Summary of June Southern Resident Visits

Yikes, I think more than two months without a blog post is a new record, and not in a good way! It has been a very busy summer so far, and thankfully part of that has been due to some visits from the Southern Residents over the last six weeks. In the interest of sharing some photos and recapping some sightings, I'll make this a bit of a summary blog.

June 11 - 16: J-Pod and the Greater L4s

On June 11th the Southern Residents returned to the Salish Sea for the first time in nine weeks. All of J-Pod returned with the group I've called the "Greater L4s", made up of the L4s, L26s, L47s, and L72s. (The L12s actually came in too, but left the next day, while the others stayed.) This was obviously cause for great celebration, including playing hooky a morning from work to go say hi to them all and truly kick off the summer whale-watching season.

L55 in Haro Strait June 11

It was a picture perfect, glassy calm morning to be out on the water, and we got some fantastic hydrophone recordings before there were any other boats out. You can hear a clip here.

J38 Cookie also seemed "excited" to be back, though as much as we were hoping he was helping to make babies, he was actually fooling around with a couple of other young males, J39 Mako and L109 Takoda.

Regardless of what they were up to, it was just great to see some exuberant, roly-poly whales.

One of the best parts of seeing the whales after a long absence is to see how much they have grown, such as L122 Magic who already looks so much bigger at 3 years old!

L91 Muncher and L122

I think everyone was holding their breath that after such a long absence, the Southern Residents might only make a brief 24 hour visit, but luckily they stayed around for the next five days. On June 15, they were doing a good old fashioned "westside shuffle", and I got to see them early in the morning, in the afternoon, and at night!

The morning included a special moment at Land Bank where it was just me and the whales, and I was treated to this spyhop from J36 Alki.

Spyhop from J36 Alki

In the afternoon, the J16s and J19s came up as far as Lime Kiln before turning around, but not before J16 slick took a turn in the bull kelp right off the lighthouse, and did four or five spyhops making sure we got a nice look at her from every angle!

J16 Slick flings some kelp in the air with her tail

"Which side is better....my right?....

....or my left?"

In the evening, after a big group of Js zipped north on a huge flood tide, they then turned and rocketed back south right off the shoreline of Lime Kiln, all in a big line.

A little behind them came the rest, in a slower and more playful fashion.

Breach from J37 Hy'shqa

Sadly, on the morning of the 16th, the whales were headed back west again, but two other things made their first visit of the summer even more bittersweet. One was that L92 Crewser was not with them, bringing the population down to just 75 whales. The other was that three year old female J50 Scarlet was looking emaciated. All calves, but especially female calves (due the male-bias sex ratio in calves in recent years and also the female's ability to produce more whales) are so, so critical to this endangered population. We are all crossing our fingers for this little whale, who has been a fighter from day one, with the scarring she showed right after birth potentially being from a difficult birthing process where other whales had to assist. As of today, July 15th, more than a month later, she is still with us, but is not yet looking better.

June 20 - 21: J-Pod and the Greater L4s

On June 20th, the same group of Js and Ls came back into inland waters, and they were in party mode as they passed Land Bank's Westside Preserve in one big group in the afternoon.

J27 Blackberry and his brother J39 Mako

Some of the L4s

They went all the way up to the Fraser, then when they came down the next day they split into two groups. J-Pod came down one of the "normal" ways, but the Ls came down San Juan Channel, and I saw them as they exited Cattle Pass. The few times I've seen Residents exit Cattle Pass, they always seem to go beserk, and this time was no exception as they were breaching and tail slapping all over the place as they moved out into the bigger, windier seas of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

It was a quicker visit this time, as on the 22nd the whales were westbound out the strait again. The same Js and Ls made another visit to inland waters June 27-29, but were not very cooperative for shore-based whale watchers this time as they passed the west side of San Juan Island in the middle of the night each time. That would wrap up their visits for June, and then there would be another nearly two week absence before the Southern Residents returned in mid-July. Js came back in on June 12th, bringing K-Pod with them for their first visit to the Salish Sea since March! But this will all be further recapped in my next post, which I promise won't take two months to share!

