March 26 and April 1 with J-Pod

We recently got our new boat (acquired last fall) launched, which means new photographic opportunities have opened up again as we get back out on the water! On our first test drive we went birding in Griffin Bay, and I snapped this shot of two mew gulls and reflections unlike any I had ever seen before:

 

So far to date in 2019 the Southern Residents have been in the Salish Sea about twice as many days as 2018, and we are happy to have them! On March 23, I had my first encounter with them in 2019. While it was a lot more hearing them over the hydrophones, we did see a couple whales in the morning from Land Bank. It was great to see J17 Princess Angeline, a whale who had been ailing (and had "peanut head") dated back to the end of last year, and while it wasn't the greatest look, it appeared she was doing a bit better.

J17 Princess Angeline

On March 26, less than a week after we got our new boat in the water, J-Pod was coming down San Juan Channel, and opportunity that was just too good to pass up! Ever since we got the boat last fall, we had been debating which whales might be the ones to "christen" the boat. Given the time of year and the way sightings have been with Southern Residents, we suspected it would likely be Ts, but it definitely felt right for it to be J-Pod.

J35 Tahlequah - It felt perfect to have her be the whale to "christen" the boat by breaching and spyhopping nearby

Spyhop, also from J35 Tahlequah

We always say every whale encounter was different, and this one was no exception - we saw two different whales peeing into the air while laying upside down at the surface! This is a behavior I've never seen before, and to see it twice in the span of about half an hour....please tell me this isn't their new "fad"!

If you are so inclined, you may need to click to see a larger view, but the upside down whale is urinating!

J-Pod only got about as far south as Yellow Island before turning back north again, so as they made their way back toward Boundary Pass and the Strait of Georgia, we headed back to our home port. If this spring was anything like last year's, I thought it might be weeks or months before seeing them again, but amazingly, on April 1 J-Pod was again picked up aiming for San Juan Channel! We hopped out on a boat with friends in the late afternoon and caught up with them just north of Friday Harbor.

The first group we saw was J36 Alki, J42 Echo, J19 Shachi, J27 Blackberry, and J31 Tsuchi following right along the San Juan shoreline. The lighting was just right for backlit blows (at times to the point where we could see the blows but not the whales!):

J27 Blackberry

From left to right J27 Blackberry, J36 Alki, and J19 Shachi

They passed right in front of Friday Harbor, which is always a cool perspective to see!

J27 Blackberry in front of Friday Harbor

As this group continued south, we stopped to watch J41 Eclipse and J51 Nova, who seemed in a playful mood, as we saw Nova do several breaches as they approached. As they got closer we saw Nova pick up a piece of bull kelp, and he spyhopped several times with it draped around his head or over his pec fins.

A peek-a-boo spyhop from J51 Nova - you can just make out a piece of bull kelp floating to the right of his head

On one of the spyhops he surfaced with his mouth open. I don't know what it is about whale teeth, but it is always SO exciting to see them!

J51 Nova, mouth open

It was definitely turning into a spyhop kinda night, and shortly after this one, J42 Echo popped up again, and also spyhopped with her mouth open, teeth showing.

Another mouth-open spyhop, this one from J42 Echo

The rest of J-Pod was starting to come into view over on the Shaw Island side of the channel, and the whales we were watching went over to join them. It turned into a large (~15 whales), slowly moving, playful group that was a joy to watch.

Spyhops for all on this night!

Not only was the lighting perfect, but the whales passed right under Mt. Baker. And, as if on cue, J35 Tahlequah did a huge cartwheel. It sure does the heart good to see her so social and active after her tragic ordeal last summer, in which she carried her deceased neonate for 17 days.

Amazingly, instead of continuing down San Juan Channel, the whales veered for Upright Channel, a place I had never seen Southern Residents go before! As they angled into the channel, they passed close to a Washington State Ferry heading for Friday Harbor.

The ferry didn't seem to interrupt the party at all, as all the surface activity continued.

Half breach from one of the big boys

Next we saw L87 Onyx, in what looked like a sexual pursuit of another whale. At first I thought it was J37 Hy'shqa he was after, but it turned out to be J45 Se-Yi'-Chn. Boys will be boys, and orcas will be orcas!

L87 Onyx upside down at the surface

Suddenly, Onyx veered off and came over to circle the boat, giving us a special up close look, complete with a "rainblow".

L87 Onyx creates a "rainblow"

We hung in the same area for quite a while, as several other pairs and trios of whales came by, spread across all of Upright Channel.

