July 5: Superpod!

This morning I headed out to Lime Kiln to see what I could see, and my first glimpse of the water as I walked down to the shoreline included a tall dorsal fin. "Residents!" I thought. Turns out, it was a family of four transients! They were offshore heading north/northwest in Haro Strait. (Possibly the T49As?)

See the dorsal fin??

It was a beautiful morning to hang out, at first...

The weather slowly deteriorated until three hours later it was raining pretty good. Hungry, and with still no sign of residents, I decided to head home to get something to eat. I was only home about an hour when I heard that residents were crossing Haro Strait, having swept out west the night before. Time to get back out there! I got to Lime Kiln just as the whales did.

I've seen some very lucky kayakers get some great experiences with orcas this week. While many have the dream of kayaking with orcas, it's important to remember that moments like these are not typical!

K27 Deadhead and K44 Ripple near a kayaker

While I had been one of only two cars in the parking lot first thing in the morning when the Ts went by, when I arrived at Lime Kiln this time, there were no parking spaces open at all! The shoreline was packed on this holiday weekend, despite the continuing drizzle.

Shore-based whale watchers at "Whale Watch Point"

Shore-based whale watchers at the lighthouse

All three pods were around, and I saw members of every pod, but it was mostly Ks I was seeing off Lime Kiln. As K20 Spock came by, she did three spectacular breaches!

K20 Spock

K20 Spock

I love this next shot - while she's facing "away" from the camera, you can see both of her open saddle patches!

K20 Spock

A bit later Spock's younger brother K34 Cali came by really close to shore! I love the reflections.

K34 Cali

K34 Cali

An hour and a half later, not all the whales had passed us, but there was a turnaround as everyone did an about face and started going south again, I was assuming to meet up with J-Pod "Group A" who was coming down Rosario Strait. (Note: I think the only other whales not present were the L12 sub-group, the L54s, L84, and L88.) As the whales traveled south, L116 Finn (age 4) stopped to do some foraging. I thought it showed up in one of my photos, but it didn't very clearly - he was pushing a salmon around at the surface.

L116 Finn pushing a salmon around on the surface

The whales were really spread out - some were within a few hundred yards of the shoreline:

K27 Deadhead

Others were waaaay out in the middle of Haro Strait, but the setting with the calm gray waters and stunning clouds still made it beautiful to watch them go by:

The last whales that came by did so quickly, perhaps trying to catch up to everybody else. It's hard to get good photos of porpoising whales - they were almost out of the frame on this shutter click!

I heard they did meet up with the other Js off the south end of the island a bit later and they had a big party. They stayed down there until dark, so I was wondering if they would still all be together the next morning, or if some would leave. You know I would be out there to find out! Stay tuned....(I'll give you a hint: they stayed!)

July 1: Up and Down with Js and Ls

When I got off work on July 1st I headed out to the west side and caught up with my friend Katie at Land Bank. I could tell from Hannah Heights that there were whales off False Bay, but Katie felt sure they would make their way up to where we were, and when it comes to whales, you gotta trust these kind of intuitions. Amazingly, it was one of the rare hot days on the west side of the island. We were actually too warm up in the parking area and decided to walk down to sit near the water, hoping it would be cooler there.

It was cooler (though still too warm for my tastes, in a black T-shirt anyway), but the whales took their sweet time meandering north. About an hour or so after we walked down there we started to see a few whale watch boats coming around the corner, a sure sign the whales were getting closer. We weren't even sure who was present until they passed Edwards Point, and we pieced together it was "Group B" of J-Pod (the J11s, J17s, and J22s) with the L-Pod group that's been around. (J-Pod Group A had been up north the day before and was still MIA on this day.)

The lead whales got up to just about where we were sitting when they stalled out. They had already done this once earlier in the day and it looked like they were about to do it again: turnaround and go back south. There was a lot of milling, and one could just imagine the debate going on underwater about which way to go, based on the whales surfacing facing every which way. Finally, it seemed they had come to a decision, and they started making progress south. Ready to give up, we walked back up the hill to our cars, but something kept us from driving away. It only took about two minutes for the whales to turn again and start heading "up island" to the north. Back "down hill" we went to see them!

A group of kayakers in the kelp bed off Land Bank got the thrill of a lifetime:

It was a big, pretty playful group that came by first:

This tail slap turned into more of a head stand, it was so big!

The next group was moving more slowly, and included L92 Crewser chasing after and rolling around with J28 Polaris. Things are much different in the orca world - this presumed sexual encounter was all witnessed closely by calf J46 Star. The whales looked like they were angling in slightly, and Katie could read my mind - "You want to go to the Park, don't you?" she asked, meaning Lime Kiln. Yes, I did. Whale chase again! And it worked out great.

I love this shot from the rocks at Lime Kiln of these two girls watching the whales. It really captures the essence of what it's like to be out there:

The group was a mixture of Js and Ls, but it was a bit hard to get IDs due to the lighting. Sometimes, it doesn't really matter who's who!

L95 Nigel

That's L72 Racer on the left

As I was leaving the Park, I heard that J-Pod Group A was found at the south end of Lopez Island. I wondered if the other whales thought they were going up to meet this group heading down from the north via the route they often take, but would be surprised later when instead the missing group would come up from behind them!

The following day, the 2nd, the exciting news was that K-Pod had returned! Ks made a brief and unexpected visit in mid April, but this time the first superpod of the season was in the works! We call it a superpod when all three pods get together, though in reality the L12s and L54s weren't around, so it wasn't everyone. Unfortunately I missed them, but this morning (the 4th) I went out to Lime Kiln on a whim, despite having heard last night all the whales might be headed out. When I got there I learned J-Pod Group A had already gone north very early, so I stuck around, believing there must be more whales around somewhere!

