Part 2: An Epic Encounter With the T2Cs

Now that you've met the T2Cs in my previous post, the stage is set for the amazing encounter we had with them from shore at Reuben Tarte County Park!

Perhaps in part because they travel slow on account of Tumbo, when the T2Cs show up they seem to hang around for many days at a time. I actually got to see them three times over the course of five days. First, on March 7th, as they passed Reuben Tarte:

Second, on March 9th as they headed north past San Juan County Park:

But the real encounter for the ages was on the morning of Sunday, March 11th when word came in from a friend of a small group of orcas heading north from near Friday Harbor. When we got out to Reuben Tarte County Park, we were one of the first ones there, but more and more "orcaholics" gathered on the shoreline over the next hour. Blows were visible well to the south and it was clear they were heading in our direction, but very slowly. Before they were anywhere near close enough to ID, I just had the feeling it was the T2Cs again, and that it would be worth the wait.

Watching through binoculars, it was at first the mom and three offspring traveling together with Tumbo trailing behind. As they approached O'Neal Island, however, T2C1 Rocky split off to travel with Tumbo, and they headed out into San Juan Channel while T2C Tasu and her two youngest offspring went inside of O'Neal. The three whales were closer to shore and reached us first, but when they surfaced right in front of us they stalled out. My guess is they either corralled a seal or perhaps pinned one to the bottom, because the two brothers immediately reacted. Both Rocky and Tumbo picked up speed and became surface active on their way towards the others. 

Inverted tail slap from T2C1 Rocky

Rocky reached the group first and my somewhat educated but still wild guess is that he and the others were taking turns pinning the seal to the bottom. Mom and the two youngsters would surface while Rocky disappeared on a long dive, and then vice versa. Meanwhile, as he so often does, Tumbo held back, nearby, but not part of the action. Then, I don't know if the seal bolted or if they already had it, but all of them veered towards shore right where we were all gathered on the rocks.

Heading right for us!

Baby T2C4 did a series of dolphin leaps - always such a cool thing to see from an orca!

They all came in for an ultra-close pass - here are some zoomed out photos to give a little perspective.

And some zoomed in shots of whales, up close and personal!

T2C Tasu

Love it when you can see them underwater!

Underside of a tail fluke

T2C3 Lucy and T2C4 - an amazing perspective to get, especially from shore!

T2C1 Rocky

If we had any doubts about whether their hunt had been successful, our questions were soon answered. Gulls started coming down to the surface to look for scraps, and a bald eagle even swooped down and grabbed a piece of meat from the surface!

Gulls coming in to enjoy the spoils

But the most compelling proof was when one whale surfaced with intestines draped over their back - kinda gives a new meaning to "playing with your food"!

I'm not sure if they made more than one kill or were just enjoying the celebration, but it was clear they weren't in any hurry to go anywhere, and as they drifted a little ways off the rocks, the whole group got more surface active with tail slaps, spy hops, and breaches.

Tail slap from T2C2 Rocky

Just when it looked like they were going to go north, they turned and started coming back towards us. In the end, they were "milling and killing" right off Reuben Tarte for just over an hour!

Big size difference: 16 year-old Rocky and 1.5 year old T2C4

Mama T2C Tasu

They eventually did make their way back south down San Juan Channel, leaving all the human observers breathless on the shoreline. There were smiles all around!

July 23rd: Epic Day With Js and Ls

On the morning of Sunday, July 23rd, word came in that some residents were inbound from Sooke. Then, we heard about whales off the south end of the island - some of them were already here! It turned out that the same 19 whales from L-Pod had snuck in overnight, while all of J-Pod was heading east in to join them. L-Pod hung out near False Bay until J-Pod made their way across Haro Strait around noon. Then, in the early afternoon, they made their way north far enough that we could see them from the shores of San Juan Island.

We've all been curious who might take the "leader" role for J-Pod with the passing of J2 Granny at the end of last year. So far, it looks to be J19 Shachi, who has not only regularly been in the lead, but does it in Granny-style, far out ahead on her own in a no-nonsense kind of way.

J19 Shachi leading the way

Everybody else wasn't in such a hurry, and in fact they spent the next hour and a half basically milling right off Land Bank.

The largest group was a ways offshore, seeming playing around in a tide rip, but suddenly a group of half a dozen whales popped up closer to shore.

This close group then made a turn to come even closer - this is the kind of surfacing I just love to see!

Incoming!

Eventually even J19 Shachi came back to re-join the party, passing right along the rocks as she headed back south again.

A bit later it seemed like the whales had finally decided to go north, as they grouped up into two large groups and rode the strong flood tide up the lighthouse. We were just getting ready to leave Land Bank and try to catch the tail end of them at Lime Kiln when a splash to the north caught our eye. There was a porpoising whale - coming back south again! We ran back down the hill, this time right to the waterline as ALL 35 whales came back south close to shore. I like this shot (click to see a larger view to do it justice) that shows three lines of whales approaching. Talk about excitement!