J26 Mike passed right off the point of Canoe Island

The leaders got up to about Upright Head, and it appeared to be decision time. Would they continue east towards Rosario, veer over to Harney Channel, or come back the way they had come? They eventually decided to head back west through Upright Channel, but amazingly they hugged the Shaw Island shoreline so close they went inside of Canoe Island and right into Indian Cove, a channel not only narrow, but according to the chart on board only 13 feet deep on high tide! It was time to head in, but we had to stay long enough to see if they were actually going to go all the way through there....they did!

The beautiful evening ended as it had begun, with picturesque backlit blows:

Residents in the Second Half of September

After a season where the Southern Residents were scarcer than ever, I had feeling the season might continue to wind down with few sightings of Js, Ks, and Ls. Luckily, September, which has always been my favorite whale month, did not disappoint, and the Southern Residents were around more this month than any other month in 2017. They weren't always nearby, spending some days down in Puget Sound or up at the Fraser River or even further north, but that was okay - just knowing they were in the Salish Sea again for a longer stretch of time made everything feel more "right"!

On September 23rd, J-Pod and the Greater L4s (19 L-Pod whales) came down Rosario. The question was whether they would head west out the Strait of Juan de Fuca or up Haro Strait once they rounded the bottom end of the San Juan Islands. Jason and I waited at Cattle Point to see what they would do. They took their time reaching us, but once they did they sped up, and in the direction favorable for us - up Haro Strait!

Porpoising past Salmon Bank

Some whales were way too far offshore to ID, but the last group to pass us was the J16s. Sadly, it was clear their family had gone from six whales to five. We had learned earlier in the month from the photogrammetry team assessing whale body condition using a drone that J52 was very emaciated and appeared to be in "terminal condition". Indeed, by the 23rd he was no longer with us, bringing the total number of Southern Residents down to 76 - the lowest since the mid-1980s. I have no doubt the whales grieve, but they show amazing resilience, and so must me.

As the whales continued north, the waters were so glassy calm that we decided to hop in the boat and meet up with them north of Lime Kiln. The first whale we encountered was J19 Shachi, who seems to often be in the lead these days. We stopped to watch her forage while other whales were visible to the south. Eventually it looked like the whales decided to head southwest, and before she turned around she surprised us with one big, beautiful breach! Luckily I happened to have the camera ready, and snapped one of my favorite photos of the year.

Breach by J19 Shachi

Before leaving we saw some of the J17s, too, including a very active J53 Kiki.

Cartwheel from J53 Kiki

From their trajectory, I was afraid the whales might leave that night, but they snuck back north during the middle of the night and were found the next morning making their way back to the Fraser River. I caught up with them again on the morning of September 27th when they had looped back to Haro Strait again.

For a couple hours the whales were very spread north to south and east to west, all just milling. It was great to see so much active foraging behavior, with lunging whales in all directions.

I was having trouble figuring out who was who, and later when I took a closer look at my photos I realized why - the whales were all mixed up! By that I mean they weren't in their matrilineal family groups as they are most of the time, so there was no making assumptions about who was traveling with whom.

L82 Kasatka and J31 Tsuchi

Eventually the whales decided to head south, but very slowly against the strong flood tide. I was debating whether or not to leave (I was playing hooky from work, the whales were mostly very far offshore, and the wind was very cold!) when I spotted some blows just past the point to the north of the Lime Kiln Lighthouse. That decided it! I wasn't going anywhere.

The best sight: whales heading strait at you across the cove north of the lighthouse

 It was well worth the wait in the cold for this close pass by another mixed up group of Js and Ls including some of the J19s and J16s, the L72s, and L87. Moments like this are always special, but even more so this year when they were few and far between.

Kelping!

L87 Onyx

Tail slap from J36 Alki

L105 Fluke - getting so big!

Kelp on Onyx's tail

I love my versatile 18-300mm lens that can capture those close-up shots of kelping whales but that I can also quickly zoom out to capture more of the scene to show you the feel of just how close these whales are.

My friend Jimmie with J19 Shachi, J42 Echo, and J50 Scarlet

The day after this the Js and Ls split after nearly two weeks together, with Ls heading west and Js heading down for a quick visit to Puget Sound. Yesterday, September 29th, I was surprised to hear a late day report that J-Pod was at Salmon Bank off the south end of San Juan Island heading north in rough seas. We headed to Lime Kiln in hopes that they would make it that far before sunset. Some of them did, though they were still passing as darkness fell. It's always impressive to see the whales in big seas.

J16 Slick and J50 Scarlet

J42 Echo on the move

They continue north as night fell, meaning they're spending at least another couple days in the Salish Sea. As October arrives, I can only hope that we're treated to another great month of having the whales around. It seems to vary a lot from year to year how much they're here in October, but with the Southern Residents being scarce all summer, we're more than ready for a whale-filled fall!

