Winter Water Birds

After a sunny start to 2020, it has been a very wet and windy year so far! This weekend we finally got a break in the weather, so we took advantage to get out on our boat to go birding in Griffin Bay, adding half a dozen species to the photo year list in the process! Here are some highlights from this morning on the water.

Mew gulls

Ancient murrelet

Marbled murrelets

Long-tailed duck

Long-tailed ducks

Common murre

Common murres

Pigeon guillemot

Red-necked grebe

Back on land - Cooper's hawk

November 10: A memorable day on the water

Things have been changing so much and so quickly in the Salish Sea; the transformations are astounding. When I first started spending time up here 20 years ago, both humpback and transient killer whales were rare sights. Now, they are around almost daily - even in November! With a friend up visiting for a long weekend, we headed out on the water with Maya's Legacy today and our sightings rivaled a good day during the "peak season" (whatever that is anymore!)

Early in the morning a report came in of the T18s near Orcas Island, and luckily they didn't travel too far too fast. We caught up with them at the west end of Spieden Channel, where they were first split into pairs with T18 Esperanza and T19 Spouter together, and T19 Mooyah and T19B Galiano about a mile further to the west.

18 year-old male T19C Spouter

A little while after we got there, the two groups merged and started making their way northwest up Haro. 

From left to right T19B Galiano, T18 Esperanza, and T19C Spouter

They were zig-zagging a bit, but their final surfacing before we left was perfectly lined up with the Turn Point l=Lighthouse. What a sight!

The T18s in front of the Turn Point Lighthouse

As we reversed course back through Spieden Channel we slowed down along Spieden Island. With its exotic wildlife, it rarely disappoints, but it was exceptional today. There were hundreds of Mouflon sheep, sika deer, and fallow deer out; more sika deer than I had ever seen, in fact!

Sika deer buck

It's also rutting season, which means there's plenty of drama unfolding! This male was bleating at these two very unimpressed females.

Male fallow deer bleating

We were distracted from the exotic wildlife when we spotted a family of river otters running along the hillside! They darted down into the water but 7 of them tried to all climb out on this little rock at the same time, some of them sneaking a curious look at us as we looked at them. One of the collective nouns for a group of otters is a "romp", and watching them today, you could see why!

A romp of sea otters

Down at Green Point there weren't any Steller sea lions hauled out, but there was a gang of them in the water. This one looks vicious in the photo, but he was just yawning.

We only got a quick look at the sea lions, because just across San Juan Channel was a humpback whale! We were shaking our heads in bewilderment at so many sightings on a chilly November afternoon! It was BCY0160 known as Heather, who seemed to just be doing circles.

BCY0160 Heather

It was just a short ride back to Friday Harbor from there, but I kept my camera out anyway, and I was glad I did! Eight ancient murrelets were flying amazingly fast, keeping pace with us for about a minute!

Ancient murrelets in San Juan Channel

By the end of the day, by my count, we had seen eight mammal species and about another dozen marine bird species - not too shabby!

Birthday Bird Day

We've been super busy moving and fixing up the new house we just purchased, so I haven't been blogging much (or taking that many photos!). But since today's my birthday and the sun was shining, we decided to take a break from working on the house and get out on the water to do some bird and wildlife watching. It was beautiful out there! 

All the winter birds are starting to show back up, including loons, grebes, scoters, mergansers, and bufflehead.

Red-breasted mergansers in flight

Surf scoters in flight

Up in Spieden Channel we also came across a flock of about 1000 Bonaparte's gulls, one of my favorite species to photograph!

I also got the chance to photograph some marbled murrelets, a species that has typically been pretty elusive for me when it comes to taking pictures.

Marbled murrelet

 

 There were also hundreds of fallow deer and Mouflon sheep out on Spieden Island, close to the shoreline and just begging to be photographed...

Mouflon sheep ram

Young fallow deer

One of many mixed herds of both species

On the way back we came across a haul out with dozens of harbor seals.

And back towards the dock I had to stop to take a photo of this odd conglomeration of species - crows, a gull, and a cormorant in one frame! 

All in all it was a beautiful couple hours on the water and we tallied 20 bird species - not bad! I'm glad we got out there when we did because it looks like the clouds are all moving back in now.

There won't be such a gap before my next blog post, as my annual Day of the Dead tribute to the Southern Residents we've lost this year is just a few days away, and this year there is much to say...

A November Afternoon on the Water

We've been getting hit with one storm system after another lately, which is great because we need the precipitation, but it hasn't been conducive to getting outside or on the water! Yesterday were were blessed with a sunny, calm day, and I jumped at the chance to take the boat out after almost a month without being on the water. I went out by myself with camera in hand, and it was so beautiful out!

