September 18-22: Whales Every Day!

This is why we love September - beautiful lighting, fewer tourists, dramatic weather, and ALL the Southern Residents hanging out! The last few days have not disappointed, with a lot of all of the above.

It started on September 18th when we caught some J and K Pod whales heading north past Lime Kiln. Some might consider this shot of J41 Eclipse a "miss" but I like these bizarre off-angle shots sometimes. She and J51 Nova were zipping north and hard to catch with the camera.

J41 Eclipse

Many of the whales were quite far offshore, but we got a nice pass from L87 Onyx and his newest traveling partner - J45 Se-Yi'-Chn. It's been an interesting new combo, but one I think is probably good for both whales! L87 had taken to traveling mostly by himself, and J45 has just lost his mom J14 Samish, so it's nice to see them buddying up.

L87 Onyx approaching

J45 Se-Yi'-Chn

The trailing group on this day was the K13s:

K13 Skagit and her daughter K20 Spock

On September 19th, we just watched distant whales off the south end of San Juan Island. They were too far away to take photos, but it was still cool to see a huge resting group, even from that distance! More whales had come in on this day, though, bringing the entire population of Southern Residents into inland waters. That meant things were perfectly aligned for a magical superpod morning on the 20th of September! The southern group of Js, Ks, and Ls must have gone north before first light, as not long after daybreak all the SRKWs were southbound in Haro Strait. We caught up with the slow moving trailing group on the west side, and spent two tranquil hours watching and recording them with our hydrophone.

There's nothing I don't love about this photo! Jason tuning in to our live hydrophone feed, with a whale surfacing offshore and a great blue heron flying by!

K21 Cappuccino kept going back and forth foraging just about the entire time we were there, as did that great blue heron. That gave me a couple chances at getting both in the same photo!

Speaking of K21, it had been a while since I had spent some time with him. It was nice to get a good look at him again as at one point he surfaced right off the kelp.

K21 Cappuccino

L92 Crewser came by several times, too:

L92 Crewser

While Cappuccino and Crewser spent the morning foraging, L85 Mystery seemed to have other things on his mind. He was in hot pursuit of J35 Tahlequah, and spent the rest of his time rolling around and playing with a mix of the J17s and L4s.

L85 Mystery in the middle socializing with whales outside of his family group

L85 Mystery with J35 Tahlequah and J47 Notch - I thought Notch was getting big until I saw him next to Mystery! ;)

All in all it was a very tranquil morning!

On September 21st, we again got to Lime Kiln in the middle of J and K Pods heading north. Again, they were mostly pretty far offshore, and again, they were going fast!

It was such a beautiful day out and with whales spread all over Haro Strait we decided to hop in the boat. The first whales we caught up with at Open Bay were some of the J17s.

J17 Princess Angeline and J53 Kiki

Following behind these two whales were the J28s - all of them! She's still looking thing, but our fighter J28 Polaris is still with us.

J28 Polaris - I breathe a sigh of relief every time I see her!

We saw a lot of blows to the south of us, so drifted back to see what was going on. We caught up with a group of about 15 whales including the K13s and a few other members of all three pods. They were swimming in a tight group, and kept changing directions, seemingly without vocalizing at all. They were so close to one another they may have all actually been in physical contact. It was amazing to watch as they swam in a circle....we could only guess at what they were doing!

First facing one way...

....then the other...

...then turning around again!

They seemed really undecided on whether to go north and south, going on long dives and surfacing first in one location facing one way and then somewhere totally different facing the other.

Which way should we go?

  Finally it seemed they decided to go north:

And finally we heard a few vocals from them, too! Check out a short clip here.

As the Js and Ks continued north, a couple whales held back...and it turns out it was the L22s! We jokingly say they always hang out at Eagle Point, because it's rare for them to ever come up north of Lime Kiln, but here they were!

L22 Spirit

Tail slap from L89 Solstice

Late in the day on September 22nd, the Js and Ks we saw go north on the 21st were making their way back down. First came the K12s and K13s in the late afternoon passing the west side in harsh sun glare.

By the time the others made it down a couple hours later, the sun was already low in the sky (at 6:30?! Days are definitely noticeably shorrter!). The wind and wave action had picked up, too, making for a really dramatic backdrop for a whale passby. On top of that, the whales were fairly close to shore and super active! The turbulent waters also seemed to be attracting lots of birds, which were flying around everywhere during the pass. It was a bit chaotic but fun to watch! I ended up with many shots like this one, with gulls flying across as I tried to photograph whales. Can you see the four distant whales in this photo?