June 25th: All Day With J-Pod and the K14s

Late in the day on June 24th we heard about orcas off Sooke. The first reports were conflicting; initially it sounded like transients going west, but then it turned into residents coming east! It wasn't clear if it was Js, Ks, and/or Ls, but we are not picky, especially this year! We're in a time of year with huge tidal exchanges and there was a large ebb tide overnight, so I was worried they would ride the tide right back out again. But I still set my alarm for early Saturday morning and went out to look.

First stop showed perfect glassy calm conditions but no whales. We kept heading south along the shoreline until the hoped-for sight appeared: a black dorsal fin breaking the flat surface of the water. I saw about four whales who appeared to be milling off False Bay. Not convinced they would come north, we headed to the boat.

There's something so special about being out there early in the morning, either on land or on shore, and looking for and finding whales. Coming on scene on the boat was just as special as we spotted the first blows a couple miles ahead of us. We shut our engine off and dropped the hydrophone as we watched the whales slowly approached. Here's a sample of what we heard. And this is what we saw:

L87 Onyx and J38 Cookie

IDs at first were not easy. Not only were we on the wrong side of the light, but it was already surprisingly warm (T-shirts on the boat before 8 AM!) and the heat distortion made it even harder to see saddle patches. But we quickly recognized the fin silhouettes of L87 Onyx, J38 Cookie, and K26 Lobo among the first group of whales, so we knew we had at least J-Pod (who Onyx travels with) and the K14s. As we learned later in the day, these were in fact the 29 whales that came in.

K26 Lobo on the right

The whales were making slow progress north against the still-ebbing current and we spent a lot of time with them seemingly not moving off County Park. Suddenly, they picked up speed, and at the same time moved offshore, allowing us to switch to the other side and get better light for IDs and photos. This was one of my favorite moments of the day as there were whales everywhere in the blue waters under the Olympic Mountains, and we were the only boat on scene!

The moment was punctuated by a half breach from J26 Mike:

And a nice look at J39 Mako:

While the lead whales initially cruised past Henry Island, by the time we got up there some of the whales had stalled out at Kellett Bluffs. We were getting ready to head back to port, but decided to hang out and see what they would do. For a long time, we didn't see any whales at all, but then this tight group all surfaced together!

The indecision continued for a few more minutes as this close group of whales circled for a while before finally deciding to go back south, cruising quickly on the still ebbing tide. As they made up their mind we headed home - or tried to. This was one of the most extreme tides of the season, and not only was our slip out of reach, our entire dock was sitting in the mud! Thankfully we got permission to tie up somewhere else for a few hours and were close enough to walk back to our car.

Meanwhile, the whales just reached the south end of the island when they turned on the changing tide and made their way north again. We got to Lime Kiln just in time to see them for their third pass of the day.

J27 Blackberry and J31 Tsuchi

The J16s passed by in a tight group right off the rocks, close enough that we could see their dark bodies underwater as they cruised by.

J50 Scarlet, J42 Echo, and J16 Slick

One of my favorite things about photographing whales up close is capturing how the water flows over and off of their bodies. Check out how far up the water is riding on the front of J26 Mike's dorsal fin in this shot!

J26 Mike

With the flood tide increasing I guessed the whales were going to continue north, but we had no sooner moved our boat back to it's rightful place when we heard the whales had flipped again. This was now officially a good old fashioned Westside Shuffle! I got back to Lime Kiln just in time for perhaps the best pass of the day, as all the whales came by in one group after another just yards of the rocks.

The K14s approaching - there's that cool water again off the rostrum of the whale on the right!

Often it's hard to capture a whole group of whales in one shot if they don't surface in perfect synchrony, but the four K14s had excellent form as they came up under the Olympic Mountains just south of us:

The K14s under the Olympic Mountains

We got an even closer look at J27 Blackberry on this pass. Earlier he was traveling with his sister J31 Tsuchi, but now he was with his brother J39 Mako.

J27 Blackberry

Whales and mountains go so well together, so here's another one of J47 Notch:

J47 Notch

 
The J16s were the trailing group, and as they approached they meandered into the cove just north of the lighthouse, always a sure sign of good things to come.

Since they were born so close together, I've been dreaming of the perfect shot of J50 Scarlet and J52 Sonic surfacing together. As soon as I snapped the shutter I knew I had finally gotten it! I love this one so much.

From left to right: J36 Alki, J52 Sonic, J16 Slick, and J50 Scarlet

The J16s continuing on their way:

There were lots of smiles everywhere by the end of the day on Sunday, as it truly did feel like one of the good ol' days!

Thrilled after a great early morning boat encounter, not knowing many more hours of whale-watching still awaited us!