The Southern Residents Return in September

The Southern Residents had last been seen in inland waters on August 4th (and with our trip to northern Vancouver Island, I hadn't seen them since July 24th), when on September 4th the long-awaited news came in of many resident killer whales inbound in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Over the next few hours we heard that Js, Ks, and Ls were all there, and it turned out to be by far the closest thing we've had to a superpod in 2017. I believe everyone but the L54 sub-group was there, for a total of 72 whales. It was definitely noticeable that the days are getting shorter as we waited with many other hopeful whale-watchers for the residents to arrive at Lime Kiln Point State Park.

The first large group of whales made up of most of J-Pod and the L12 sub-group headed north on the far side of Haro Strait, while others hit the island to the south of us an initially went south. While for a while there weren't many whales close enough to see, the vocals were still amazing. Here's a clip of what we heard.

Finally our patience paid off as the southern whales also decided to go north. The J19s, K12s, and K13s came by decently close to Lime Kiln, and it was like saying hi to some long-lost friends. I've very much enjoyed getting to know our regional transient killer whales better this season, but it has not filled the void the absence of the Southern Residents for so much of the year has left.

J19 Shachi and J51 Nova

The majority of K-Pod (all but the K14s) had not been seen in inland waters since mid-February. I had seriously been beginning to wonder if for the first time ever I would actually not see them for a season. I was so glad to get the chance to see some whales I hadn't seen yet in 2017, like K33 Tika.

K33 Tika - my first look at him in 2017

There was another gap between this group before any more whales passed by. It quickly got too dark to see, but not before we spotted L87 Onyx heading north offshore in the sunset lighting.

L87 Onyx

The rest of Ks and Ls did pass by after dark, not seen but heard on the hydrophones as the amazing vocals continued. I was so thankful they were going north up to the Fraser River, meaning that they would be around for at least a couple days rather than straight back westbound in the morning. Indeed, they spent the day of September 5th up in the Strait of Georgia, hopefully gorging on salmon. On September 6th, they all made their way back down Haro Strait.

Amazingly, while waiting for them at Lime Kiln, not residents but transients were the first orcas we saw! One group of transients was coming south ahead of the residents, and another group was going north up Haro but did a quick 180 to follow the others south. They were all offshore and porpoising or swimming quickly south. Whether or not this was because of the residents is hard to say for sure, but there are so many anecdotal cases of transients ceding ground to residents that it really does look like avoidance. So fascinating, and so many questions arise about what will happen in the future as transient groups keep getting larger and residents are often fractioning into smaller groups locally.

Transients cruise south in Haro Strait about 45 minutes before the residents arrive

In the gap between the transients and residents, I snapped some photos of the foraging Heermann's gulls off Lime Kiln. They were definitely in the region "on time" for the late summer, but not seen as much for some reason right around San Juan Island until later than usual. Also unusual is the feeding technique I saw from them - more like skimmers than gulls!

 The residents were less than an hour behind the transients, and as they passed they were in two large groups. J-Pod and the L12 sub-group were first. It was cool to see the two oldest males in J-Pod hanging out together, whales about the same age who also used to play together as youngsters:

J26 Mike

J27 Blackberry

The bizarre lighting, by the way, was courtesy of all the regional wildfires. We had a respite from the smoke for a few weeks, but it came back again for a few days before the wind shifted.

The whales made a few quick stops, presumably to forage, giving us a nice head-on look at L121 Windsong next to mom L94 Calypso:

Baby face! L121 Windsong

L94 Calypso and her other offspring, L113 Cousteau

About 20 minutes after the Js and L12s passed by came the rest of the whales, all mixed up!

L82 Kasatka and K36 Yoda

L123 Lazuli behind L55 Nugget

K27 Deadhead

With the recent news of the loss of K13 Skagit, it was especially bittersweet to see K25 Scoter, her oldest son. He was a real mama's boy, so I'm worried about how he'll do without his mother, but it was good to see him going strong for now at least.

K25 Scoter

Sadly, but somewhat predictably, all three pods left after that, but thankfully we didn't have another month to wait before some of them returned. On September 10th we were surprised when the L4s (on their own) showed up in Haro Strait and spent the day doing the westside shuffle. I caught up with them off American Camp.

