August 22nd: The L54s Arrive!

On the evening of August 21st I had heard a lot of whales were inbound, so I made it an early morning on the west side of San Juan Island. At first only three or four whales came up as far as Land Bank and were milling around, but after they decided to go north it became apparent a lot more whales were coming. They passed by quickly in huge groups - there were so many whales I knew we had members of all three pods, but they passed so fast I wasn't sure who exactly was here.

The J16s were one of the closer groups to shore. I realized I didn't post any pictures of J36 Alki and J52 in my last blog post with the J16s, so here are two pictures to make up for that:

J36 Alki and J52

J36 Alki and J52

I also saw the J22s - always nice to see this trio, known as "The Cookies":

From left to right: J34 Doublestuf, J38 Cookie, and J22 Oreo

It was too tempting not to jump in the boat and catch up with these guys again further north, so I picked up a friend and off we went. Our timing was perfect. We got to Open Bay right when a huge group containing most of J- and K-Pods did. They weren't quite synchronized in their surfacings though, so my photos don't really capture how many whales were there!

That's J2 Ganny in the center

You can't quite see it in this small version of the photo, but the people on this boat are fully in awe of this huge spyhop by J31 Tsuchi. One person is clapping their hands together and all four have their mouths open:

Beauty of a spyhop by J31 Tsuchi

We've gotten in the habit of talking about Js and Ks and not even bothering to mention what is now a given: that L87 Onyx is there. After losing his mother, he continues to be an L-Pod transplant, the only time something like this has been witnessed in the 40 years these whales have been carefully studied.

L87 Onyx, at home with the Js and Ks

After this group passed, we hung out off Kellett Bluff to watch two more groups approaching. The first group contained what I've taken to calling the Greater L4s - a large part of L-Pod that doesn't include the L12 or L54 sub-groups. But there were still a few more whales coming. Were these the L12s? Something didn't quite match up....

L88 Wavewalker and L84 Nyssa

It took me a minute to believe my eyes when I saw these big boys, and not just because they've both grown since last year - it was L84 Nyssa and L88 Wavewalker! These two males, the last remnants of the L9 and L2 matrilines respectively, have hooked up with each other and with the rogue L54 matriline that rarely visits inland waters. While all the whales in this sub-group had been accounted for in the Strait of Juan de Fuca earlier in the season, August 22nd marked the first day of 2015 where they made it all the way into Haro Strait. Last year I only saw them once.

L88 Wavewalker by the Center for Whale Research boat

I only realized this later, but I thought L54 Ino got major style points for waiting to show up in any of our Orca Behavior Institute research until encounter #54.

L54 Ino

The lighting wasn't the greatest, but it was still a great pleasure to spend time with this family group, the most unfamiliar to me of all the Southern Residents. In addition to L88 Wavewalker, L84 Nyssa, and L54 Ino and her two offspring, I found it really interesting that the two whales traveling with them were the L26s, the other smallest remaining L-Pod matriline made up of L92 Crewser and L90 Ballena. These seven whales represent all that remains of four different matrilines, but they've banded together in a makeshift family of their own.

L84 Nyssa and L92 Crewser

In general the Southern Residents are seen so much it doesn't take us long to determine a whale's gender, even though as juveniles that requires seeing the underbelly of the whale, and knowning whose underbelling you're seeing. The one exception is L117 Keta - we still don't know if this whale is male or female. Fingers crossed for female, because L-Pod has a real lack of young females, and if it's a male, there's a likelihood the L54 matriline will end.

L54 Ino and her youngest, L117 Keta

After a time these whales merged with the rest of L-Pod. As we left them they were still heading north along the shoreline of Stuart Island.

It turns out almost everyone was here. Only the L12 sub-group was missing. That meant there were 71 whales present - not bad! But we were still waiting for our first full-fledged superpod of the summer...

The Gang's All Here!