The whole pass ended up feeling really magical; the big waves made all the whale surface activity extra splashy, and all the splashes were backlit by the setting sun!

It was hard to know where to point the camera, especially since the first whales were in a pretty large group! I definitely missed more shots than a got, but here are a few more moments I did manage to capture:

J17 Princess Angeline

J27 Blackberry

J35 Tahlequah

It was one of those very memorable passbys, and I try extra hard to soak up moments like these at the end of the season, when you just don't know how many more times you'll see these guys before the long winter months that lie ahead!

August 2nd: Almost a Superpod!

I can count on one hand the number of times the L12 sub-group from L-Pod (the L12s, L22s, L25s, and L28s - a total of 10 whales not including L87 Onyx who travels with J-Pod) have been in inland waters this summer, and until August 2nd, I hadn't seen them at all! Late afternoon on this day, however, I was in the right place at the right time as they quickly headed north with the flood tide past Lime Kiln along with all of J-Pod, most of K-Pod, and most of the other L-Pod whales. While the K16s and K21 were absent, as was the L54 sub-group which still hasn't made an appearance near San Juan this summer, I believe it was the closest we've come yet to a full fledged superpod. By my count 69 of the 81 Southern Residents were here!

The whales were in three tight groups, milling around each other. While they weren't really speeding north, the tide was so strong that they passed by very quickly. With the backlight, whales mixed up and passing fast, numerous boats, birds flying all around, and lots of people on the rocks, it was one of our more chaotic data collecting sessions of the summer for the Orca Behavior Institute.

A few fins that are more easily recognizable in silhouette were key to helping us figure out who was where. Despite many of the whales being all mixed up, brothers J34 Doublestuf and J38 Cookie were still hanging tight together:

J34 Doublestuf and J38 Cookie

As Onyx zipped past us, he seemed to be moving from the group with the L12s back to the group with the majority of J-Pod:

L87 Onyx

At the beginning of the summer, my research partner Michael asked me (half-jokingly) to get a picture of him with Onyx this year. (Onyx is one of his favorite whales, and the whale on the OBI logo.) I knew this would be one of my best chances, but Onyx was traveling quickly, and when he next surfaced, he was quite a ways further north. Still, both Michael and Onyx are in this photo, so it counts, right?!

Michael is easy to see, but can you find Onyx?

Next came most of the L12s, and it didn't take me long to spot little L121 - one of the four new calves this year, the only one I hadn't met yet. We now know that it's a male, meaning we have three boys and one girl born into the population this year.

Hello L121! Nice to meet you!

L89 Solstice and two other whales came closer to the rocks than the other whales:

L89 Solstice

They actually went in to the cove just north of the lighthouse!

It took just half an hour for all the whales to pass, and it felt even shorter than that! I suspected they wouldn't all continue north, however, and sure enough, they didn't even get out of sight before the L12s turned back and started slowly moving south against the strong tide. This was more "typical" L12 behavior: spread out, long dives, almost staying in the same spot. We watched them for the next hour and a half, and they were still there in front of the lighthouse when we had to leave.

L41 Mega and his adopted grandma L25 Ocean Sun were in the lead:

The big guy L41 Mega

Next came L94 Calypso with L121, though my shot of the little guy got photobombed by this gull:

Almost a nice shot of L121

Next was L77 Matia and L85 Mystery, an interesting combo:

L77 Matia surfacing in front of L85 Mystery

Following them were the other two youngsters in this family, L113 Cousteau and L119 Joy. L22 Spirit and L89 Solstice turned around too, but were still north and out of sight. While sometimes the L12s are accused of being "boring" whales, I loved the chance to just hang out with them for a while. They used to do this exact same thing (a slow, spread out, westside shuffle) for the better part of the summer, but in recent years they have been more scarce. So it was nice to see them all.

June 3: All of J-Pod and the L12s

Late in the morning on June 3rd all kinds of rumors were flying around about whales on the west side: J-Pod, transients, L-Pod! It sounded like whales were everywhere. I just had to get out there and see what was going on so I went out to go investigate. I met up with three fellow whale watchers at Land Bank, and we weren't sitting there too long before the first whales started rounding the point to the south of us.

