Yesterday Transients Orcas, today Residents Orcas! Traveling all the way to Mouat Point off North Pender Island, Canada, we caught up with members of J and K pod. Although the Orcas kept us on the move, we paused long enough to see foraging, plenty of tail-slapping, a slow-motion spy-hop by Sekiu (K-22), and an excellent full-body breach! It was also a treat to clearly hear vocalizations on our hydrophone.

     A stop at Green Point on Speiden Island on the way home gave us a...

  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...

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...

Yes, we saw orca whales today on the 2nd of October - late in the whale watching season.  We took off from Friday Harbor, San Juan Island heading north toward Spieden Island.  As we neared Speiden, one of the guests spotted a large brown head which turned out to be a great big stellar sea lion fishing by himself.  We stayed on the south side of Speiden and Shelly spotted a mature bald eagle up in a tree. Down below the Mouflon Sheep and Sitka Deer were roaming about.

We pushed on to...

Well, things are definitely winding down.  In just a few days there will be no more trips and probably no more whales until next year.  We were super lucky today and found a small section of L pod down in Haro Strait off the west side.  The water was super calm even though it was a bit rainy.

On the way home we stopped at got some final looks at all the Steller's at Whale Rocks and called it a day.  Until next year...

Mike

San Juan Safaris

The last two days could have gone either way.  The morning whale reports had residents near Hein Bank, possibly heading out to the Pacific.  But like yesterday, the animals turned around and made their way back towards San Juan Island.  We found some members of K pod swimming steadily in Haro Strait as the clouds finally cleared.  We hung out with a few different groups of 4-5 whales, but could see animals spread out in every direction!

On the way home we stopped near Whale Rocks and...

We only have a few more trips left in our season up here, but the whales don't know that.  Today we found members of our resident pods K and L, almost 50 whales, spread out in Haro Strait heading up to Turn Point.  We were able to identify K20 (possibly with a new calf?  yet to be confirmed), L87, L41, L88, and  K40.  We got to see a wide range of behaviors and all our passengers were very excited.

On the way home we stopped along Spieden and saw many harbor seals on the rocks, as...

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...

Resident Orca Whale by Guest David Paris September 20, 2011

 

Ode to the Orca

In a colossal embrace matter melted with music

Orgasms of fantasy and light.
It was so that the breath of the goddess took form,
Her chants crystallized in an ocean with twilights instead of waves,
Mask of the unknown,
Uterus of the first spawned orca.

The aeons pre-universe elapsed nurturing her gestation

and it was only when she was fully grown that time could born
for the sun is just a mirage of her...

I feel like we have had a lot of great trips this summer and have been luck so far in September with a fairly high percentage of whale sightings.  Of all the trips we have had since we started in April there are a handful that stick out vividly in my memory as exceptional.  Today might have trumped them all.

The one nice thing about this cloudy weather is that it is glassy, flat, and the flat light makes for easy spotting. We left the harbor today and headed north.  Half way up the...