It has gradually been getting colder. But this morning, 26 degrees at 8:00 AM? Brrrrrrrrrrr.
The fences, bushes and grass all had frost glittering on them as I drove into town.
Attached is a photo of San Juan Valley – just had to stop and snap the fog sitting on the ground with the sun shining on a barn.
Low laying fog on a 26 degree morning
No orca whale reports today, BUT as we pulled out of Friday Harbor the Captain received word of a humpback whale by Halibut Island, Canada. It took us nearly an hour to get to the location but there it was – a beautiful humpback whale. It looked as though it was feeding the entire time we were with it – almost ½ an hour. When it dove down, one could see many of the ‘knuckles’ on it’s back. Two of the many dives it waved it tail gently before disappearing into the water. Speaking of water, the depth of the water in that location was about 150 feet deep.
This was the last tour of the season.
I
We will reopen for whale & wildlife tours April 14, 2012. See you next year!
Naturalist, Colleen Johansen
Today with beautiful weather the two Kenmore Air sea planes touched down at the dock and we were there waiting to take the guests for a wildlife tour. The group included people from Denmark, Sweden and Japan.
We went down the east side of San Juan Island stopping a few times to view birds and harbor seals. We had a good look at a mature bald eagle, solo, at the top of a tree. As we neared the southern-most tip of the island, we stopped (turned off the engine) and sat to watch some big stellar sea lions. 10-15 sea lions sunning on a rock outcropping with 100’s of pelagic cormorants. The rocks were literally covered with animals.
We started up again heading north. There were a number of commercial vessels out fishing today with nets out. The guests and I saw several orca whales go right up to one of these boats. I wondered if they were going to try to get fish out of the net, but then they just moved along. There were also many markers bobbing about as crabbing season has RE-opened.
Further north up the west side we saw a male orca solo. We were stopped and watched him for a bit.
We started up going slowly north were we encountered a few more orca whales. I remember a group of 3, either all females or females with a young male. The whales were not coming out of the water – just enough to breath. There were many small groups of whales and seemed to be spread out over a large area.
With the engines off and the hydrophone down (50’) we were treated to the whale calls/song/clicks. I can never grow tired of this. There was a good deal of vocalization today too!
We moved a bit more north were different whales were seemingly on a northern journey. Again, with engines off, we sat just staring to the coast of San Juan Island where whales were popping up and sliding back down. We even saw 2 tail slaps that looked like a juvenile.
We came home stopping near Speiden as one of the guests spotted 4 Harlequin Ducks swimming by. The captain turned the boat around so that Peter, the birder, with a 400 mm lens, could get a really good photo. He was thrilled and so was I. (hope he sends us the photo).
How would I grade this trip? The fog from the morning lifted and the planes came on time, it did not rain, it was not cold, we saw Stella Sea Lion, Cormorants, Harbor Seals, Bald Eagle, Orca Whales, Harlequin Ducks, Heermann’s Gull, Loons, Common Murres, Pigeon Guilemots and more. It was an “A” Trip.
Naturalist, Colleen Johansen
Headed south down the east side of San Juan Island.A single mature bald eagle was spotted up in a tree. We paused to view it, then off it went. We went a bit further south, then stopped a rock outcrop with TONS of Stellars Sea Lions. Lounging, posturing, snoozing, swimming. They where piled up with scads of cormorants and a variety of gulls. You could smell that these animals were all fish eaters. (Hey, watch it, I kinda like that fragrance!) The boat sat with the engine off and twirled in the current. Pretty cool right at that spot in the water.
50/50 chance of seeing whales is what I gave it. BUT . . . It was a WHALE day for sure. We were on the west side of San Juan Island south of Lime Kiln, north of False Bay, about a mile from shore. A single male resident orca surfaced. Solo. We could not see any other whales for quite some time. The boat moved further north, then we began to see what looked like two females. While sitting with the engine off, after about 20 mintues, a female off our bow start slapping her pectoral fin. Over and over.she slapped. Almost as if waving to us. She kept this up for several minutes. I am not sure just how many orcas there were. They were all very s p r e a d out. None were breaching. None were surfacing. It seemed like heavy duty prey finding.
There was a report of Humpback whales 3 miles from us - closer to Canada. Off we went. There were a few other boats already on scene. Two humpbacks were swimming side by side in sync with each others movements. Another whale was solo. I kept expecting a fluke. Sure enough, when I was not looking, Shelly saw the tail. We stayed with these whales about 20 minutes. Then we turned and started homeward – southish. The orcas were still in the same area. Stilled looked like fishing and eating mode to me.
What a great “Tail End of the Season tour this was!
Naturalist, Colleen Johansen
After 2 days of howling wind and sporadic downpours it seemed as though mother nature deicded to give us a break. It was a beautiful day. There was sun and there were whales. We even saw a Minke surface as we were watching Steller’s Sea Lions at the south end of Cattle Pass.
When we got to the residents the whales were spread out on the south/ west side of the island. They looked to be moving a little bit offshore but were generally milling when we arrived. The first whale we encountered was L21 traveling (or hunting) with a female and juvenile male. There were whales everywhere but toward the end of the trip we ended up with a group that included L20 and a very small, very orange calf. Perhaps a new K baby! He (or she) was tail slapping, mini spyhopping, and laying on his (or her) back for a while with tiny pectoral fins up in the air like little ping pong paddles. Very exciting. What a day.
