[7/21/17- M/V Kestrel- 10AM & 2PM]
We left Friday Harbor with the plans of heading South toward Puget Sound. We got reports of transient killer whales towards that area and decided to look for some additional wildlife on our way down.
We made one of our common wildlife stops, the whale rocks, where we found some harbor seals as well as a lone Steller’s sea lion. Most of the Steller’s sea lions have all gone North to the beaches of Alaska for their breeding season. However, some juveniles as well as older males will stay behind if they don’t believe they can make the trek or will be successful beach masters for the season. Once we got our fill of wildlife we continued South toward the killer whale report.
We made it down towards Dungeness Spit and found a group of 5 transient killer whales, the T46’s. At the age of about 53, T46 is one of the older transient orcas the frequents our waters. She is a great-grandmother and is the last living whale that was a part of the Budd Inlet capture in Puget Sound. T46 travels with her three youngest offspring as well as T122, a lone female. We watched as the whales continued to head North until we had to venture back towards our dock.
On our morning trip we were lucky enough to find a tufted puffin in Cattle Pass. This was my first time seeing a puffin this season and it couldn’t have been in a better spot! Tufted puffins reside here in the San Juan’s but are a bit illusive, so every sighting is exciting!
Naturalist, Rachel
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