This morning my dad forwarded me a discussion that has been going on via the e-mail listserv Oregon Birders Online regarding pelican distribution. It seems this year that American white pelicans are more widely distributed this time of year than usual, which has prompted the discussion. Someone else pointed out that maybe there is a more widespread phenomenon going on, as brown pelicans and magnificant frigatebirds (another member of the pelican family) are also being seen in more and different places this season.
That got me thinking about all the different marine mammal patterns we've been seeing this year in the San Juan Islands.
* The orcas, of course, were noticeably absent this spring, and didn't really fall into their "normal" summer traveling routes until maybe three weeks ago.
* The gray whales in Puget Sound are hanging around a lot later than usual this year.
* We had some humpback whale sightings in June - we usually don't see them until September/October.
* Dall's porpoise, formerly abundant, are almost non-existent this season, while harbor porpoise are far more abundant than in recent years.
* There have been more elephant seal sightings in the area, and even a sea otter sighting. (Sea otters and elephant seals were both hunted out of the area historically. Elephant seals have slowly been expanding their range north again and there is a reintroduced population of sea otters on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington, and we had several sightings in the summer of 2006. But elephant seals are uncommon and sea otters rare.)
* It seems like there are more minke whales around, or at least they are gathering in numbers of 5-10 at some of the feeding areas, instead of just seeing 1-2 at a time.
When I've tried to do some research into some of this - for instance, are changes in bait fish numbers influencing baleen whale and porpoise patterns? - there is often very little information. Bait fish aren't of commercial interest, so nobody even really knows what bait fish populations are doing. On one hand, I'm amazed at how little we know about the ocean and some of the largest creatures in it. On the other hand, it's clearly an amazingly complex system. So, whatever is going on with our local marine life, I have a feeling its all somehow connected and not just a random coincidence that we're seeing all these different sightings this year.
As my dad said this morning when he forwarded me that e-mail, "It takes folks from different disciplines to think a bit wider than their discipline to understand some of these things." Some birders might notice some odd bird sightings, and some whale-watchers some odd whale sightings, but unless we get a discussion going about what we're seeing and how all this could be related we have no chance of even getting an inkling of what is going on.
That got me thinking about all the different marine mammal patterns we've been seeing this year in the San Juan Islands.
* The orcas, of course, were noticeably absent this spring, and didn't really fall into their "normal" summer traveling routes until maybe three weeks ago.
* The gray whales in Puget Sound are hanging around a lot later than usual this year.
* We had some humpback whale sightings in June - we usually don't see them until September/October.
* Dall's porpoise, formerly abundant, are almost non-existent this season, while harbor porpoise are far more abundant than in recent years.
* There have been more elephant seal sightings in the area, and even a sea otter sighting. (Sea otters and elephant seals were both hunted out of the area historically. Elephant seals have slowly been expanding their range north again and there is a reintroduced population of sea otters on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington, and we had several sightings in the summer of 2006. But elephant seals are uncommon and sea otters rare.)
* It seems like there are more minke whales around, or at least they are gathering in numbers of 5-10 at some of the feeding areas, instead of just seeing 1-2 at a time.
When I've tried to do some research into some of this - for instance, are changes in bait fish numbers influencing baleen whale and porpoise patterns? - there is often very little information. Bait fish aren't of commercial interest, so nobody even really knows what bait fish populations are doing. On one hand, I'm amazed at how little we know about the ocean and some of the largest creatures in it. On the other hand, it's clearly an amazingly complex system. So, whatever is going on with our local marine life, I have a feeling its all somehow connected and not just a random coincidence that we're seeing all these different sightings this year.
As my dad said this morning when he forwarded me that e-mail, "It takes folks from different disciplines to think a bit wider than their discipline to understand some of these things." Some birders might notice some odd bird sightings, and some whale-watchers some odd whale sightings, but unless we get a discussion going about what we're seeing and how all this could be related we have no chance of even getting an inkling of what is going on.
