After a night of rain, I woke up this morning to still more rain, as it sometimes goes here in Washington.  But as the day progressed, the weather got better and better.  By the time our departure time rolled around, it was looking pretty good and sunny out here in the San Juan Islands.  From Friday Harbor, we headed north with word and hope of possible whales up in Canada by Active Pass.

After an hour of searching and a pass by a few Stellar sea lions, we started to see vessels off...

We headed north with reports of Orca up near Pender Island.  By the time we were on the water about 30 minutes the next report came in that the whales were moving steadily north towards active pass.  We were committed to finding Orca for our passengers so we continued on.  As we reached active pass we slowed and tucked on the side as the big BC ferry came through.  While we waited for it to pass we were able to spot an eagle perched at the top of the highest tree.

We came around the...

Today we saw two Transient Orcas way up on the west side of Pender Island.  One of them was a big male with a huge dorsal that we identified as T20.  He had one of the coolest, most unique fins I have seen so far.  With a couple of notches and a port-side lean, his dorsal was easy to ID even from several hundred yards away. The whales were milling, but, overall seemed mostly interested in moving south.

The trip up was Bald Eagle central, with the birds every couple hundred yards all...

Heading south from Friday Harbor, we had word that a potential transient pod was seen off Middle Bank and was headed further out towards the Strait of Juan De Fuca.  With the traveling pod in mind, we searched out in that direction.  After a about and hour and a half of travel, fifteen plus miles and some choppy seas, we spotted some whale watching vessels and then, at last, the orcas!  A pod of four to five unidentified transients were on the move, surfacing for several breaths and...

We started our adventure with a little rainfall as we left the harbor but within minutes the rain stopped and after heading south for a few more minutes, we found two harbor seals hauled out and resting.  After cruising just another 10 minutes south, we spotted some dorsal fins off of Cattle Point, and then more dorsal fins and then even more.  We had discovered a very spread out J-pod!  The pod was split up into several different groups, some of which were diving for extended...

Wednesday arrived with sunny skies and the warmest temperatures of the season.  We departed a little early for our trip due to word of whales in the area.  We headed through Cattle Pass with the tide flooding against us.  As we cleared the pass and entered Haro straight Captain Craig pointed our bow south towards Partridge Bank.  But half way there we took a sharp right and headed up the straight as we spotted some Orca closer to our position.

We came on scene with just a couple...

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

All staff,

With a spectacular spring day, the MV Sea Lion and crew (Captain Craig and MikeO) headed north with our special charter of Western States Agency Policy Makers.

Ken Balcomb, of The Center for Whale Research, Kari Koski of The Whale Museums SoundWatch program and me were asked to describe in our view, the process that lead to the new NOAA rules.  We were asked how those new rules would affect the whale watching industry and how they might affect the...

[caption id="attachment_1901" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Mature Bald Eagle in tree"] 

[/caption]

As seen on a Birding Tour Charter May 2011

Happy Birders on the Birding Charter. Guests are from the Tri Cities.

Mature Bald Eagle in its nest

A Bald Eagle Makes A Kill in Mid-Air- Victum is a Glaucous Winged Gull

Palagic Cormorants with Glacous Winged Gulls

Birder with camera closing in on "THE shot"

A Bald Eagle Makes A Kill in Mid-Air- Victum is a Glaucous Winged Gull

Two Bald Eagle with their Glaucous Winged Gull meal

The Tri Cities Birding Group May 7, 2011

Birders and Bird Leader Barb Jensen

Mike Oster, Lead Naturalist and also a Captain.

Today we had a charter for a group of birders which departed at 9:00. Heading south out of Friday Harbor we almost immediately saw: Pelagic Cormorants,  Brandts Cormorants, Double Crested Cormorants.
There were Black Oyster Catchers on Goose Island and also a HARLEQUIN Duck there.
Out at whale rocks we saw a large group of Stellar Sea Lions basking.
There were several Rhinoceros Aucklets and Pigeon Guillemots.
MARBLED MURLETS!!!! Yes, but had it not been for Barb Jensen I dont know if the rest of of us would have spotted them.

Bald eagles were in trees and nest. But the best was when a bald eagle snatched a Glacous Winged Gull out of the air, BAM! and brought it to shore where its mate was waiting. The eagle that caught is, then began cleaning it - feathers flying.

We also saw a pair of Peregrine Falcons - Up in the rock and trees - another Barb spotting. Someone in the group spotted a Harlequin Duck. What a beauty!

About 3 hours later we pulled back in to Friday Harbor. The day was beautiful - blue skies. Not the rain predicted.

Over and out for now,

Colleen, Naturalist

Another beautiful day.  That makes wo in a row!

It was calm enough to head south through Cattle Pass and do an entire circumnavigation of San Juan Island.  Whale rocks was packed with Steller Seal Lions,  Harbor Seals, and Cormorants and as we headed out toward the straight, with the wind at our backs, we decided it would be the perfect day to just keep on going.  We made it all the way around to Henry Island and turned out toward Speiden to try to sneak a peek at some land mammals. ...