Erin | Thursday, May 23, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion| 12:00 PM
Today was a beautiful day in Friday Harbor! The sun was shining and the water was lovely. We began our trip travelling north toward East Point on Saturna Island, as we had some promising reports. We stopped at White Rocks and there were two bald eagles resting on the rocks. They were adults, as they had white plumage on both their heads and tail feathers. One of them was originally in flight, so we got to see its awesome 6 foot wingspan! There were also harbol seals hauled out on the rocks. We saw some of both colorations: dark and light with dark spots. The conditions out on the water were very desirable; we couldn't have asked for a better day.
We ended up changing our route and heading toward the other side of Saturna Island, as we got some reports of some killer whales in the area. We saw lots of harbor porpoises when we switched directions. There were at least twenty spread out in the area we were travelling through. When we showed up to the area that the orcas were in, they were down for a dive, so we spent some time searching for any blows or dorsal fins at the surface. We were very surprised when they surfaced close to our boat! There seemed to be 6-8 whales travelling together, and they were Bigg's killer whales, which are the ones who feed on marine mammals. There was one obvious male in the pod. His dorsal fin was very tall! There were also some small calves and juveniles in the pod with their mothers. We spent some time watching the pod, but it was soon time to head back toward the harbor.
It was an incredible day seeing such a wide array of wildlife! Until next time, folks!
Naturalist Erin