July 20th and 21st: Summer Nights with the L12s and J-Pod

On July 14th, the L12 sub-group came in for the first time this summer, bringing with them the J11s who had been missing from the rest of J-Pod. In typical L12 fashion, they spent the next few days off the south end of San Juan Island, never making it up to Lime Kiln. On July 20th, I was more than ready to see them, so after work we went down to American Camp where I hoped to see them offshore. Sure enough, L22 Spirit and her son L89 Solstice were offshore of Eagle Point, apparently foraging and not really moving anywhere for the half hour we were watching them. While we watched the two of them, we could see the fleet of whale-watching boats moving north with the rest of the L12s. I figured they would probably turn around at False Bay as they had been doing, but given the really strong flood tide, when the boats disappeared from view, we decided to head north as well.

I was surprised when we got to Lime Kiln that the L12s were already there! They had finally decided to come up to the lighthouse, but were already past it. Luckily, this is why we have a boat! Team OBI hopped aboard Serenity and headed out to catch up with the L12s a few miles to the northwest of Lime Kiln.

By this point in time they had flipped back south again, but were fighting the strong flood tide and basically not going anywhere. The first whale we saw was L85 Mystery, who was swimming with L77 Matia. A few miles further offshore was L41 Mega.

L85 Mystery surfacing in synchrony with L41 Mega in the distance

About 10 years ago, the L12s were mainstays throughout much of the summer, so I spent a lot of time with them. That all changed a few years ago, and their visits are more infrequent these days. As such, it's been a while since I've gotten the chance to spend much time with them. It was nice to hang out with L85 Mystery, who I used to see all the time, but only got good looks at twice last year.

L85 Mystery with his distinct blunt, butter knife-like dorsal fin

L85 Mystery headed towards San Juan Island

The whales all moved in towards shore before booking it back south, perhaps to catch a back eddy where the swimming against the tide would be easier? On their way towards shore, we got a nice look at L77 Matia and L119 Joy. About a week earlier, Joy was seen spyhopping with a neonate harbor porpoise in her mouth. The strange behavior of our fish-eating Southern Residents playing with and sometimes killing (but not eating) porpoises has been documented since studies on these whales began, but is little understood. It seems to come in fads, and porpoise playing is definitely "in" again this summer from the reports I've heard, though I haven't seen it yet myself this year!

L77 Matia and L119 Joy - probably one of my favorite shots so far this year

I figured that might be all I would see of the L12s for a while, but on July 21st J-Pod and the L12s spend the entire day on the west side of San Juan Island. I believe there were whales within sight of Lime Kiln from 6:30 AM to 3:30 PM, though unfortunately I missed all of it while at work. With J-Pod north of San Juan Island heading north and the L12s back in their spot off the south end of the island, I figured I was out of luck seeing whales for the rest of the day, but luckily, I was wrong! I caught the three hour evening extravaganza on the west side, starting at Land Bank where I saw the L12s come up and meet with some of the southbound members of J-Pod (the J11s, J17s, and J22s came back south while the rest of Js continued north) right in front of me.

I love looking at who associates with who among the Southern Residents, and indeed association patterns is one of the main things we're studying at the Orca Behavior Institute. For instance, why do the J11s seem to have a stronger affinity for the L12 sub-group? They were traveling with the L12s rather than J-Pod earlier this month, and when the two groups met up on the evening of July 21st the J11s and L12s seemed to seek each other out. The whales we saw meet up right in front of us, leading their respective groups, were L94 Calypso and J31 Tsuchi. And not long after, L85 Mystery booked it north through all the milling whales until he met up with J27 Blackberry and J39 Mako.

L85 Mystery cruising north past Land Bank, apparently in search of his pals from the J11s, Blackberry and Mako

The whales looked like they were all going to come back south, but again the strong flood tide was inhibiting their progress, so when it looked like they were going to hang off Lime Kiln for a while, we moved there. Right decision! It was a beautiful evening watching the whales pass, and the sunset lighting just kept getting better and better.

Nothing like sunset whales!

One year-old L121 Windsong

J35 Tahlequah and her son J47 Notch have often performed surface behaviors in syncrhony - I remember Tahlequah teaching Notch to spyhop way back in 2010, and seeing them do this again and again together! This time they were so close to doing a double breach, but Notch was just a second too late! Still an impressive sight!

Breach from J35 Tahlequah

J47 Notch coming up for a breach as his mom J35 Tahlequah splashes down

What was I saying about that sunset light? It just kept getting better. Here's what the sky looked like as J34 Doublestuf and his mom J22 Oreo approached:

And here's J22 Oreo surfacing right in the sun track:

J22 Oreo

Here's another look at Oreo as she continued south; the light was better here, so you can see the beauty marks on her left eyepatch (click to see a larger version).

The final whales to pass were the J28s - J28 Polaris with her daughter J46 Star and son J54. As they approached, they veered in from offshore right towards the rock where we were sitting.