L82 Kasatka off American Camp on September 10th

The next day, September 11th, most of the rest of L-Pod came in to join them, but interestingly they were in three groups. Two of the groups went north to the Fraser, while the others (the L12s) spent the day off the south end of the island. I only got distant looks at the L12s on the 11th and 12th, but then on September 13th the sub-group of L-Pod made up of 19 whales I call the Greater L4s came back down from the Fraser via San Juan Channel. Two things that seem to make the Southern Residents excited are waking up from a nap and meeting up with other whales. Both of them happened at once as the Ls were exiting Cattle Pass. They were a bit far away, but it was amazing to see all the breaches, cartwheels, and tail slaps from a distance as they made a bee-line for the L12s as they left San Juan Channel.

Distant breach from L92 Crewser

The Greater L4s head for the L12s

With just a matter of weeks left in what is usually the peak whale-watching season and sightings have been so scarce as it is, we decided to jump in the boat and meet up with them again. I'm glad we did, because they all left again that evening. We did catch up with them off of False Bay, where the waters were glassy calm.

On one side we had L55 Nugget, L118 Jade, and L123 Lazuli all rolling around together:

On the other side we had L72 Racer and her son L105 Fluke traveling together under the Olympic Mountains:

L72 Racer and L105 Fluke

More whales were visible in the distance in all directions. Before departing, we dropped the hydrophone, and listening to their distinct echoing calls for about 10 minutes as they headed southwest, a direction that would eventually take them back out to the Pacific. It's hard to know when your last encounter with the Southern Residents for the summer season will be, especially this year when they've been absent far more than present. I fully hope and expect they will still return once or twice in the coming weeks, but I have a feeling this will be the last time with them this year where it really feels like summer. It looks like today (the 16th, as I write this will be our last warm, sunny day for a while, perhaps until next year. Fall is undeniably here, and I just hope the fall salmon runs come and bring the whales back with them for some late season encounters!

July 6th: Superpod - and lots of boats

Sunday, July 6th was a bit of a repeat of the previous day. Out at Lime Kiln, very spread out whales started heading north. After an hour and a half or so, before all the whales had passed, they flipped and went back south. And again, members of all three pods were present - the first three whales my friend Melisa and I identified were L27 Ophelia, K26 Lobo, and of course, J2 Granny:

J2 Granny

Being the end of a holiday weekend, there were a lot of private boaters out on the water. Thankfully, most of them were pretty respectful, and either kept their distance or stopped when they realized there were whales. On several occasions, whales headed right for boats! Here's K26 Lobo approaching the classic yacht Summer Wind. Completed in 1940, she was commissioned to create the first modern nautical charts of the Aleutian Islands. She's now privately owned.

K26 Lobo and the Summer Wind

Another Southern Resident and the Summer Wind

And another example - L92 Crewser making a close approach to a private boat. Look at the size of that dorsal fin compared to the boat (the fin is the black line about a third of the way down the length of the boat)!

Of course, not all the boaters were respectful. This one went cruising a full speed right through the whales. It's hard for us humans to watch, unable to do anything. But it's also important to remember the whales' perspective may be entirely different from our own. For instance, less than a minute after this photo was taken, L82 Kasatka was surfing the wake of this yacht, seemingly having a grand ol' time.

Even knowing they enjoy the boats sometimes, though, doesn't make things like this much easier to watch:

My favorite shot of the day is this one, of L118 Jade breaching by mama L55 Nugget as the whales went south:

It was interesting to watch what happened next. While the whales had been all mixed up, it was like they suddenly decided it was time reorder themselves, perhaps because the groups were about to split. Everyone had to go back and find their family group, which meant for some time there were whales traveling every which direction. For example, while the L-Pod whales who had gone north went to join the others in the south, part of J-Pod stayed up north. At the same time, the J16s, who typically travel with Granny's group, emerged from the south and headed up north to meet up with those Js. Sound confusing? It kind of was! It was hard to figure out who was going where, but as I said, I'm pretty sure it was everybody "unshuffling" themselves - something that I've never actually seen unfold before!