The whales were only gone for about three days, but it sure felt like a lot longer than that! It was with much excitement we all greeted the news that were "residents inbound" on Saturday evening. I went out and met some friends, hoping to see them. The first whales that reached San Juan Island - K-Pod - hit land at about False Bay and went south. We were all ready to call it a night when we noticed one of the boats heading home to Victoria stopped in the middle of the strait. There were more whales out there! After watching the sun set, we went to Lime Kiln as some L-Pod whales made their way slowly north in the almost-dark. There wasn't enough light for photos, but I shot this short video with my iPhone to capture a little of the feel of the moment.

Hoping the whales wouldn't go north or west in the night, I went out to Lime Kiln on Sunday morning (the 27th). Good decision! I was only there about half an hour before we started to see dorsal fins to the south. The whales continued to pass by for the next two and a half hours. It soon became apparent it was more than just Ks and Ls here, there were so many whales! That was confirmed for sure when J27 Blackberry popped up:

Blackberry was traveling with his sister J31 Tsuchi, K27 Deadhead, and Deadhead's calf K44 Ripple. That's one thing I love about superpods - it's always so interesting to see who associates with whom when everyone gets all mixed up!

K27 Deadhead

K44 Ripple

My prize shot of the morning - a gorgeous spyhop from K27 Deadhead. Prints available here.

It's great light to watch wildlife in the morning on the west side, and there were more than whales about. The first whales were very spread out, and there were plenty of birds and seals to watch in the breaks. One highlight was when this great blue heron flew by:

The seals were actively fishing, and while this was looking back into the light, it was awesome to see one seal surface with a salmon in its mouth and another one lunging after it as if to steal it (he didn't succeed):

You would think after all these years I would have seen whales from just about everywhere in Lime Kiln, but not so! I usually go to one of a few favorite spots, but on this morning decided to try watching from a new vantage point. It led to some different looks, particularly when some whales circled back to come closer to the kelp.

Two of 'em heading right at ya! Bonus points if you can find the third whale in this photo...

After every group of whales, we'd look south, and see more blows coming! It was just wave after wave of whales!

J40 Suttles, J14 Samish, and J45 Se-Yi-Chn

J14 Samish, J45 Se-Yi-Chn, and J49 T'ilem In'ges

L87 Onyx

I decided to take another video clip of one "wave", and it happened to include a nice pec slap from J19 Shachi. I had to let the edit run a little long to catch the great reaction of the girl on the rocks at the end:

I was really surprised when some unusual whales popped up - the L54 sub-group! This small group of L-Pod whales, for whatever reason, visits inland waters a lot more rarely than the rest of L-Pod. This was their first time "in" this season, actually, though they had been seen off the outer coast earlier this year. It was really nice to see them, and led to some of the best pictures I've ever gotten of some of these whales!

L84 Nyssa - very pleased to see he's found someone to latch on to in the L54s since he has no living family members

L54 Ino and L117 Keta show just how close to shore the whales can come at Lime Kiln

And it STILL wasn't the end - there were more L-Pod whales after that (as well as other groups way offshore during this whole time).

L82 Kasatka and L116 Finn (just starting to surface)

I determined that it looked like all the Southern Residents but the L12 sub-group were present, so that's about 69 whales! A lot of confusion followed however, as small groups went north and south and north and south (mostly not by Lime Kiln, but a few did), that by the end of the day no one was entirely sure who ended up where. But really, it didn't matter, because they stayed, and they were everywhere!

An August Whale Update

No Southern Resident Killer Whales were seen from July 20 to August 7, an unusually lengthy absence during the summer months though not entirely unheard of (in 2000 they were gone for five weeks!) On August 7th a somewhat surprising group of whales returned to the westside of San Juan Island - the L54 matriline along with orphaned boys L88 Wavewalker and L84 Nyssa. Last year, these whales only came into inland waters two or three times over the course of the whole summer, so it was interesting that they should spend some time here by themselves for several days in mid August. What's good to see is that Wavewalker and Nyssa have seemingly found themselves an adopted mom in L54 Ino; often adult males that lose their mothers as these two have don't live much longer unless they find another adult female to latch on to. 

