July 23rd: Epic Day With Js and Ls

On the morning of Sunday, July 23rd, word came in that some residents were inbound from Sooke. Then, we heard about whales off the south end of the island - some of them were already here! It turned out that the same 19 whales from L-Pod had snuck in overnight, while all of J-Pod was heading east in to join them. L-Pod hung out near False Bay until J-Pod made their way across Haro Strait around noon. Then, in the early afternoon, they made their way north far enough that we could see them from the shores of San Juan Island.

We've all been curious who might take the "leader" role for J-Pod with the passing of J2 Granny at the end of last year. So far, it looks to be J19 Shachi, who has not only regularly been in the lead, but does it in Granny-style, far out ahead on her own in a no-nonsense kind of way.

J19 Shachi leading the way

Everybody else wasn't in such a hurry, and in fact they spent the next hour and a half basically milling right off Land Bank.

The largest group was a ways offshore, seeming playing around in a tide rip, but suddenly a group of half a dozen whales popped up closer to shore.

This close group then made a turn to come even closer - this is the kind of surfacing I just love to see!

Incoming!

Eventually even J19 Shachi came back to re-join the party, passing right along the rocks as she headed back south again.

A bit later it seemed like the whales had finally decided to go north, as they grouped up into two large groups and rode the strong flood tide up the lighthouse. We were just getting ready to leave Land Bank and try to catch the tail end of them at Lime Kiln when a splash to the north caught our eye. There was a porpoising whale - coming back south again! We ran back down the hill, this time right to the waterline as ALL 35 whales came back south close to shore. I like this shot (click to see a larger view to do it justice) that shows three lines of whales approaching. Talk about excitement!

A pec wave from J27 Blackberry with Whale Watch Point in the background

It's an incredible sight when the whales tuck into the little coves along the shoreline. We were almost looking behind us to the right to see these whales on the rocks!

The most magical moment occurred when a mom and juvenile stopped right in front of us. I didn't even know the water was deep enough this close to shore, but they turned upright and had just their rostrums above the surface for several moments. I can only imagine that underwater they must have been eye to eye. Why they stopped to do this, and why it happened right in front of us, I will never know, but it was a once-in-a-lifetime moment for me!

The day had already earned "epic" status by this point, but it was not over! We had just enough time to grab a bite to eat, download photos of the SD cards, and put on a layer of suncreen before running back out to the west side, this time heading to Lime Kiln and getting there just in time for another close pass by all the whales, going north this time.

Incoming again!

Sometimes it takes a wider angle shot to really capture just how close these whales come to the rocks. That's my husband Jason, and there were more whales around the corner to the left IN Deadman's Bay.

It all happened so quickly because they were almost all in one big group, but for a moment there were whales everywhere, all of them just a few yards away!

L92 Crewser

Conditions were too perfect not to head north and hop into our boat, and we met up with the same large group right off Henry Island.

 It's just indescribable to see that many dorsal fins all together...

....andwhen they're in a playful mood it becomes even more magical...

I just love this shot of the whales in front of my friends Barbara and David's sailboat! Check out the special whale-watch sailing trips they offer at All Aboard Sailing.

And I also love this one, with perfect evening lighting off of Spieden Island:

As good as it felt to have them here, and while they did go north to the Fraser River, their stay was also short. The next evening the Ls made their way back down, heading through Haro after dark and back out the Strait. Js would follow two days later, also bypassing the daylight hours of Haro Strait on their way out and leaving on the 26th. Here's hoping their couple of recent visits are a sign that the second half of the summer will be full of more Southern Residents than the first half was, and that there's plenty of salmon to keep them here!

Next up for me, however, is a trip north. I've long wanted to make a summer excursion to the north end of Vancouver Island, and this year it's finally happening! Fingers crossed I get to hang out a bit with the cousins of the Js, Ks, and Ls I know so well - the Northern Residents!

More September Whales

I'm gearing up to do my annual Day of the Dead blog post, but realized I should recap the rest of the fall first! The Southern Residents were around quite a bit in September, but mostly either out of reach of shore-based viewing or in rough seas, so my encounters with them were more limited than in some years. Here are a few highlights though...

On September 13th I saw Js, Ks, and L54 sub-group from the west side of San Juan Island. This is an example of what the seas were like on days I couldn't get out in our boat!

On the afternoon of September 15th, I picked up a visiting friend in town and we got out to Lime Kiln just as the whales were passing by. Only a few J-Pod whales came north past the lighthouse before flipping and going back south, but one of them, who approached at the very moment we ran down to the rocks, was J2 Granny:

J2 Granny close to shore at Lime Kiln

On September 22nd I got the chance to take my same friend out on our boat, and we met up with a group of L-Pod whales offshore of San Juan County Park. The first whales were saw were L92 Crewser, L91 Muncher, and her calf L122. They were tough to track, as they were swimming sporadically and going down on long dives, but after a lot of patience we did get some nice looks.