A pec wave from J27 Blackberry with Whale Watch Point in the background

It's an incredible sight when the whales tuck into the little coves along the shoreline. We were almost looking behind us to the right to see these whales on the rocks!

The most magical moment occurred when a mom and juvenile stopped right in front of us. I didn't even know the water was deep enough this close to shore, but they turned upright and had just their rostrums above the surface for several moments. I can only imagine that underwater they must have been eye to eye. Why they stopped to do this, and why it happened right in front of us, I will never know, but it was a once-in-a-lifetime moment for me!

The day had already earned "epic" status by this point, but it was not over! We had just enough time to grab a bite to eat, download photos of the SD cards, and put on a layer of suncreen before running back out to the west side, this time heading to Lime Kiln and getting there just in time for another close pass by all the whales, going north this time.

Incoming again!

Sometimes it takes a wider angle shot to really capture just how close these whales come to the rocks. That's my husband Jason, and there were more whales around the corner to the left IN Deadman's Bay.

It all happened so quickly because they were almost all in one big group, but for a moment there were whales everywhere, all of them just a few yards away!

L92 Crewser

Conditions were too perfect not to head north and hop into our boat, and we met up with the same large group right off Henry Island.

 It's just indescribable to see that many dorsal fins all together...

....andwhen they're in a playful mood it becomes even more magical...

I just love this shot of the whales in front of my friends Barbara and David's sailboat! Check out the special whale-watch sailing trips they offer at All Aboard Sailing.

And I also love this one, with perfect evening lighting off of Spieden Island:

As good as it felt to have them here, and while they did go north to the Fraser River, their stay was also short. The next evening the Ls made their way back down, heading through Haro after dark and back out the Strait. Js would follow two days later, also bypassing the daylight hours of Haro Strait on their way out and leaving on the 26th. Here's hoping their couple of recent visits are a sign that the second half of the summer will be full of more Southern Residents than the first half was, and that there's plenty of salmon to keep them here!

Next up for me, however, is a trip north. I've long wanted to make a summer excursion to the north end of Vancouver Island, and this year it's finally happening! Fingers crossed I get to hang out a bit with the cousins of the Js, Ks, and Ls I know so well - the Northern Residents!

A Weekend to Remember: Northern Lights and Sunset Orcas

Last weekend was absolutely beautiful, but there were no orcas nearby. Still, it was too nice not to get on the water at least a little bit, and a trip through Spieden Channel was in order.

Tranquil blue waters in Spieden Channel

While we did get a few glimpses of a humpback whale, the highlight was this family of river otters along the Spieden Island shoreline:

As we reached two weeks without a sighting of the Southern Residents, the whale withdrawals really started settling in! At least J-Pod used to be around on almost a daily basis in May and even in April, but not so for the last 4 or 5 years. Presumably this has to do with the poor spring returns on Fraser River Chinook, and hopefully the whales are finding enough to eat elsewhere. Even when the orcas aren't around, however, there's plenty of awesome sights to see in San Juan Island, and on the night of May 27th/28th I got to check an item off my bucket list in seeing the northern lights for the first time. It's a rare but not unheard of occurrence here, and having it happen from my home island was even more special. Sometimes they can really only be picked up here with long camera exposures, but this was a pretty big storm and they were apparent as soon as we got an open view to the north, getting brighter after our eyes adjusted to the darkness.

It was amazing to watch them brigthen and dim and change shape before our eyes. On one hand they moved slower than I had pictured from seeing videos; on the other hand it was amazing how quickly they could change. Usually just greens are seen from here, but for a brief time there was a second band of yellow as well:

When I saw what I thought was a satellite approaching I set up a shot hoping to get its track above the northern lights. I was able to confirm later it was actually the International Space Station; talk about being in the right place at the right time!

Just when the cold was starting to set in and we were thinking of leaving the lights got brighter again, and this time we saw some purple too!

The northern lights would have been more than enough to make for an epic weekend, but mid-day on Sunday we got word that J-Pod was heading back into the area after their long absence. Despite being warm, clear, and sunny here on San Juan, it was foggy in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the boats lost the whales so we heard no further reports on their progress. Jimmie, the student working with us at the Orca Behavior Institute this summer, was scanning at Lime Kiln in the evening as we had a hunch they were still coming in. I think it's pretty cool more than 20 whales can totally give everyone the slip for so many hours, especially on Memorial Day weekend, one of the busiest boating weekends of the year here. All of a sudden, they appeared in front of the lighthouse out of no where and were north just ten minutes later! I missed them completely but these are the days I'm thankful we made the decision to buy a boat! It sounded like they might be heading north quickly but luckily we caught up with them right at Mitchell Bay and followed them north past the cormorant rookery on Henry Island.

These days, the whales are very spread out more often than not, so seeing them in a tight group has become a special treat. Last night, all 25 whales of J-Pod were traveling together, an absolutely beautiful sight.

Add the sunset lighting to the story, and you run out of adjectives to describe the scene pretty quickly.

To top it off, we had the whales to ourselves for the end of the encounter, which is always extra special.