Starting on August 11 all members of J-, K-, and L-Pods made a brief visit to the Salish Sea, the first of several. Each time, they have stayed less than 48 hours, and only on that first visit did they go north to the Fraser River; every other time they've stayed off the south end of San Juan Island before departing out the Strait of Juan de Fuca again. We expect all three pods to be traveling together as we approach fall, but the consensus is there must not be enough fish (Chinook) here to sustain them all for more than about a day.

Looking again at the Albion Chinook test catch data in the lower Fraser River, we see perhaps why this is. There have been a few spikes in Chinook numbers, perhaps luring the Southern Residents back to their traditional foraging grounds here near San Juan Island:

The cumulative numbers are still pretty dismal, however:

People often ask me how I manage to get close photos of the whales so often. The honest answer is: I don't! For many weeks, this is about as close as I got to a killer whale:

Adult male orca off Eagle Point of San Juan Island August 18, 2013

While selfishly I of course want to be seeing the whales every day, the most important thing is that they're finding food wherever they are hanging out. I'm okay with them not being here as long as they're eating! Still, I've been making every attempt to see them when I can, though often it's when you're not trying to hard that things work out. On August 17th I had an appointment to meet someone at Lime Kiln, and was surprised when the L54s and Co. were out off the lighthouse most of the afternoon. They had been around several times, but like the visiting superpods lately, I was beginning not to expect them to go far enough north for shore-based whale watchers like myself to be able to see them. So it was a nice treat.

One big spyhop from L54 Ino was a surprise admist all the foraging these six whales were doing

L88 Wavewalker, a twenty year-old male who is the last living member of his matriline, seems to have found a pal in L108 Coho, a seven year-old male that is one of L54 Ino's offspring. The two were fishing together on this afternoon, and I've heard from others this seems to be a bond in the making.

The superpod visits have been so brief and far from the best shore-based whale watch sites that I had a feeling I was going to have to get out on a boat to see them. The stars aligned for me on the evening of August 22nd, when the news of an incoming superpod aligned with a friend and co-worker being willing and able to take his boat out for a little evening cruise. We headed out from Roche Harbor and met up with the incoming whales in the middle of Haro Strait a little to the northwest of False Bay at about 7:15 PM.

The first group of whales we came across was the L47s. I'd be remiss if I didn't say that seeing this family group of five whales brought a tear to my eye, it was so good to see Southern Residents after weeks and weeks of hoping for this sort of encounter.

From left to right: L91 Muncher, L83 Moonlight, L110 Midnight, L115Mystic

The whales were super spread out over dozens of square miles. In this shot of L91 Muncher surfacing, I didn't even notice until looking at the image on the computer that there's a breaching whale in the background (the little black and white speck on the horizon to her left).

L91 Muncher

L-Pod, in addition to having several "dead end" matrilines with no juvenile or reproductive age females, also has a strongly male-skewed ratio among its young whales. The L47 matriline thus holds an even bigger importance when it comes to the future of the pod. Both juveniles in this family group are males, but there are two reproductive age females. We hope to see Muncher with her first calf soon, and with her first offspring being six years old, L83 Moonlight is could also have another calf at any time.

L83 Moonlight and her six year-old son L110 Midnight. We would expect and hope Moonlight to be having another calf soon; for L-Pod's sake we hope she will have a female!

The L47s were traveling steadily along until Moonlight started feeling a little playful. She did a couple of tail slaps and then a huge breach! I could hardly believe my eyes - such perfect lighting!

Breach by L83 Moonlight

As the L47s continued heading towards the shore of San Juan Island, we moved a little further south where we came across the J22s. We followed along with J32 Rhapsody for a while. She was having a grand old time by herself! While we only saw one breach from Moonlight, Rhapsody must have breached about ten times, with some tail slaps thrown in for good measure.