While all this was going on, though, there was one boy who didn't want to say goodbye to his pal. As J36 Alki tried to follow her family north, L105 Fluke did not want to let her go. At first I only knew it was a male that was hounding her, and couldn't figure out who, because he would only surface upside down, with sea snake in full view!

L105 Fluke (upside down) and J36 Alki

At first she seemed to be evading him, but then she apparently gave in, as they rolled around together and he lifted her up out of the water. What was a bit surprising to me is that while Alki is potentially of breeding age at 15 years old, Fluke is a bit young to be playing the love interest at the age of 10. (It's not uncommon for juvenile whales to engage in sexual play, however.) But hey, I guess in the whale world, anything goes!

Apparently, a parting was soon imminent, as the groups did split, and Ls would leave the following night, taking some of the other whales with them. It's been getting hard to keep track, as after a day of no residents in inland waters, we ended up with part of J-Pod and part of K-Pod here! More on that in the next post.

10 Common Myths About Southern Residents

Well, it's that time of year - summer on San Juan Island, aka tourist season. Don't get me wrong, it's great that so many people get the chance to see killer whales in the wild, but as a naturalist, it's hard not to cringe sometimes at some of the "facts" you overhear people sharing about these whales. The worst part is, many of these don't just come from visitors, but also come from the mouths of locals, some of them kayak guides or naturalists. When people get excited about the whales, there's an amazing opportunity there to educate them, but that education is only valuable if it's correct! So here are a few of our favorites - with the truth.

June 22nd L-Pod pass. From left to right: L55 Nugget, L118 Jade, L103 Lapis, L105 Fluke, L82 Kasatka, and L95 Nigel.

1. We know Granny is 103 years old because we first saw/photographed her in 1911.
   I can't believe how often I hear this one. I know it's a nice idea, but the truth is, we have no idea how old Granny is. Her birth year of 1911 is an estimate researchers arrived at by making some key assumptions about her relationships to other whales: namely that she was the mother of J1 Ruffles and that he was her last calf. The truth is, the earliest photographs of Granny were taken in the late 1960s, when she was already an adult. So while we're sure she's an old whale, the age estimate could be off by several decades one way or the other. Also, photo ID studies of killer whales didn't start until the 1970s.
2. Granny and other older whales are slower/less active than younger whales.
   Old age doesn't slow whales down at all. Every whale, from the youngest calf to the oldest matriarch, has to be able to keep up with the pod, which travels up to 100 miles a day. Granny is often in the lead, sometimes a mile or more ahead of the rest of the pod. And the old girl has still got it: she's been known to breach, spyhop, and tailslap with the best of them.
3. I've seen the residents eat seals, pink/sockeye salmon, etc.
   The locals in particular really like this one. First of all, there are two types of local killer whales: marine mammal eating transients and fish eating residents. These two groups are most strongly differentiated by what they prey upon, so if you see a whale take down a seal, it's a transient. Secondly, it is hard to believe at first that residents will preferentially feed on Chinook salmon even when other fish species are more abundant, but that's what decades of research have shown. This paper summarizes it nicely. They do occasionally eat other fish species, but in the summer months in the San Juans, they are eating almost exclusively Fraser River Chinook.
4. The whales respond when I scream at them, sing to them, my baby cries, etc.
   Honestly, we all have our superstitions about what bring the whales close, but most if not all of them are just wishful thinking. For one, the sound barrier between air and water is pretty good, so when you're on shore, chances are the whales can't hear you at all. Sometimes sound can travel through boat hulls, but I'm still pretty skeptical any human noise is loud enough to reach the whales. The whales do travel close to people by choice, sometimes even expressing some mutual curiosity, but I think this is purely on their terms and not dictated by anything we do.
5. They're called residents because they're here all the time
   OR
   
