March 16 ~ T49As and T101s; T2Cs

On March 16 we headed out on the water with Maya's Legacy from Friday Harbor. There were no whale reports but it was a beautiful day, and with many groups around over the previous week hopes were high we would find some. Our first stop though was at Spieden Island, where in addition to the sea lions, there was lots of other activity.

Pigeon guillemot in flight in Spieden Channel

Spring was clearly in the air with lots of Mouflon lambs about.

This mom had twins!

Over at the seal haul out west of Sentinel a pair of bald eagles was hanging out, making for an even cooler photo op!

We cruised up around Turn Point and crossed Boundary Pass, with amazing scenery in all directions.

Snaking our way through the Canadian Gulf Islands, we stopped at the Belle Chain Islets - a place I haven't visited in many years! It's one of the most spectacular sea lion haul outs in the region, plus a great spot for bird life, all with snow-capped mountains in the background.

While watching Steller sea lion antics a report came in over the radio that someone had made contact with killer whales, luckily not too far south of us between us and home! We headed in that direction and encountered the T49As and T18s near East Point of Saturna Island. Interestingly they were split into three groups, each with members of both matrilines.

T49A3 and T19B

T19 Mooyah

The distinct dorsal fin of T19B Galiano

T49A4 (left) and T49A5 (center)

While watching the whales this massive freighter came through - look at how much water its displacing off the bow! The noise from commercial shipping traffic in the Salish Sea has by far the greatest acoustic impact on the whales.

As we departed to make our way back to Friday Harbor, another vessel found an additional group of whales - somewhat amusingly after all our travels, right near Friday Harbor itself. It was too tempting not to make another stop, especially because it was the T2Cs, a very special family group of whales.

The T2Cs in San Juan Channel

One of the members of this family group, T2C2 Tumbo, has scoliosis, and the rest of the family regularly waits for him and also feeds him as he seems incapable of participating in the hunts. While mother T2C Tasu has four offspring, I always particular love seeing her two oldest together:

T2C1 Rocky and T2C2 Tumbo

From there it was a very short trip back to the home port, concluding another stunning day on the waters of the Salish Sea!

March 3 Double Header: T46s and T90s/T101s

Last weekend we headed out on the water with Maya's Legacy on a beautiful day. With heavy winds to the north, we headed south down San Juan Channel and made a stop at Whale Rocks, my favorite sea lion haul out.

With a report of whales in Puget Sound, they made the decision to go for it - a bit of a long trek, but new boating territory for me! It was awesome to check off my bucket list going under the Deception Pass Bridge on a boat.

We're starting to see signs of spring, but winter is still keeping her grip on the region, as evidenced by the snowy foothills providing a backdrop to our journey:

When we got on scene with the T46s (and T122 who travels with them) we started by watching the two males T46D and T46E traveling together. It was impressive to see them with all the houses in the background, as it really shows how urban these whales are!

T46D (left) and T46E (right)

T46E (left) and T46D (right)

The T46s are such a cool family for many reasons. One is that T46 Wake was part of the last killer whale capture in Washington State in 1976. She was released and is still plying the same waters as one of the most successful mothers on record. As we discussed on the boat while we were on scene, if she had been taken into captivity as many other whales were in the 1960s and 70s, there would be nearly 20 fewer transient killer whales in the region, because that's how many living descendants she has.

T46 Wake with her son T46E.

Another reason the T46s are so cool is because they actually "disappeared" for 13 years, where they left the area and weren't seen during that time. When they returned, there was actually some confusion about the whales that were present. Two of the returning whales were given new designations as T122 and T123, but were later determined to be the likely offspring of T46. T122 still travels with the T46s, and was actually determined to be the same whale as T46A, a calf who was seen in 1982 before the long gap in sightings.

It's long been my dream to be able to name a killer whale, and my dream recently came true when my suggested name for T122, Centeki, was voted to be her name among the local whale community. (An effort is under way from naturalists, captains, researchers, and others in the region to give common names to many of the transient/Bigg's killer whales in the region that don't yet have them.) Centeki is one of the 13 lunar phases recognized by the Coast Salish people, and I thought this was appropriate given the confusion over her identify after her 13 year absence.

T122 Centeki, named by yours truly!