Sure enough, between 9 and 9:30 a few K-Pod whales made their way up to the lighthouse. They flipped and went back south after just four of them had gone by, however, so I only got to see a couple of them despite seeing many more blows in the distance to the south. It was still nice to say "hi" to K12 Sequim, though!

K12 Sequim at Lime Kiln the morning of July 4th

June 25th - June 29th: Whales, Whales, and More Whales!

June was a fantastic month from start to finish, with Residents around (and on the west side of San Juan Island) almost every day. After last year's record low sightings, it feels an awful lot like the "good ol' days", as many local naturalists have been commenting. Lest anyone get too carried away, salmon numbers have been better than the last three years, but still much, much lower than historical numbers. But we're all certainly enjoying the presence of the whales, and loving the fact that right now at least they're finding enough to eat to stick around!

June 25th

I took an early lunch from work to go out and join friends at Land Bank, where watched Js and Ls porpoise their way across the strait directly towards us. They spread out all along the west side of San Juan Island, but the group that passed us (including J2, the J14s, and the J16s) kept booking it north.

A whale wows a couple of kayakers - really adds some perspective so you can tell how big the whales are!

J16 Slick

We were in a cool spot on the cliffs - looking right down into the water underneath us. This harbor seal looked like he was watching the whales, too.

June 27th

After a stressful week at work, I was beat, and debating between a nap and checking out the west side for whales. Guess which one I did? Luckily my timing was great, as I got there just as the leaders were passing Land Bank heading south. The lighting was really unique, too - the water looked almost metallic.

The closest group included L83 Moonlight, who seemed to be surfacing in as many different ways as possible. She never once surfaced like a "normal" whale, instead lunging and rolling her way to the surface with every breath.

L83 Moonlight lunges to the surface

The clouds were just beautiful even though it was a bit gray out:

I couldn't pass up photographing my favorite tree:

June 28th

My dad came up for a quick visit on the weekend, and was willing to tag along with me for a regular Saturday afternoon. That meant getting a snack at the Farmer's Market, then heading to the west side for more whales! It also meant I got some rare pictures of myself "in action".

At Land Bank the whales were offshore of the kelp bed, until J26 Mike surfaced in shore, wowing both us and some kayakers.

J26 Mike

With him was L82 Kasatka....they were swimming slowly, within touching distance, and seemed to be in no hurry to go anywhere. I can't help but anthropomorphize a little bit....sure seemed like they were on the orca equivalent of a "date":

J26 Mike and L82 Kasatka

A short distance behind them was a larger group of whales, including a couple other males:

J27 Blackberry and J34 Doublestuf - amazing to see Doublestuf's fin rivaling Blackberry's in height!

The whales continued slowly north and looked to be angling in shore. In what has become a norm for me this season, I did the run up the hill at Land Bank, quick drive to Lime Kiln, and run back down the hill to the shoreline to catch the whales a second time, usually closer to shore than the first pass. It worked perfectly on this day.

A much closer look at J27 Blackberry from Lime Kiln

J27 Blackberry, his younger brother J39 Mako, and juvenile L106 Pooka were all rolling around and roughhousing together. I love the blue in the water as the sun poked through the clouds!

An inverted tail slap from L106 Pooka

Boys will be boys - bros Blackberry and Mako goof around

J39 Mako

J27 Blackberry

I was so focused on the group close to shore I almost missed this amazing line up offshore:

June 29th

I don't know what it is, but I'm in the groove with the whales right now, and I love it. Sunday I wasn't even entirely sure what was going on with the whales, but I went to the west side and got to Lime Kiln in perfect time to see J2 Granny and another group of whales head north.

J2 Granny leads the way, as she so often does

This time I skipped the running from Land Bank part, and was set up perfectly at the south end of Lime Kiln. The whales were way offshore of Land Bank, but angled in to right where I was sitting on the rocks.

L47 Marina and L115 Mystic

Best feeling in the world - heading right for ya!

Sometimes I want to watch the whales not through a viewfinder, but I also always want to take pictures....so at times I try to click the shutter without looking, and hope for the best. I tend to get a lot of lopsided photos of partial whales, but this one turned out quite nicely, and also shows just how close to shore these guys come.

Another shot of L47 Marina:

L47 Marina

After this group passed by, I could see many more whales to the south. They were facing south, trying to swim south, but not making much progress against the flood tide. I decided to wait it out, and in the meantime apparently became enough apart of the scenery for some birds to come by and hang out pretty close to where I was on the rocks:

Northwestern crow

Glaucous-winged gull: yawning, not yelling

Black oystercatcher

Finally the whales "gave in" and went with the tide to follow Granny north. They were very spread out and came by in 2s and 3s, but the first trio of whales had me laughing out loud. After trying to buck the strong tide for the better part of an hour, they turned around and drifted north in the swift current, logging a the surface. In my mind, they were saying, "Fine, I'll go north, but I'm not going to expend any effort to it!"

Resigned to going north

The youngsters seemed to be loving the strong tide, though, as they were logging at the surface upside down or sideways, not swimming but still traveling quickly. "Look at me mom, I'm going north upside down without trying!" Okay, maybe a sign I'm spending too much time with the whales now that I'm narrating their thoughts for them? ;)

Okay, that recaps just four days of sightings, but gets me caught up to today, which will get featured in its own blog post! So many whales, so little time - not that I'm complaining!