6. The whales are migrating through right now
   The names "resident" and "transient" are very misleading, I'll give you that. They originated when researchers saw the residents on an almost daily basis during the summer months and had only rare encounters with the transients, but as mentioned above, the true difference between them is their diet. Fish-eating and mammal-eating orcas would be more accurate descriptors. The residents do indeed spend longer lengths of time in the Salish Sea than transients (which are also started to be known as Bigg's killer whales), and they can and have been seen here in every month of the year, but they tend to roam the rest of their range more in the winter months. They are not, however, migratory like some of the larger whale species are. They don't have a breeding grounds and a feeding grounds, and when they're heading north in Haro Strait they're not "migrating". These guys feed and breed all year round, and similarly can be found anywhere within their range from British Columbia to central California at any time of year.
7. The whales always pass by in the morning/evening/at 2:36 PM....
   "What time do the whales come by?" is the most notorious tourist question every year. To give people the benefit of the doubt, some animals do have certain patterns, such as being more active in the morning or evening, etc. Additionally, the whales do sometimes get into certain cycles; for instance, when they're making their regular circuit from the San Juan Islands to the Fraser River, it often takes about 24 hours, meaning for several days they may consistently be seen on the west side of San Juan in the morning. But I'm fond of saying that just as soon as we think we've figured out a pattern for the whales, they change it, and do something different. While they do have certain typical travel patterns, the truth is they can be in any place at any time of day, and there's no regularity to what time of day they're seen in a particular spot.
8. There's the dominant/alpha male
   It's a common configuration among social animals, so it's easy to forgive this mistake at first: that the biggest whale out there is in charge and is surrounded by his harem of females. What's especially frustrating is when you still hear people saying this after having imparted some more accurate information as a naturalist on boat or on shore! Researchers first thought the big bulls were probably the top dogs, too, but over time we've learned that resident orca societies are matrilineal. Each pod is made up of a female, her offspring, her daughter and sisters' offspring, and so on, with up to five living generations at a time. Those guys sporting six-foot dorsals are really big mama's boys, spending their whole life in mom's family group and often swimming right beside her as an adult. Mating only occurs when unrelated families get together to socialize.
9.  They're putting on a show for us!I like to call this the SeaWorld mentality. It shows just how far our perceived dominion over nature has gone. I understand for many people they use this phrase without really believing the whales are doing something for our benefit, for instance, by saying "That was quite a show!" after an amazing close passby. But the reason this phrase rankles a lot of us naturalists is because there are indeed those out there who think the whales are showing off for us. I can say with 100% confidence, however, that the whales are not coming close, breaching, being active, or anything else for us. Everything they do, they're doing it because they want to. Actually, that's the real beauty of watching wild killer whales. What an honor to be able to witness whales doing what they want to do. SO much better than SeaWorld.
10. That whale is so fat - she must be pregnant!Okay, this one has become an especially hot topic among our local whale community right now. Perhaps it's because it's been since August 2012 that we've had a new calf born to the Southern Residents (not good - but that's a subject for another blog post), but the topic of orca babies has been prevalent lately. Rumors about which whales might be expecting, based mostly on large bellies visible in breach photos, have been flying back and forth over Facebook during the last couple weeks. We do have many females who are "due" to have a baby, either because of their age or the time it's been since they had their last calf. But the reality is orcas don't show any reliable visible signs of pregnancy. There have been times people are sure a whale is pregnant based on how she looks, but she doesn't ever show up with a baby. (Stillborn calves could be a possibility, but it's happened to often for that to always be the case.) Other times we can go back and look at photos of a whale who gives birth to see what she looked like ahead of time, and again, no obvious clues. So while we're all more than ready for little J50, K45, or L120 to join us, we have no idea when that will be or who will be the lucky mom.

The Passby I've Been Waiting For

Yesterday morning there was no word on the whales first thing in the morning, and after all of them were down south the night before we were worried that they might have all headed out to the open ocean. That's something they usually do from time to time throughout the summer, though this year at least some of them have remained in the inland waters for more than two months straight! Late morning all three pods were picked up out west at Race Rocks, but coming back in towards the San Juan Islands. So, late afternoon I decided to go look for them.

Around 4 PM I could see the boats that were slowly moving across Haro Strait with the whales. By 5 PM I could see some of the whales, and it looked like they were heading right for where I was sitting at Land Bank. As they got closer, a few of them veered to the south, and the rest of them turned to the north about 2 miles offshore. I was thinking about leaving, taking one last look through binoculars, when a whale breached in my field of view much closer to shore. Not time to leave yet!