In my almost two hours out there I spotted 17 marine bird species, including these hooded mergansers on the way out of the harbor:

Four hooded mergansers

I went through Mosquito Pass, which is always great for winter birding. Among the hundreds of bufflehead and dozen of red-breasted mergansers and double crested cormorants were about half a dozen pairs of marbled murrelets:

A pair of marbled murrelets in winter plumage

Up in Spieden Channel I found three ancient murrelets (that didn't cooperate to have their photo taken) and a flock of about 300 Bonaparte's gulls - my favorite gull species.

Bonaparte's gull

Spieden Island is of course always interesting for its exotic wildlife. Usually I expect the most numerous animal to be the Mouflon sheep, but on this day it was the fallow deer! I don't think I've ever seen so many!

Female fallow deer

The males are crazy impressive with their moose-like antlers:

Male fallow deer

The tide was high enough that there weren't any sea lions hauled out at Green Point, but there were plenty of them in the water! They weren't just hanging out either, they were actively swimming (in pursuit of prey?):

I wasn't surprised to see the Steller sea lions up there:

But I was surprised to see several (at least 3-4) California sea lions right in with them! I only occasionally see California sea lions here, and usually just a single. Unfortunately I bumped my camera settings right before taking this sequence of shots so I didn't get a great snap of the two species swimming together, but this photos till provides the "proof":

Two California and two Steller sea lions

On the way back the clouds and sunset were so stunning I had to stop several times to take some more pictures. I'll let the photos do the talking of what it was like out there:

June 20: Exotic Ts

On June 20th I heard that a big group of resident orcas was inbound, so I was keen to get out to try and see them. While scanning from Land Bank, I saw some blows on the far side of Haro Strait near Discovery Island. It's odd for the residents to stay on the west side of Haro, but was that them? I kept scanning further south and didn't see any sign of whales down there. Curious, I decided to take the boat out - with a couple of people who hadn't seen orcas before - and investigate.

The faces of some eager whale watchers

We met up with the whales near Kelp Reef in Haro Strait - and it was Ts! Not only that, it was Ts that I haven't seen before, including some whales that are known as "exotics" because they aren't seen here very much. In this group were the T125s, a group of four whales that have been around somewhat frequently since May 31st, but before that hadn't been seen in the area since 1992!! (The residents, by the way, did come in, but were much further south all night.)

I've decided the T125s are the most badass looking group of orcas around, made up of female T125 and what are likely her three sons: T127, T128, and T125A. 

Mom, female T125

The most iconic whale in this family group is T127, who a friend of mine recently nicknamed "Hacksaw":

31 year old male T127 "Hacksaw" - his fin looked like this in 1992, too, and undoubtedly has quite a story

The other males hold their own in dorsal fin style, too, though...

17 year-old male T125A

27 year-old male T128 - check out that notch at the base of his dorsal fin

These whales were traveling with another male, T49C - I've never seen so many adult male transeints in one group. There were at least three other groups of transients in the area on this day, and interestingly T49C was traveling with a different group earlier in the day - one that included T63 Chainsaw. Of the nine whales present, T49C is the only one I had seen before.

17 year-old male T49C, a lone male who travels with various groups

It took me a while to figure out the other whales in this group, but I finally was able to identify them as the T46Cs, another new family group to me.

T46C1, T46C2, and T46C3

I was surprised to see there were four whales in this family group. T46C2, nicknamed Sam, was found alone and seemingly "stuck" in a small inlet in Central BC in August 2013 as a four year old. After a few weeks when it looked like his health was deteriorating, the Vancouver Aquarium and DFO intervened to help get him out of the bay he was trapped in. In October, he was seen with the T123 family group, though they were seen again a bit later without him. It was unclear if he would successfully reintegrate with any transients or find his own family back. I never really heard what ended up happening to him, but after looking at my photos Dave Ellifrit from the Center for Whale Research is pretty certain this was him back where he belongs next to mom. A happy ending!

It was a beautiful evening to be out, and these whales were booking it north. We traveled with them for about half an hour before it was time to turn back to home. We stopped and got one more fantastic view, listening to their powerful blows, as they continued north.

Can you pick out the distinct fin of T127? ;)

One more surprise awaited us on our way back home! Back on the US side of Haro Strait I spotted three ancient murrelets, an uncommon species here in the winter but unheard of to me in the summer!

Ancient murrelets (with a pair of marbled murrelets behind) in Haro Strait near San Juan Island

I've since learned about this interesting paper, which documents about 30 observations of ancient murrelets well south of their known breeding range between 1988 and 2011. They theorize that either there's an undocumented breeding area further south, or they're riding strong currents quickly down from their nearest known breeding colony at Haida Gwaii.