J28 Polaris and J54 approaching

They surfaced at just the right moment, all together, to get a stunning silhouette shot. This photo is totally uncropped and unedited - just posted here exactly how it came off the camera.

From left to right, J46 Star, J54, and J28 Polaris.

The surfaced again just past us, allowing me to set up a shot with Jason in the foreground, to give a sense of how close to shore they were:

Our friend Steph was on the rocks down the shoreline and above us, and she caught this view of us and the passing whales:

I really love the J28s!

J28 Polaris and her calf J54

With all the whales past us at this point, the light fading, and the thunderstorm brewing to the south coming closer, we figured this was our grand finale. But as we drove home, the light just kept getting more amazing, so we had to pull over again to watch the sunset light progress, lighting bolts periodically decorating the sky to the south, right over a double rainbow that just kept getting brighter.

Sunset lighting up puffy clouds to the south, creative driftwood structure, and double rainbow. Not pictured: the craziest lightning bolt I've ever seen, that struck in four segments across most of the sky.

The colors just kept getting better and better....

The only thing taking away from the magical moment was the cloud of mosquitoes feasting on my bare legs. At the time I said out loud that it was definitely worth the bug bites (something I've been reminding myself of regularly in the itchy days since). Finally, approaching 9:30 PM, the rainbow had faded and the golden clouds had dimmed, and it looked like the color show was over. Just as we turned to walk back to the car, however, an orca surfaced. Couldn't resist snapping a few more blurry shots in the oncoming darkness as the whales started breaching way offshore. This image is lightened and cropped a bit, but the colors are unaltered:

Special times in the Salish Sea! This morning I was thinking how, after a very dry May and June, we've had Southern Residents around every day since July 3rd. Of course, as of this morning all the Js and Ls who have been visiting all went west, so today breaks that trend. Fingers crossed they all come back very soon!

August 28th: Last Official OBI Encounter of the Season

As August came to a close, it was about time for my research partner Michael to head back to start his senior year at Reed College....but not before one final whale encounter! It happened out at Lime Kiln as J- and K-Pods went north in spread out groups, our 59th research encounter of the summer.

J41 Eclipse

J47 Notch

J27 Blackberry and J46 Star

From left to right J27 Blackberry, J31 Tsuchi, J28 Polaris, and J46 Star

At the end of the passby, some of the K13s were north and some were south of Lime Kiln. The pods have been splitting into smaller and constantly changing groups over the last few years, but it's still highly unusual for a matriline to split, so we figured one of he partial groups of the K13s would go join up with the other. Indeed, that's what happened - though it took K20 Spock going back south to round up the rest of her family! She went down there, got them, and then they all came back north.

Spock detours back south to get the rest of her family

While I'll still continue to collect some behavioral data as I have whale encounters throughout the year, this marked somewhat of an ending of our first field season at the Orca Behavior Institute. It's worth taking a little time to reflect on all the data we collected this year - much more than I think either of us hoped for! 

Our 59 research encounters resulted in over 91 hours of behavioral observations and 129 hydrophone recordings totaling more than 38 hours. Surprisingly, K-Pod was present for more of our encounters (47) than J-Pod (46), though our most encountered matriline was the J19s (present for 38 encounters).

Here's how our 91 hours of behavioral observations parsed out in terms of which pod or pods were present:

It seems to be making less sense to look at socialization in Southern Residents in terms of pods, however, as pods aren't as stable as they were when studies began 40 years ago. Instead, matrilines seems to be the most stable social unit. Here's how our data collection for the summer breaks out by matriline, showing which family groups we spent the most and least time with. J-Pod families are in blue, K-Pod in yellow, and L-Pod in red. The two smallest bars, L12+ and L54+, refer to the L12 and L54 sub-groups which are stable units made up of several small matrilines.

Finally, our behavioral observations ranged throughout most of the daylight hours, from before 7:30 AM until after 9:30 PM. Here's how out observations of the Southern Residents broke down by time of day. The peak observation hour ended up being between 5 and 6 PM:

Much more advanced analysis will be happening over the coming months as Michael works on his senior thesis, but for now I thought this was an interesting overview of who we spent time with this summer. Stay tuned for much more from the Orca Behavior Institute, and in the meantime, my whale encounters certainly haven't come to a stop!

J-Pod Welcomes Me Home on March 24th

I was thrilled and surprised on my first full day back on the island - March 24th - to hear that J-Pod was on the west side of San Juan Island! When I got off work I thought I had probably missed them at Lime Kiln, so I headed for the boat and hopped out into Haro Strait. Turns out the whales were still further south and the seas were a bit lumpy, so I turned back, but not before stumbling across the humpback whale Big Mama BCY0324!

Big Mama BCY0324

 I ended up getting to Lime Kiln on shore just in time to see the J19s foraging off the lighthouse.