L92 Crewser

L91 Muncher and L122

After losing L120 last fall just a few weeks after he/she was born, it's especially nice to see L122 doing well. Fingers crossed he thrives through the winter! L-Pod is where we need successful mothers the most, so I'm hoping this is just the first of many calves for Muncher.

Up off Kellett Bluffs, the whales stopped to forage. We cut our engine and dropped the hydrophone, listening to a bunch of great L-Pod vocals for several minutes when the whales all disappeared. They were on a long dive and got totally quiet...until I started hearing some echolocation that sounded VERY close. "Somebody's right here...." I told my friend, and less than 30 seconds later L95 Nigel surfaced off our stern, both startling and thrilling us. I'm pretty sure I literally jumped!

Why hello there Nigel

The glare was so harsh I edited this photo to be black and white, and I kind of like the effect. What's especially cool is I posted this photo on my Facebook page and the guys in the sail boat saw it! I always love when I get the chance to share photos of people and whales with the people in the picture.

On September 24th, I saw some very spread out and distant Js and Ks heading south from Land Bank. I played with adding a filter to this photo as well, and was also pleased with the effect:

K44 Ripple cruising south

Then on September 25th, I got to see the T49As from the park near my house. It's always a treat when I can see whales walking distance from home!

Male T49A1 heading down San Juan Channel

There's a whirlwind summary of the rest of September - coming up next, October whales and Day of the Dead.

Photos From the Last Two Weeks

Sunset from the marina

Raccoon foraging at low tide

Raccoon eating a crab

A new visitor to the bird feeders: red crossbill

The underside of an unknown intertidal creature - anyone have any ideas? Dave?

Smoke hanging in the air during Friday Harbor's 4th of July fireworks

Lopez Island fireworks and the (almost) full moon, as seen looking over Pear Point

Turkey vulture at Land Bank

Sailboat in Haro Strait

Mama hairy woodpecker feeding her fledgling chick at the suet feeder on a foggy morning

West side summer sunset from Land Bank

Sailing to Jones Island - Plus a Bird and Sea Lion Update

There has been so much to blog about with all the trips I've been out on the water and the whales in the area that this is my first chance to share photos from a sailing excursion I went on last week. A friend of mine from high school brought his sail boat up from Seattle and luckily his stop in Friday Harbor coincided with one of my days off. In the morning I went down to the docks and hopped aboard his 27' sail boat, Joshua, and we headed north up San Juan Channel.

Amazingly enough this was my first time ever on a sail boat, and needless to say it's much slower going than our high-powered tour boats. But when your goal isn't wildlife viewing, speed isn't as important, and there's something very peaceful about gliding up the channel on the power of the wind and really taking in your surroundings.

Our destination was Jones Island, a 190 acre state park about four miles north of Friday Harbor. It's an island we regularly go past on our whale and wildlife tours, but like many of the smaller San Juan Islands it's a place I hadn't actually set foot on. Here's the Joshua at the dock on the north side of Jones:

There's a nice trail around the island that we hiked before eating a picnic lunch. We saw the camping facilities and a couple of the fairly tame deer that live on the island. I enjoyed the views, which gave me a different perspective of San Juan Island and a lot of the other areas we routinely travel around and through.

All in all it was a great way to spend a day and catch up with some old friends. Thanks guys!

Now for a couple of other brief updates. I haven't had a chance to do much terrestrial birding but while out on the water yesterday I spotted a flock of about ten red-necked phalaropes (159), a species I hadn't counted on seeing until the fall migration. We see hundreds of these odd little shorebirds in August and September, but according to my book Birding the San Juan Islands only a few fly through on their way north. I hadn't ever seen them here in the spring before, but the ones I saw yesterday were here just at the time reported in the book: mid-May.

Last month I posted the history of Oscar, the branded California sea lion that has been hanging out on the buoy outside Friday Harbor. After confirming that this was the same animal as last year, I sent my sighting to the NOAA researcher and he asked if I had seen any other branded sea lions. After going back through my photos I found this branded Steller sea lion, photographed on April 18th on Whale Rocks at the southern end of San Juan Channel:

Even though I wasn't able to read the brand marking, the researcher was and kindly sent me this animal's history. He was tagged as a pup in southern Oregon in 2003, making him seven years old. He has been re-sighted nine times, almost all of them in Washington, including several times at Tatoosh Island in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and once in Puget Sound. It's cool not only to be able to contribute to the research on sea lion movements, but also to learn a little bit of the personal history of some of the animals we see out there.