While we were on scene in Saratoga Passage, the whales appeared to be in travel/passive hunting mode, but shortly before it was time to leave it became clear they were on the hunt. Four of the five whales in the family group made quick work of a harbor seal, which we got a brief glimpse of as one of the whales lunged through the surface with the seal held in its mouth. As they shared the spoils, gulls came down to partake in the scraps. I thought this was a unique perspective of gulls fighting over a piece of seal meat while an orca surfaces in the background:

One more look at the impressive 16 year-old male T46E, with his wavy dorsal fin:

As we started making our way back north towards home, reports came in of another group of whales picked up between us and Friday Harbor. At this point, the trip was already running long, so why not just keep it going, especially when more whales in calm waters and beautiful lighting are right in front of you? Too good to pass up!

T101 and T101B under Mt. Baker

It was the T90s and T101s, and we watched them make their way into Cattle Pass from Iceberg Point.

Spyhop from T90B

The whales just added to what was already a stunning scene, with seals, sea lions, porpoises, and birds actively feeding in what was shaping up to be a pretty dramatic sunset!

Pelagic cormorant flyby

Sunset over the Cattle Point Lighthouse

While it ended up being a much longer trip than expected, it was a particularly memorable one! I absolutely love being on the water this time of year when things are still pretty quiet, especially as the whale sightings start picking up. It's looking like the heightened transient/Bigg's killer whale sigthings are continuing so far in early 2019, so we'll see what the rest of the spring will bring!

Winter Birding on Lopez Island

With so many microclimates and microhabitats in the San Juan Islands, there are very different places to explore and even different birds to see depending on which island you are on. Because of the convenience of the ferry schedule, when we decide to explore another island, we usually go to Orcas, but yesterday we decided to go for the extra early and extra long ferry rides in order to explore Lopez Island. Good decision!

Locally known as "Slowpez", Lopez is definitely the quietest of the larger ferry-served island with about half the population of Orcas and a third of the population of San Juan. It's also been nicknamed "the friendly isle", in part because every car waves to every other car as they pass each other anywhere on the island. I've only been to Lopez a handful of times myself, which means there are still parks I have yet to explore over there. After our visit yesterday, I think I actually prefer the Lopez over Orcas, because there are more coastal access points with dramatic landscapes and fewer in the way of hilly wooded hikes.

One of the main reasons for our trip was to go birding and try and add some species to our year and photo year lists. Our first stop in the morning was to Fisherman Bay, where both the species and photographic opportunities added up quickly!

Belted kingfisher in the early morning light at Fisherman Bay

Great blue heron at Fisherman Bay

Heading out the spit at Fisherman Bay

Abstract rock and tree reflection at Fisherman Bay

Our next stop was Shark Reef, which is on the opposite side of San Juan Channel of our regular stomping grounds at Cattle Point. Unlike Cattle Point, which is all open prairie, you hike through the woods to get to the rocky Shark Reef.

Boardwalk at Shark Reef

Shark Reef, on the east side of Cattle Pass

Next we searched for one of the main target species for our trip: the wild turkey! While they used to be found on other island including San Juan, currently the only flock of wild turkeys on the island makes their home on Lopez. We were just about to give up when we came upon a group of more than 20 of them! I'm not sure why they are so much more fun to watch than many other birds, but they are - I suppose it's because they're very expressive, comical, and have lots of social interactions.

Wild turkeys on Lopez

It's surprising to see such a large bird fly - not only over this fence, but even up into the trees above!

Our next stop was Iceberg Point, a place I amazingly had never visited before. There are miles of hiking trails there and we only got to go out to the point in one direction, so we will definitely have to go back. While the birding was decent, the scenery is absolutely stunning.

Iceberg Point

It also offered a different perspective on Cattle Point:

The geology is complex and amazing throughout the San Juans as well, and Iceberg Point was no exception.

Hummel Lake was pretty quiet, but seems to be one of the first locations swallows show up in the islands each year. With reports of some already in nearby Skagit County, the early arrivals might not be far off! We settled for this picturesque common merganser though:

Our last stop before heading back to the ferry was out to Spencer Spit, but we got waylaid on the way there at first by a northern shrike (which would only perch on fence posts, so sadly will not quality for the photo year list which has the theme of photos "without the hand of man"), and then by these sheep. Have you ever seen sheep run before? I don't think I have!

Unlike the ferry ride there, the ferry ride back was in the daylight, so we continued birding from the boat (as we again stopped at every island on our way home). 

