Lots of wildlife today! First we saw about a dozen harbor seals just south of Friday Harbor, hauled up on the rocks. Then, at whale rocks we came across some pelagic cormorants, more harbor seals, plus a huge male stellar sea lion, a very rare sight for this time of year!

Continuing around towards the west side of San Juan Island, we came across at least seven killer whales. Both members of J and L pod were around. We identified L-86 “Onyx,” J-16 “Slick,” and L-92 “Crewser...

A little "liquid sunshine" (what the locals call drizzle) did not keep us from a great wildlife tour today!  First stop was a collection of harbor seals lounging in that liquid sunshine on a rock outcrop near Griffin Bay.  We were on the lookout for some new pups, recently born, as this is pupping season!  As we headed south out of Cattle Pass, we saw a large collection of birds including rhinoceros auklets and Heermann’s gulls feeding at the surface of the water.  Then we saw the...

Friday Harbor San Juan Island

The 3rd Annual. Gets better ever

y year!

In my post yesterday, I mentioned how I could not find words to describe how amazing our Orca encounter was. Well, surprisingly everything that I said yesterday can be applied to our afternoon trip today! There was another super pod of killer whales, but we didn’t realize this right away.

We departed Friday Harbor heading north, and did not have to travel far. We caught up with three killer whales just on the north side of Henry Island (48°36.720’N 123° 12.300’W). We watched...

On last night’s sunset cruise we caught up with two groups of about 20+ Southern Resident Killer Whales headed south in Rosario Strait between Cypress and Blakely Island (48°34.46N, 123°46.05W). They hadn’t gone far since the greeting ceremony earlier that day, but you could tell the excitement had worn on them. They appeared to be resting, moving at a steady pace in unison, only coming up for 3-5 breaths before taking long dives.

From what we had identified, it was members of L-pod...

I cannot even put into words how amazing, awesome, exhilarating, and fun this afternoon’s trip was. Seriously, words cannot describe the whales, but I’ll do my best share this experience. We left Friday Harbor heading east with reports of whales in Rosario Strait. This is the first thing that made today special; typically we travel north or south of San Juan Island, not east between the islands which is absolutely beautiful on a clear, sunny day like today.

We reached the whales...

We had a very exciting and full-of-wildlife day! We departed Friday Harbor heading north into Canadian waters. Before seeing the main event (killer whales) we spotted about five or six harbor porpoise just north of San Juan Channel. Not long after we saw one dorsal fin, then another, then three more! There were about eight to ten southern resident killer whales, traveling close to each other. They were moving north along Pender Island (48º 36.54’N 123º 04.94’W). We watched as...

What I love about living in a rain shadow is that the weather tends to clear up in the afternoon, just around the time we reach whales. Today was one of those days. We departed Friday Harbor at 1:30 pm in a hazy fog, heading south. Expecting at least some rain, we all suited up in our yellow rain slickers, binoculars in hand. There were a few harbor porpoise, but what was super unusual were the two huge, male Stellar sea lions hauled out on Whale Rocks! We typically see these sea...

What a difference a day makes; we had blue skies and the glorious warm sun to greet us as we cruised out of Friday Harbor.  First wildlife sighting was just north of Griffin Bay with several harbor seals getting a suntan.  Next we viewed a bald eagle’s nest and admired the massive construction.  It is incredible to think that they can be six feet in diameter.  As we rounded Cattle Point, we were on the lookout for orcas!  Sure enough we saw L87 “Onyx” foraging outside of False Bay...

We circumnavigated San Juan Island today, seeing wild life all the way around. We left Friday Harbor heading south and ran into a group of harbor seals hauled out on the rocks. Shortly after, around Goose Island, there was another large group of seals foraging in the water!

Continuing around to the west side, we ran into some fog and slowed. We could make out some boats, so we stopped and started to look for whales. Through the fog we heard the distinctive “powoof” of a killer whale...