We had a couple of fantastic trips today aboard the Western Prince. This afternoon we headed out and as we made our way south down San Juan Channel stopped a couple of times to check out some harbor seal haul outs. Down in Cattle Pass, where we had seen a minke whale in the morning, we saw more seals as well as rhinoceros auklets, common murres, pigeon guillemots, pelagic cormorants, glaucous-winged gulls, mew gulls, and Heermann's gulls. What was that I said about this being a great time to bird in the San Juans?! Our biggest surprise, however, was a group of four Steller sea lions swimming together in the water! We normally expect these guys to be around from September through May and occasionally see a single animal throughout the summer, but I've never seen a group of them here in the middle of the summer! Their population is on the rise, so maybe their range is expanding and we'll get a breeding colony of sea lions established around the island sometime in the near future.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTL7B2IA8iw5ICZYBbxqgBf0p9ftV6kHyBY_6YPYyikv9TkU1oIbgt3rXaUtJCc1f8YNQ8iBOwG5QQy-uqFOroVvgKzxzzM8ohWvzpo5ytobi8hyTCDY_BQE04O0Ozkvf7pzr7wb6iNwI/s400/StellersInJuly.jpg)
In terms of the orcas, we have had a strange combination of whales hanging out for the last day or so: K-Pod, half of J-Pod, and L87, a single L-Pod whale. When we got on scene with the orcas a mile or two off of Eagle Point the first whale we came across was the eighteen year-old male L87 Onyx. Onyx is an interesting whale who has basically become a member of K-Pod in recent years. I posted his intriguing story in a blog post last winter that you can read here.
The whales were very spread out and foraging, which meant Onyx was zig-zagging all over the place, presumably in pursuit of fish. As a result, we got to see him from all different angles. The side...
The whales were very spread out and foraging, which meant Onyx was zig-zagging all over the place, presumably in pursuit of fish. As a result, we got to see him from all different angles. The side...
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8L4wPuCqflhBrd-jiLsjp8_7OxjCdfVh7jeDai76JzUa99J43nSbAkUL-WoMNF43w9sJw6RdsLUMAj9_egrB-vkESgHgZP1Vtc3yMyTU4U1lEDu3si2RPHxg2nSFbdJAUCA9JC97hGTg/s400/L87LeftSide.jpg)
The front...
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb9I1WPyRt3ZFSJaTzIWI2ijuKzomgCMNfTwSj-hes2XJXep4vCdpS8ZMDyc_7-O4pNQYWvSJtOGRXvdkoFdWSY1MwAOic2tOrS_CeRvhdtiSayVvpj0h1InjTpyJ3MXiE2-1cJLuh0To/s400/L87OnyxFront.jpg)
And the back!
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi1cT5jw0vYMTCu-WcEIN5hATzXbAzxg75YhMx-F2Lu1XVNdmhNoTZSSMWmHT7kKi7qraglAdVfxMaxzLy0eJpmjF2lJdyOMf4Wtkxy0lnWqJq0r9GpkL_RL3PcuchJufv7IalLe2k42g/s400/L87OnyxBack.jpg)
Nearby Onyx were J27 Blackberry his younger brother J39 Mako, just like this morning. Where was the rest of Onyx's K-Pod family? As we made our way further inshore we did see K22 Sekiu, but then we came across a couple more J-Pod whales and their calves. J28 Polaris had her 10 month-old youngster J46 close by:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKxTp79Jx-JyGDaoqyxh4lS2l0KuuTzhQvLhmmrJS-tp9kMF68tH4ZNqyVubSfKMYqeDcpCzrLRjrF10oXTBirMjnc5jDaE7sOIol-cjS1lHqODx6_5QEoHVrTAxGF943mCbMw53h2jR4/s400/J28andCalfJ46.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk3GRoj_oVczE_1ByXX_m-DZsf9AJINQi225GhbY3f2iMsrG1Gc81Ml48qQM4Zs-Vu-fvrw3pfirzsio7r9i36qzCfTzKoviSKiwr1XyqB3ayogH_iJePYO1UDdkjiB7w9PMPnKnsSd5c/s400/J28andCalfJ46B.jpg)
Polaris' sister J35 Talequah was also there with her young calf J47. Several times we saw Talequah give a tail slap, followed shortly thereafter by her calf doing the same behavior! Last weekend Talequah was teaching her calf the spyhop. This week's lesson: tail slaps!
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEishg5oxGD49wK8n91XF8AUY854_Ox6QX-coy45Pi_cERUNCE3RVJPj2d-Rzgoh8z6MvVUYWZ43gu1QspKB1DKuDwi15Rvr0h4Bkb-v-gC0NPPUX3WQK7AXaD8oT03GHWzYF9a6w-jNw9U/s400/J35TalequahTailSlap.jpg)
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