An up-close view of double-crested and pelagic cormorants at the Shaw Island ferry terminal

No luck on the shrike, but I did get a rock pigeon picture "without the hand of man"! I like this theme because it makes me attempt different and more challenging photos, such as in-flight shots. The different challenge means the first rock pigeons I saw this year perched on a man-made structure didn't "count", but I like this result much better!

In the end we tallied 52 species on the day, the highest single-day total yet this year! Not at all a bad showing, and after a several year gap in visits, we will definitely we going back to Lopez sooner rather than later.

Portrait of a glaucous-winged gull at the Orcas Island ferry landing

Birding Around the Phoenix Area

Once we woke up and started birding in Arizona, it was very apparent we were in a different climate with a whole new host of birds! While we had started seeing new things along the way, here it felt like every species we saw was different from back home. 

Time to look even more closely everywhere! No longer just yellow-rumped warblers flitting around in the trees, but verdins as well

Our first stop of the day was to Zanjero Park in Gilbert where there is a burrowing owl nesting habitat. I knew this was a city park and had seen from people's photos they got quite close to the owls, but I wasn't prepared for anything like this! The owls were using the pipes just off the sidewalk as burrows, visible here as the little lumps on the left with poles marking and numbering each one (click to see a larger view) - maybe 30 feet off the path at most? It's amazing to me that they just sit there and watch while people, bikes, and dogs go right on by!

People have reported as many as 14 owls there before, but we were thrilled to see 2.

Next stop was the Riparian Preserve at the Gilbert Water Ranch, which has a series of ponds you can walk around. It's not surprising that this oasis attracts a lot of wildlife, including not just waterfowl but all kinds of birds! For starters, it was a great place to get photos in the sunshine of many species we've only seen in the gray weather this year back home.

But it didn't take much looking to start seeing species we don't get back at home, like one of my personal favorites, the black-necked stilt.

And for some reason these two species often seem to go hand in hand, as another pond also had the American avocet. So fun playing with reflections in sunny blue water!

There were many places to sit near the water partially obscured by vegetation where, if you were patient enough, even the more skittish species would start to approach.

Long-billed dowitcher

I wouldn't expect to have added in the neoptropic cormorant as a life bird in the middle of the desert, but there they were!

And while watching these guys, a juvenile black-crowned night-heron flushed from the bush above them!

To the careful observer it was more than just birds enjoying the water ranch, too; occasionally darting across the paths were these desert cottontail.

After a break for lunch we headed to the Desert Botanical Gardens, where even this time of year the heat of the afternoon was enough to make the birds more scarce. We thought it was hot, though it was probably cool to the locals - maybe close to 80? It was bizarre for us to see butterflies pollinating flowers in February!

We did end up finding a few avian species, but it would have been worth the trip just to see one of my desert favorites - the cactus wren.

It had been more than 10 years since my last trip to Arizona, but it used to be at least an annual trek when my grandparents on my dad's side were alive. While originally from Germany, they ended up spending much of their lives in Scottsdale, which is also where my dad graduated from high school and, later on, my parents would meet and live for the first few years of their marriage. So, somewhat unexpectedly, there are some Wieland roots in Arizona, and was a bit nostalgic to be back. It felt fitting to make a visit to my grandparents' memorial which I hadn't seen in person before.

When I made a similar trip for my grandparents on my mom's side a few years ago, I got a life bird, and I was surprised when the same thing happened again here - after visiting the memorial a vermilion flycatcher flew into a nearby tree.

Thank you for the life bird, Omi and Opa!

Perhaps it was due to the cooler late afternoon, but the birding was actually better here at the memorial gardens than it had been at the desert botanical gardens! A couple of mute swans have apparently made their home here for many years; the light and everything else was perfect for this photo - except the feather on its beak!

When you get a roll birding, whether it's seeing lots of new things or trying to reach a target number of species for the day, it's easy to get a bit trigger-happy. A memorable moment my dad and I often recall is when we were doing a Big Day and light was fading and we were just short of our target and we thought we saw a western screech-owl that turned out to be a robin. I was guilty of the same thing when the last bird we saw of the day flew from a tree and I called out, "Zone-tailed hawk?!" No - the photos would prove later it was "just" a dark morph red-tailed hawk. That's part of what makes birding so fun, though, is the never knowing what you'll see. In a new area you're likely to see all kinds of new things, but it was a good reminder that some of the regulars are still around, too.