From left to right calf J51, big sister J41 Eclipse, and mom J19 Shaci

It was cool to see little J51 swimming in big sister's slipstream rather than in mom's. It must have been big sister day, because later on I saw baby J50 swimming alongside sister J42 Echo rather than with mom J16 Slick!

J51 pops up on his/her own....

...followed a moment later by mom and sister

These three whales were seemingly hanging out waiting for most of the rest of J-Pod to catch up. The other Js took their sweet time, but from the south end of the park I could see them slowly, slowly heading our direction close to shore!

There's no better than feeling than watching whales approaching!

The J22s, J17s, and J14s slowly passed Lime Kiln in one big, semi-playful group. It was an extra special treat because it came in March!

J34 Doublestuf did several series of big tailslaps!

The sadness of leaving beautiful Baja and the friendly gray whales behind was definitely softened by this unexpected J-Pod passby! Here's hoping for a spring full of whale-sightings - April and May used to be fantastic months for seeing J-Pod here, but that's been less true in recent years.

From left to right (I think): J37 Hy'Shqa, J14 Samish, J46 Star, and J28 Polaris

February 12: Meeting J50 and J51!

Some faint calls were heard on the Lime Kiln hydrophones on February 12th, and when they didn't get louder some friends and I concluded the whales were probably heading south into Puget Sound. WRONG! Luckily someone gave me a head's up they were close to shore along San Juan Island and I got to Lime Kiln just as the first whales were passing by.

First Southern Resident breach of 2015!

It's been interesting to follow J27 Blackberry's satellite tag these last few weeks. (It's still transmitting and you can see the latest reports here.) We're learning that J-Pod is using almost exclusively inland waters even this time of year - their ocean ventures are to just outside the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and not really along the outer coast much at all.

J27 Blackberry (and a cormorant drying its wings in the background)

It was great to see everyone - like catching up with old friends after several months of having not seen J-Pod.

From left to right J49 T'ilem I'nges, J37 Hy'shqa, and J14 Samish

J26 Mike

What was amazing was how much driftwood was floating around out there! The whales didn't seem to have any qualms about swimming right through it.

It's rare enough to see orcas from Lime Kiln this time of year, but I'd say it's even rarer to see them close to shore. This passby was short but sweet - it felt like summertime with the J17s coming by right off the rocks!

J17 Princess Angeline

J46 Star

The timing was perfect to jump out in Serenity again with a couple friends, and we met up with Js again a little further north in Haro Strait.

L87 Onyx

The whales looked like they had really spread out after passing Lime Kiln; we saw some more way offshore and decided to head out to investigate. As a side note, while motoring out there this freighter came by - look at how much water it's displacing off its bow!

Turns out the whales offshore were some of the J16s! That means I got to meet new little calf J50 was born in the end of December.

J16 Slick with calf J50

J16 Slick with calf J50

J16 Slick with baby J50

While watching this spunky little gal (sure seems like mom has her hands full keeping this little one in line), we got word from the Center for Whale Research that their boat was with another new calf!!! It was too tempting not to go and take a peak. J19 Shachi is the mom of J51, and Shachi's daughter J41 Eclipse was right there as well.

Tiny orca! J51 swims after older sister J41 Eclipse

This is a distant blurry shot, but I love it because it shows the close formation this little family group was keeping. Mom J19 Shachi is on the left and the little bump just to the right of her is the new calf J51. J41 Eclipse, Shachi's daughter, was on the outside, so the little one was safely tucked between them at all times.

J19 Shachi, J51, and J41 Eclipse

The whales had been quite spread out for a while, but now a group of them formed up and started traveling north at a more steady clip.

This group included the J14s, J19s, and J11s minus J27 - all the J-Pod big boys were traveling together somewhere else. We ended up getting a better look at the calf in this group:

Mama J19 Shachi with newborn

From left to right little J51, J19 Shaci, and J49 T'ilem I'nges

They were out in the middle of Haro Strait, and then started angling over towards Stuart Island. J39 Mako came a little closer to check us out on his way by:

J39 Mako

There was a lot of driftwood up here, too. Looking ahead I thought for sure this was a logging whale, but it was just a log! Very good dorsal fin impression, though.

A logging....log

We cruised over to Spieden Island on our way home, where the J17s were hanging out. Spieden was sure looking pretty, and quite different from its summer yellow/brown grass phase that's more common:

Spieden Island - looking green!

The birth of J51 brings the Southern Resident population back up to 79 whales after dipping to 77 a few months ago. Will Ks and Ls have any other little surprises for us when they next return? After over two years without a successful birth, we are all both excited and worried about these two little ones. The bottom line is these whales need enough salmon, and we've gone through some very thin years of Chinook returns recently. I'm working with a campaign to remove the four Lower Snake River Dams, which are largely obsolete and are costing tax payers money, but would be the most effective dams to remove to increase salmon to the Columbia River Basin. Learn more about our efforts from the Southern Resident Killer Whale Chinook Salmon Initiative.