Whale Watching Naturalist with Young Whale Watcher

Today on both of our trips, we encountered J-pod.  First off of the west side of San Juan Island where they were headed northeast and then off of East point, the most northwestern point of the United States, and headed into Canadian waters.  Our whales went international today, visiting a few countries along the way.

Within the pod, we were able to identify Mike.  With Mike, we found his mother J16 (Slick); she has a little...

With one short of a full boat and some sunshine peeking through the intermittent clouds, we took the Sea Lion up north towards Canadian waters in search of some Pacific northwest wildlife.  Just outside the harbor as we were coming around the corner, a passenger spotted a bald eagle perched high in the top of a pine tree: conveniently photogenic.

Our luck kept rolling in as we soon found a large pod of orcas who turned out to be J-pod!  Rather than traveling at a quick pace, they...

We headed north out of Friday Harbor with reports that there were some orcas coming down the Strait of Georgia towards Saturna Island. On our way to start our search in Canadian waters we were lucky enough to encounter lots of harbor seals hauled out on the rocks at Yellow Island and some more at White Rocks.

From there we headed across the border at Boundary Pass and had everyone on board helping us look for signs of orca. Once we passed the Canadian Navy and a large cargo ship we...

As we circumnavigated San Juan Island we encountered species at every turn.  The San Juan Chanel was full of harbor porpoises and bald eagles, the Haro Straight teemed with Dall’s porpoise and three minke whales were feeding around Salmon Bank where California sea lions rested on the buoy.  An exciting day!

Kirsten, Naturalist

Another beautiful day on the water!

We headed south through Cattle pass, stopping to take a quick peek and a steller hauled out on the rocks.  When we got a little closer we were surprised to see a male California sea lion lounging beside the steller. I have spent a lot of time around CA sea lions.  I have seen them in the water and the big males can be quite intimidating.  The CA we were looking at was certainly a big male with a huge sagittal crest, but the steller beside him made...

What a day.  If I go into every detail this blog could be of epic proportions.  I'll try to reign it in a little bit and we'll see what happens.

It all stated with the nicest, warmest day of the year; the first day I have worn a t-shirt without several other layers over and under it  (and that lasted until we picked up speed).  Toward Cattle pass we could see Mt Ranier, tall, majestic, snow covered, and over 100 miles away.  We headed out toward the Straight of Juan de Fuca on glassy...

Northbound from the harbor, we soon found our dead harbor seal with about five bald eagles sharing its carcass off of Sentinel Island.  Day three of its destruction and the seal still had some meat on it to feed the local raptors.  Onwards around the north end of San Juan Island, we started to see sporadic dorsal fins belonging to harbor porpoises.  Into the Haro Straight, we passed Lime Kiln State Park on the west side of the island.  We were lucky to have sunny weather with...

The clear, sunny day brought out the normally elusive harbor porpoise…and Mt. Rainier!  The massive volcano, which is over a hundred miles away, was in the backdrop of as we headed through Cattle Pass.  There we saw a minke whale, harbor seals, stellar sea lions and many harbor porpoises.  Once in the Strait of Juan de Fuca we sighted at least two other minke whales alongside many birds.  Near Spieden Island a juvenile bald eagle ate a decaying seal while many others were in the top...

Wildlife galore today!  We departed Friday Harbor with a northbound heading: towards the sunshine.  We had quite a pleasant ride up into the waters of Canada, with a few gray harbor porpoises traveling with us and a silver harbor seal peering at us from the ocean.

Off in the distance, we spotted five vessels off Saltspring Island, Canada.  They appeared to be observing some transient killer whales.  As our boat--the Sea Lion--got closer, we were able to identify a large male orca...

On Sunday, May 29th we ventured out on two trips to accommodate all of our holiday weekend whale watchers.  And successful we were.

Headed northbound, we stopped by Spieden island to see the non-native Mouflon sheep and Sika and Fallow deer.  Further on, we saw several harbor seals and Stellar sea lions hauled out on the rocks warming up in the wonderful San Juan sunshine.  Off of bird rock, we saw a young bald eagle (no white-feathered head yet) perched two feet out of the water...