Laura, Naturalist
Resident Orca Whale by Guest David Paris September 20, 2011
In a colossal embrace matter melted with music
The aeons pre-universe elapsed nurturing her gestation
Oh! Priestess of life!
Unintelligible creature, terror is the shadow that your movement sows!
The tale at you pupil is the law of blood and watch
Hailed be him who finds himself at the face of the Orca,
“Quisiera yo que la majestad humana fuera sólo la encarnación del reflejo de la tuya. Pido mucho y este sincero deseo es, para ti, glorioso. Tu grandeza moral, imagen del infinito, es inmensa como la reflexión del filósofo, como el amor de la mujer, como la belleza divina del pájaro, como las meditaciones del poeta. Eres más hermoso que la noche. Responde, océano, ¿quieres ser mi hermano?”
Conde de Lautréamont
Translation:
We had a beautiful blustery day today heading south out of Friday Harbor. After hearing reports of whales south west of San Juan and heading further SW we blazed on out off of Hein Bank! We were kindly greeted by a group of 10-12 traveling Orcas, all members of L-Pod. Having a wonderful photographer on board we were able to document and identify several of the whales we watched! Baba (L-26), Crewser (L-92), Ballena (L-90), Wave Walker (L-88), and the large male known as Gaia (L-78). It’s always so amazing when you are able to identify these animals; we are able to tell who is who by the unique shape of their saddle patch (the white patch underneath their dorsal) and dorsal fin. Once we have identified individuals in the pod we are able to show passengers how each of these L-pod members are related with our matriline catalogs, it’s very often that these animals travel and are sighted in groups that they are most closely related to.
Making our way back towards Friday Harbor we came across a very large group of stellar sea lions all hauled out and sunbathing on ‘Whale Rock’, with a smaller group of harbor seals hanging on the other side. So cool to see the HUGE size distinctions between these two species! Little harbor seal heads continued to pop out of the water all around our boat as we headed on in from this amazing day out on the water.
Alex
San Juan Safaris
Naturalist
All summer I have been thinking everyone was pulling my leg telling me that summer just gets nicer and nicer and then September is the best month of the year. I was convinced that it would be 40 degrees and raining by now. I seem to have been mistaken. This week has been the warmest of the year and it has been beyond beautiful on the water.
We left and headed south out of the harbor. Fat seals were lazing on the rocks and Steller’s Sea Lions were cruising around on the prowl in Cattle Pass. There were 2 on the north side of Goose Island and then 7 or 8 more in a little posse south of Whale Rocks. There were none out on the rocks. Much like the other residents of San Juan Island, the heat may have been too much for them.
We rounded Cattle Point and started to see blows around Eagle Point. There were definitely K’s and maybe some J’s heading up the coast. Minutes later they were heading down the coast. They were spread from us in toward the rocks and on the other side, miles out toward the Olympics. Salmon were leaping everywhere and although there may have been some hunting taking place, one group with baby K and several other juveniles seemed to be enjoying a mid-afternoon play session. One juvenile breached about 10 times in a row! It was an awesome day and it was the first day Mike O made it through the whole trip in just a T-shirt. Congratulations Mike.
Laura, Naturalist, San Juan Safaris
With two full boats, we headed up north across the border and into Canadian waters, all in search of the Southern Resident Killer Whales that had been out to sea (to the best of our knowledge) for a few days. We ended up in the Strait of Georgia, just south of the city of Vancouver, when a passenger tapped me on the shoulder and said, “look, there!” And there they were! Orcas spanning over a quarter of a mile were lined up in smaller groups and heading north. As we paralleled them for a while, we were able to identify J-27, “Blackberry,” as one of the more recently-matured whales of the community. He had a juvenile–possibly his little brother “Mako”–and two females and/or larger juveniles. The orcas engaged in just about every surface behavior they have in their repertoire, from tail slapping to spy hopping to even breaching, it was all there! After our long journey north, we eventually did have to depart and head back to Friday Harbor but along the way we got a glimpse of some napping harbor seals and some porpoising harbor porpoises (yes, a verb AND a noun!). Welcome back, resident orcas!
Serena, Naturalist
San Juan Safaris
The sun may have been shining today, but it was raining marine mammals!!! Shortly after leaving Friday Harbor and heading south we saw a large group of Harbor porpoise. We cut the engine and the miniature Cetaceans that are famously shy were all around the boat and even porpoising out of the water, exposing much of their flanks. Then once in Salmon Bank a Minke whale’s long back broke the surface and was soon followed by its small hooked dorsal fin.
As we entered Cattle Pass back toward the harbor, we received the exciting call that there were orcas beside Lopez. Captain Mike quickly maneuvered the boat in a 180 and we were back out into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Four to five orcas, one a juvenile, were seen cruising around the rocky outcrops near Iceberg Point. They were of the transient community with solid saddle patches and wide dorsal fins that angled further toward their posterior than the residents. We left them as they slowly started making their way north.
On our way back, we noticed that Whale Rocks were crowded with gigantic Steller sea lions and encircled by a few harbor seals. This happened to be not far, and in the same direction the transients were moving towards. We wondered if a pinnipede smorgasbord was in the making.
Kirsten, naturalist
