September 1st and 2nd: Three Transient Encounters in Two Days

The end of August and beginning of September have been even crazier for transient killer whales in the Salish Sea in a season where sightings have already been off the charts. For a couple days we had Ts in as many as a dozen places throughout the Salish Sea, with multiple groups in Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the Strait of Georgia. By my rough count there were at least 60 whales in the area! Luckily a few of them did pass through the San Juan Islands and within our range as well.

On September 1st, the T60s along with T124A1 and the T124Ds made their way up Haro Strait. Jason and I just missed them at Lime Kiln but heard they were close to shore, so we quickly hopped in the boat and met up with them just north of County Park. I was super excited when it looked like they might go through Mosquito Pass, the narrow channel between San Juan and Henry Islands. Ts go through there occasionally and it's a place I've dreamed of seeing whales. These guys got partway in, and then seemed to second guess themselves. I'm anthropomorphizing here, but it looked like they were just cruising along when they got surprised by how narrow/shallow of a channel they were in, and then they had to have a little powwow to decide how to proceed.

Uh...do we really want to go this way?

All the boats including us were positioned to the outside of the pass, ready to follow behind them as they made their way through. Once they decided to abort continuing on, however, their direction change ended up taking them right through all the boats, giving us and everyone else a memorable head-on look as they aimed for Kellett Bluff.

After another detour deep into Open Bay, they followed the Henry Island shoreline for a while. We left them when they made another sharp turn to aim across Haro into Canadian waters.

T60C sets course for Canada

The next day, September 2nd, we got a surprise early afternoon report that another group of transients had appeared out of nowhere off Lime Kiln. Having again missed them from shore, we again headed to the boat, and again caught up with them not far from Mitchell Bay. It was the T65As and T100s, and at first they were traveling together in one mixed group.

Just north of Henry Island, however, they split into their respective matrilines. The T65As headed inshore, and we briefly followed the T100s as they continued north up Haro.

The T100s

The T100s off Battleship Island

As the T100s continued north, we headed in towards the T65As who were angling towards Spieden Island. At first it looked like they might take Spieden Channel, but instead they cut around the west edge of the island and took New Channel. This area, that we call the "back side" of Spieden, is a magical spot to see whales. The island has a steep cliff and is all forested on this side, with no developments. It makes a perfect backdrop for backlit blows, like we saw on this afternoon.

T65A2

More of the T65As

Later in the evening, after having been on the water and in general spending a lot of the day running around, yet another report of transients on the west side came in. I'll share here what I wrote when I got home from this encounter, adding in some photos:

A snapshot of my life: I'm at home and tired from a day of running around when a friend lets me know a group of transient killer whales is on the west side of San Juan Island heading south and hugging the shoreline. I'm at the wrong end of the island to try and see them, but to get those magic moments, you learn early on: if you can go, go.

When I get to my first stop at the south end some visitors let me know they've just seen whales pass by, which means I've missed them. I speed walk back to my car and try another spot further down the coast. I see the blows and a couple whale watch boats offshore. They're way further out than before but at least I see them. I settle down on a rock content to take in the sunset and collect what data I can from a distance. The other people beside me head back to their car, the final whale watch boat takes off to their home port, and the whales disappear for a moment offshore as the sun sinks towards the horizon. It sounds like a tranquil scene, and it was, for a moment.

The T36Bs and T99s offshore under the Olympic Mountains

  

Then I spot the whales again, and now they're all in a line aiming right at me. Even from a distance and even after all these years seeing seven dorsal fins all lined up at the surface takes my breath away.

They continue coming closer to shore, directly where I'm sitting, when they go on their long dive. Which way are they going to go now, up or down the beach? I had taken my shoes off but I put them back on. There's only one thing that can get me to run and I have a feeling I'm about to.

Indeed, the whales surface to my left, aiming right for the Cattle Point Lighthouse and right off the kelp beds off the beach. Let's just say I'm glad no one was their to witness my scrambling after them, though I assure you it was graceful, as I tried to take photos, run, and not lose lens cap, pen, data sheet, keys, cell phone, or sweatshirt, not aided at all by the ridiculously shallow pockets that are always in women's shorts.

I was a little bit behind them, but close enough to follow them around the corner as they cut a sharp turn right by the lighthouse and into Cattle Pass. I went as far as I could on the trail, then sat down to watch them continue on their way in the dimming light. Before making the long trek back to my car (did I really run this far?) I was surprised by a pair of fox kits, saw three deer silhouetted on the top of the hill behind me, and was passed by a bald eagle carrying the remains of a salmon to a nighttime roost. Oh, then on the way home I had to stop to take a photo of an owl.

