M/V Kestrel |Saturday, May 19th | Naturalist Alexandria | 11:00 AM
Today was an awesome day! When we started our trip we didn’t have any firm reports to work off of, but we knew we were one of the first boats hitting the water so we were optimistic! Captain Gabe and myself decided to head north up through San Juan Channel. This ended up being a great call, because as we started heading up Captain Gabe got word on the radio that there were some big black and white things that had been spotted north off of Moresby Island!
On our way up north we stopped by Green Point on Spieden Island and looked at the tree line of this island. One of the more noteworthy things- and believe me there are many- is that this island has a very clear line down the center that visually separates the northern part from the southern. The northern side of the island is covered in trees, while the southern half is fairly barren, which makes for a very interesting, and really quite cool, looking island.
We then headed north further and got on scene with these Transient- or Bigg’s- orcas. As we were approaching we got some great looks at the splashing that was occurring. They were definitely on the hunt, splashing around. Eventually a flock of gulls landed on the surface of where they had been hanging out, attracted to the left over scraps, and confirming that there was no doubt these orcas had been having lunch.
We got to spend a great chunk of time with these awesome animals, getting some amazing looks and photo ops of these awesome orcas. We had one large male on our starboard side, that gave us some fantastic looks at his gigantic dorsal fin! He is only 19th years old and still has some growing to do- it was amazing to realize that his dorsal fin could very easily hit or even pass the 6 foot mark.
After spending a great amount of time with these orcas we started heading back to Friday Harbor but not before we stopped and checked out some more views of Harbor Seals, and drove passed the southern part of Spieden Island getting some great looks at 4 Bald Eagles, and many deer and sheep! It was an awesome afternoon filled with great guests, and amazing animals!
Until Next Time,
Naturalist Alexandria