Breach by J32 Rhapsody

Another breach from J32 Rhapsody

As she continued south, we went a little ways further offshore where we found the K12 matriline. While the sunset lighting on the breaches above was perfect, it was also pretty neat to look in the other direction and have the whales silhouetted against the background of the Olympic Mountains or Vancouver Island.

K37 Rainshadow (left) with his mom K12 Sequim

K33 Tika, who at age 12 has a fin "sprout" - he'll have a towering dorsal fin before too long!

All too soon the sun was setting and it was time to head back. We left the whales heading southeast as we turned back to the north, making a stop along the way to see Lime Kiln Lighthouse from the water side - opposite of where I usually am!

Usually I watch sunsets from the rocks below the lighthouse - this time I was out on the water looking back towards shore

It was a pretty special evening out there, made all the more extraordinary by the news the following morning that the whales were already heading west again back out towards the open ocean, presumably in search of the Chinook they are still not finding here.

October Orcas (and other Autumn Animals)

With the L2s, L5s, and L54s on the westside yesterday, we decided to go to bundle up against the chilly autumn breeze and head to Lime Kiln to hang out for a while to try and see them. Unwilling to admit that summer is over, we settled in on our favorite rocks to read for a couple hours. The whales were several miles to the north and slowly heading our direction, so the prospect of seeing them made it a little easier to wait. In the meantime, just like on my previous trip to the westside, there was lots of other wildlife to look at. Here's a look at a few of the gull species that are common here in the fall:

Heermann's gull

California gull

Mew gull

The gulls were hanging out hoping to take advantage of some food scraps made available by the foraging harbor seals. It was fun to watch the gulls soaring about 15 feet above the water, and based on their actions it was possible to predict where the seals were going to pop up (presumably the gulls could see the seals underwater). The gulls either didn't see or didn't care about this seal pup that popped up inside the kelp beds off the lighthouse, and I almost missed it as well - it was one of those moments where you wonder who is watching whom?

The careful observe could find a few other bird species, too. A rhinoceros auklet dove in the bay to the north of the lighthouse. A loon flew by, and so did these scoters:

A black oystercatcher also made an uncharacteristically quiet appearance, feeding on snails on the rocks just below the lighthouse:

Eventually the very spread out, very slow moving orcas did show up, foraging as they made their way south. The L12s had just made their way in to the San Juans past Victoria, and Js and Ks were heading north out of Admiralty Inlet, so with all three groups of whales on a collision course I was a little surprised that the group of whales we saw wasn't traveling a little faster to go meet up with everyone else. But, they didn't seem to be in any hurry.

The whale that came closest to shore was L78 Gaia, a big male who looked especially big yesterday:

The last group of whales to come by was L54 Ino and her two youngest offspring, L108 Coho and unnamed calf L117. (For those keeping track, Ino's other son L100 Indigo was there, too, just a little ahead of this trio.) The three of them were actively foraging, doing all kinds of circling and lunging at the surface. It looked like they were successful, because the gulls started doing the same thing to the whales that they had been doing to the seals earlier: hovering up above where they were underwater, and swooping down the surface to pick up scraps of fish. It was fun to watch.

Mama L54 Ino on the left, with calf L117 surfacing in the slipstream of older sibling L108 Coho on the right.

It's common for resident whales to prey share, so presumably Ino was catching fish and sharing them with at least Coho. Some of the circling behavior could have been whales converging to tear up the fish. Since there was so much surface activity, I wonder if Coho was playing with a fish that was still alive, or perhaps the little calf was getting an early training session. How cool it would have been to see what was going on underwater to correspond with all the lunges, rolls, and dives we saw at the surface.

Eventually the whales did continue south, and it wasn't until then that I realized just how chilly I was! It was time to go home and crank the heater in the car on the drive back. Later in the evening, I listened to the whales on the hydrophones for about an hour, and it sounded like all three groups did indeed meet up. Based on the vocalizations alone, they were having quite a superpod party!