It's a charmed life, I know, and I'm thankful for it every single day.

A Weekend to Remember: Northern Lights and Sunset Orcas

Last weekend was absolutely beautiful, but there were no orcas nearby. Still, it was too nice not to get on the water at least a little bit, and a trip through Spieden Channel was in order.

Tranquil blue waters in Spieden Channel

While we did get a few glimpses of a humpback whale, the highlight was this family of river otters along the Spieden Island shoreline:

As we reached two weeks without a sighting of the Southern Residents, the whale withdrawals really started settling in! At least J-Pod used to be around on almost a daily basis in May and even in April, but not so for the last 4 or 5 years. Presumably this has to do with the poor spring returns on Fraser River Chinook, and hopefully the whales are finding enough to eat elsewhere. Even when the orcas aren't around, however, there's plenty of awesome sights to see in San Juan Island, and on the night of May 27th/28th I got to check an item off my bucket list in seeing the northern lights for the first time. It's a rare but not unheard of occurrence here, and having it happen from my home island was even more special. Sometimes they can really only be picked up here with long camera exposures, but this was a pretty big storm and they were apparent as soon as we got an open view to the north, getting brighter after our eyes adjusted to the darkness.

It was amazing to watch them brigthen and dim and change shape before our eyes. On one hand they moved slower than I had pictured from seeing videos; on the other hand it was amazing how quickly they could change. Usually just greens are seen from here, but for a brief time there was a second band of yellow as well:

When I saw what I thought was a satellite approaching I set up a shot hoping to get its track above the northern lights. I was able to confirm later it was actually the International Space Station; talk about being in the right place at the right time!

Just when the cold was starting to set in and we were thinking of leaving the lights got brighter again, and this time we saw some purple too!

The northern lights would have been more than enough to make for an epic weekend, but mid-day on Sunday we got word that J-Pod was heading back into the area after their long absence. Despite being warm, clear, and sunny here on San Juan, it was foggy in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the boats lost the whales so we heard no further reports on their progress. Jimmie, the student working with us at the Orca Behavior Institute this summer, was scanning at Lime Kiln in the evening as we had a hunch they were still coming in. I think it's pretty cool more than 20 whales can totally give everyone the slip for so many hours, especially on Memorial Day weekend, one of the busiest boating weekends of the year here. All of a sudden, they appeared in front of the lighthouse out of no where and were north just ten minutes later! I missed them completely but these are the days I'm thankful we made the decision to buy a boat! It sounded like they might be heading north quickly but luckily we caught up with them right at Mitchell Bay and followed them north past the cormorant rookery on Henry Island.

These days, the whales are very spread out more often than not, so seeing them in a tight group has become a special treat. Last night, all 25 whales of J-Pod were traveling together, an absolutely beautiful sight.

Add the sunset lighting to the story, and you run out of adjectives to describe the scene pretty quickly.

To top it off, we had the whales to ourselves for the end of the encounter, which is always extra special.

Gull Walking in the Sky and Other Photos

It was a nice, calm day today. With the sun out and no wind, the temperatures in the high forties actually felt warm. I decided to go out and shoot some photos this afternoon. My first stop was False Bay since the birding has been so great there. The tide was out, so the "bay" was really just a huge mudflat with some great feeding puddles for the gulls. The mew gulls were out en masse, and although I didn't see any foot-paddling, they were all marching about the puddles and seemingly finding a lot to eat.

I really like this first photo because it blurs the distinction between water and sky. Since the water was so calm it was reflecting the sky quite nicely, and to me it looks like the gull is walking in the sky. It's only the rocks in the top of the photo that bring your perception back to reality by reflecting in the water.

Since I was shooting into the sun, the lighting was harsh and the colors didn't really come out in many of my photos. Without vibrant colors and with almost a silhouette effect on the gulls, I thought a black and white photo might turn out cool. Here's one I thought worked well - notice why I used the word marching to describe what the gulls were doing.

I never have much success shooting landscape shots with a mountain in the background, because it's hard to get everything to expose properly. If any of you other photographers have any tips on getting the mountain exposure right, I'd love to hear them! Still, I thought this shot with grazing sheep in the foreground turned out kind of cool. It looks better in a larger version, and as always you can click on the photo to see it bigger.

Finally, before I was heading home, the late afternoon sun was looking beautiful through the clouds and back-lighting the trees. I wanted to add another element to the photo to make it more interesting, and the closest thing at hand were these cows. I had to jump across a ditch, crouch down, and shoot the photo through a fence, but I think it was worth the extra effort. There are actually three cows in the shot - notice the mom and calf nose-to-nose under the trees in the right side of the image.