Blogging is always so much easier as a naturalist when you have amazing trips. I must say, I have been extremely fortunate throughout the 2013 season in having great trips. Tonight was another one of those top five best nights. Our Southern Resident Killer Whales surprised us all, as they usually do, by swimming the (roughly) 90 mile voyage from the western side of Vancouver Is. BC into the northern waters of the Puget Sound. It's not uncommon for Killer Whales to swim 100+ miles a...

Guests of M/V Kittiwake departed the docks with Captain Jim and myself, and we headed north. We had our resident orcas move into the Salish Sea late last night/early this morning. We saw members of L pod today in front of Patos Lighthouse with Mount Baker in the background. It was the perfect setting for these whales to "show off" for our guests, and they did just that! With tail slaps, pectoral fin slaps, breaching, and spy hopping our guests were thrilled with what they were...

Well goodbye L-22s and hello Transients! I'm very excited for this new change of pace the last couple of days, but still sad to see our last Resident Orcas go back out the Strait of Juan de Fuca. We had the small group of eight transient Orcas come in yesterday and kill a Minke Whale and they were still around to watch today! I've never seen this group of nomads before and was just as excited as everyone on board to get some good views in!

Transient Orcas differ from our Resident...

Captain Jim and myself departed on M/V Kittiwake today in hopes of finding transient orcas. Our guests were hoping that since it was Captain Jim's birthday, he would be our good luck charm! Jim ended up proving to be our good luck charm!
We made it up to canadian waters, specifically kellet reef, where we met up with a group of eight transient orcas. Most of the time we see our resident orcas and write about them, but on these special days we get to blog about this group....

A little change of pace for most of the whale watching boats today, instead of hanging out with L-22's, we decided to try our luck out with some transients whales! And I would say it was a great decision! There were reports that these transients killed a Minke Whale earlier in the day. When M/V Sea Lion arrived on scene, there were six transients, mostly females, in a very tight knit group. Presumably, this group had already made the kill, but it is possible we were witnessing them...

Today was quite the day with lots of wildlife to be seen! Caitlin, Captain Mike, and I were paired up as a team once again and had a fabulous trip! It looked dark and ominous as we went though Cattle Pass out towards the Olympic Mountains, but it never rained a drop. We saw lots of Harbor Seals, Harbor Porpoise, and Bald Eagles as we motored out towards the whales. It's always great to see such a variety of wildlife!

When we got to the L-22s (part of our Southern Resident Killer...

Today was a beautiful day to be on the water with plenty of action, and Caitlin, Captain Mike and I were out to experience it all! We left the dock and headed out to the south end of San Juan Island. As we went through Cattle Pass, there was a plethora of wildlife to be scene. A mated pair of Bald Eagles flew above the water in front of us and landed on Goose Island. Also on Goose Island were lots of hatchings! Fluff balls of down feathers and young, disoriented, hungry baby Galls...

It was a beautiful day out on the water today with clear views of Mt. Baker, Mt. Rainier, the Olympics and the Cascades! Myself, Caitlin, and Captain Mike were eager to see some wildlife and so were the guests. Heading southward, we got an awesome viewing of several hauled out Harbor Seals on Turn Rock! We made our way around the south end of the island past scenic Cattle Point continued northward along the west side. Here, we were lucky enough to spot 3 members of L-Pod!! It was...

The great weather continued today as Captain Jim, passengers, and I sped up along the west side of San Juan Island to meet up with a few L Pod members. As you might have read in earlier posts, L-22, Spirit, and her two sons, L-79, Skana, and Solstice, L-89, have been consistently found milling along the west side of San Juan this summer. Today was no exception!  They seemed to be the only show in town, since all the boats were out and about, including the University of Washington...

We headed south today and kept high spirits through the cloudy, cold weather. It wasn't long before we saw our Harbor Seals and Steller Seal Lion at Cattle Pass! The Stellers never cease to amazing me with their size! These guys are just huge, weighing in at almost two ton.

After watching the seals we headed out to find our black and white friends! When we caught up with them, Emily and I quickly identified the J-Pod members that we were watching. Our "Cookie Clan" was there...