the water today, we head back into port.  I always feel so lucky to have spent the day this way.  Eagles, seals...and Orca whales...

Let the Baby Games Begin!

Today we find the L-12 family of Southern Resident Orca whales shopping the west side of San Juan Island.  Grocery list?  One word: Salmon!  Make that King salmon....oh, and prefer the Fraser River stock.  Appearently the delivery is in as this sub-family of L's plus a few other L pod males spend time today cruising back and forth in front of False Bay.  In this group is a three year old calf and the newest addition: L-119 born in February 2012.

L-119 practicing "Stealth Whale" game!

While big uncle, L-41 Mega, slowly cruises on the outside of the group, L-119 puts on quite a demonstartion of what, for all the world, look like "baby games!"

Bubbles....big ones!

I Spy?

Then, a series of five spy hops in a row.  Was something down below pulling her down, causing her head to pop up over and over?  What action!

Pop Up...Spy Hop!

Catch Up

Finally she puts on a spurt of high energy and catches up to mom.  It must be hard to play baby games, but try to engage adults?  

Time to move on....

Watching this young one gives me lots of ideas for baby Orca names.  Got a few yourself?  Hopefully she will thrive though the winter and next summer L-119 will be graced with the perfect nickname!  What will it be?

Hey! Which Way???

Hey!  Which Way???

The Phalaropes are back!  These zippy little birds (7-9 inches in length) make a "stop over" in the San Juans during their migration from the summer breeding grounds in northern Canada or the Arctic...enroute to...South America and / or tropical ocean locations!  Little bird.  Long trip.

From mid-August through the beginning of September I have the pleasure of watching them zip through the air, often in flocks of a dozen individuals, or appear bobbing on the water's surface.  I guess  like everyone on a long trip, refuling stops are a necessity.

The Phalaropes find areas in the ocean where currents collide (lots of those around the Salish Sea) and upwellings occur.  That provides the delivery of small bits of food to the surface of the water.  Sometimes they even demonstrate a spinning behavior on the surface of the water, meant to create their own personal whirlpool, and then use their long slender beaks to pluck food off the edge of the vortex.
Clever!

The beginning of the migration finds mostly females enroute.  In Phalarope society, the females are the flashier dressers (colored breeding plumage), very agressive and protective about nest sites. After the eggs are in the nest, they take off for warmer climes.  That would leave the males to incubate the eggs and tend the nest for about 20 days after the chicks hatch.  Hum....

I know there's a snack around here somewhere....

It amazes me how quickly they appear, and then...off they go.  Jetting south in small groups...in syncronized flight.

Sliding down the waves in Cattle Pass

See you next spring!

Sea Jelly Magic! = Good Luck!

Magic!  Did you know spotting sea jellies on a trip brings good luck?

Here's a beautiful Lion's mane sea jelly and I'd say, yes, we had fabulous luck on Saturday morning!  We leave the dock with a whale sighting reported.  Good luck!  The weather is perfect...sunshine, warm temperatures and flat seas.  Good luck!  Harbor seal pups and adults abound on a rocky reef area right outside the harbor.  More good luck!  Seal pups are bobbing in the water and adults are hauled on the pocket beach by Goose Island!  Captain Pete spots an adult Bald eagle on Deadman's Island way across the pass.  Good eyes!  We zoom over and take a look.  Good luck!  We motor over to Whale Rocks and find the numbers of Steller sea lions have doubled since yesterday!  Double the luck!  A slow ride past the south end of Lopez allows a slow look at a giant eagle's nest and sea birds dot the small island refuges.  So much to see!

And then...as we head out to open water...the whales!

Here's Calypso and her calf Cousteau.

Cousteau races along!

But wait!  It's Matia and her little new one...L-119!  This calf was born in 2012 and today she is very very active.  We watch tail slaps (four in a row!), a mini tail stand, a chin up with open mouth and the grand finale....belly up roll overs!

Now that's a memory I'll carry for a long, long time!  Good Luck!