In the lead, not surprisingly, what J2 Granny. With her was J19 Shachi, J41 Eclipse, and J26 Mike. The four of them passed us and started angling in towards shore. I could see more whales coming from the south, but felt like I needed to get to Lime Kiln. The "whale chase" was on! I jetted over to Lime Kiln and got there about the same time as the whales. They were a bit closer to shore, but stalled out, and sure enough, soon turned and headed back south.

J26 Mike

Frustratingly, I could see blows to the south, right along the shoreline at Land Bank where I had just been! I waited a little longer, but all the whales eventually turned around and headed south, out of sight. Feeling like I should get back to put in a little more time at work, I decided to leave and take one last look from Hannah Heights before heading back to town. When I got to Hannah Heights, however, I saw several boats very close to shore and heading back north! I didn't even wait to see a whale before reversing my course and high-tailing it back to Land Bank again.

I got there just in time to watch the whales slowly approach in two large, tight groups.

There were clearly more whales than the 15 or so members of J-Pod that had been hanging around for the previous three days, but who else had shown up? My first clue was when J27 surfaced, and I think I exclaimed outloud, "Blackberry!!"

J27 was trailing some kelp off his dorsal fin for my first look at him in 2014!

Usually I'd expect a newly reunited group of whales to be all intermixed with one another, but interestingly enough it seemed like the original J-Pod group was still traveling all together:

My personal favorite shot of the day: from front to back J2 Granny, J37 Hy'Shqa, J49 Ti'lem I'nges, J36 Alki, and J16 Slick

It's always so neat to see the whales in a tight group surfacing in sychrony!

As the next group of whales approached, it became apparent that not only was the rest of J-Pod (the J11s and J17s) present, but the L12s were as well!

L22 Spirit

As the whales headed along the shoreline, I got a great photo op of another photographer. These shots really give the feeling of what it's like to watch these whales from the west side - if you haven't been out here before you may not have a sense of how close to shore they really come!

It almost seemed like the whales were a resting line, they were surfacing so slowly, but there were a few of them that were clearly anything but asleep!

Since the whales were traveling so slowly, I knew my whale chase was far from over. It was time to run up the hill and race to Lime Kiln for the second time in a span of a couple hours! When getting to the park, I ran down to the lighthouse, arriving completely out of breath. A few other whale watch friends turned around to greet me, clearly wondering what all the fuss was about. They could see some whale watch boats offshore, but could not yet see any whales. I told them the reason they couldn't see the whales is because they were so close to shore you weren't going to spot them until they came around the corner, right on the rocks!

One of the best feelings in the world: watching whales approach along the rocks

 I love, love, love seeing so many dorsal fins at once!

We were treating to tail lobs of all types as the whales approached:

Really, words can't describe it, so I'll let the pictures try to:

L41 Mega and J27 Blackberry

A couple young ones take twin peeks about the surface

11 whales in one photo!

L89 Solstice

Belly up!

The whales got just about to the lighthouse where I was sitting when they stalled out again. A few animals headed into the cove just north of the lighthouse. As the whole group slowly turned back south once more, this is what I saw around the corner of the rocks heading back out of the cove and right for us again:

It was another beautiful pass....

J37 Hy'Shqa and J49 Ti'lem I'nges

L89 Solstice - from the other side this time!

J26 Mike (front) and J16 Slick

As the whales meandered back south, I thought, "Okay, this was amazing, I really can leave now." But when I passed Land Bank heading back towards town, I had to stop one more time. The whales were further off shore but the sight of so many fins is always a breathtaking one. With the way last summer went, you really get the feeling you never know when you'll see these guys again, so I walked down to sit on the rocks and really savor the moment (and also rest from having run between Land Bank and Lime Kiln four times!)

The Center for Whale Research boat gets mobbed by whales

It was a quiet, but beautiful, ending to a stunning whale encounter.

Nothin' but water and whales. Lots of whales.

The visit turned out to be a brief one. The next day, the 4th of June, the L12s, J11s, and J17s were seen heading back west out the straight. How fascinating this new pod splitting and mixing is - 10 years ago it would be unheard of for J-Pod to separate this way! Thankfully, the rest of J-Pod would stick around, though!