The whales continued to slowly move north, and I inched my way north along the shoreline with them until I was at Lime Kiln State Park and a few of the L-Pod whales that had gone south came north closer to shore. I thought that they might all continue north at this point, so again I considered leaving, when a large group of whales stopped at the point just north of the lighthouse and started milling close to shore. Hmm....can't leave now!

I have my favorite rock from which I normally watch the whales at Lime Kiln, but last night I actually abandoned it to head over to the cove itself, because the whales were so far in it!

L72 Racer heads deeper into the cove north of the Lime Kiln Lighthouse.

Finally, after much indecision, the whales committed to heading south - towards all of us awaiting them on the shoreline! The first group that came by included a little calf that was being pushed at the surface. This is like the orca version of a piggyback ride. You can see the calf on its side on the surface in the photo below, surrounded by other whales. What you can't see in this particular picture is that the baby was also carrying a piece of kelp in its mouth!

As the whales swam by the kelp just offshore of the rocks where I and many others were sitting, several of them did spyhops. I wonder if they were looking at us, too?

It's always cool to see this many whales, and to see them so close to shore, but there's something extra special about it when the whole thing happens close to sunset.  Of course a lot of the whales are silhouetted, which makes identifying them more difficult, but the lighting is so amazing at that time of day, and the blows were just lighting up in the setting sun.

The first group of whales that came by was a picture of J- and L-Pod animals. Next came most of K-Pod, including K12 Sequim and her new baby K43, who is less than a year old:

 

 

The K13 family group came next....

K25 Scoter just off the kelp at Lime Kiln Point State Park.

There was a gap in the action then, but I could see more blows to the north so I knew more whales were coming. That's what's so amazing about encounters like this when all the pods are together. As soon as one group as passed, you look up and the next group is coming - wave after wave of whales!

It was some more L-Pod whales! The ones closest to shore included L55 Nugget and her three year-old L109 Takoda, who here is just starting to break the surface beside his mom:

I also got my first good look at the newest member of the Southern Resident Community, baby L115 that was born just last week. Here is is next to its probable mother, L47 Marina. Marina has two adult daugthers, but her last four offspring have all died within a few months of being born, the most recent one in 2008. I know I'm not the only one that has her fingers crossed for the well-being of this new little calf!

L47 Marina and the newest Southern Resident Killer Whale, L115.

The last group we saw coming down from the north was made up of a few more J-Pod whales (J8 Spieden, J19 Shachi, and J41 Eclipse) along with the part-time honorary J-Pod members L7 Canuck and L53 Lulu. One of them spyhopped with kelp draped over her pectoral fins:

 

 

 

Most all of the whales had gone south, with the exception of the half of J-Pod made up of the J2s, J14s, and J16s. L7, L53, J8, J19, and J41 usually hang with this group that at last word was continuing north. I was close to leaving one more time, but hung back as this group of five whales stalled out in front of the lighthouse. Surely they would head back north to rejoin "their half" of J-Pod? Yup - that's exactly what they did, and they did it just as the sun was setting!

J8 Spieden, J41 Eclipse, and J19 Shachi head back north in the setting sun.

You couldn't have composed a better photo opportunity than this - with the dark silhouettes of the whales breaking the surface under the orangey glow of the setting sun.

Finally, after sunset at 8:30 PM four and a half hours after I arrived, it was safe to go home and get some dinner as darkness started to settle in. The vocalizations continued on the hydrophones after dark, indicating the whales still continued up and down the westside shoreline into the night.

I called this post "the passby I've been waiting for" because there are a couple of times each summer when everything comes together into an amazing shore-based superpod encounter. It doesn't happen often, and it hadn't happened for me yet this year, so when last night it finally all came together into one of those orca encounters that I dream about during the depths of winter, I was exhilarated, thankful, and happy.

The photos capture the essence of the experience but I also shot a couple of short videos to try and share a little more of what these encounters are like. Here's one clip that includes the two adult males L41 Mega and J27 Blackberry surfacing just offshore. I think you'll understand (if you don't already!) why I spend so much time looking for, waiting for, and watching these whales. It's for moments like these, with wild killer whales just yards away from me.