Abundant Wildlife at the End of December

Normally I associate this time of year with bad weather, short days, and hunkering down inside, but the last week has proven that wildlife in this region can be epic regardless of the season!

On December 21 we headed out on the water with friends before taking off for the Christmas holiday, and were surprised to find an active group of 10+ humpbacks in the Strait of Georgia. Humpbacks, like transient killer whales, were rare when I first started spending time here in the early 2000s, but both have been increasing dramatically in recent years. Even with the recent influx of humpbacks, we expect them to be gone and off to their breeding grounds by December, but perhaps with the increasing population some of them will start staying year-round. Things are changing so fast in the Salish Sea!

The first group we came across of about half a dozen whales was super active at the surface: breaching, lunging, tail slapping, and trumpeting. My friends who have seen humpbacks at their breeding grounds said it looked like a male rowdy group; it makes sense their hormones might be kicking in even if they haven't left for warmer waters! These types of behavior are amazing to see regardless of the season in the Salish Sea, but even more astounding given that it was December!

BCX1233 "Coon"

MMX0047 "Bullet"

There were several "new to me" humpbacks in the group, including one that particularly caught my eye due to the very white flukes:

BCZ0297 "Pulteney"

It turns out this sighting was extra cool, because this was the first time this whale was documented in the southern Strait of Georgia/Salish Sea!

You may be wondering about the humpback naming system, both the alphanumeric designations and the common names. The "BC" refers to whales that have been added to British Columbia/DFO humpback whale catalogue. The X, Y and Z refers to how much black or white there is on the tail: “X” = less than 20% white; “Y” = 20 to 80% white; and “Z” = more than 80% white. The common names come from various sources, but in the case of Pulteney, it's in reference to the Pulteney Lighthouse on Malcolm Island off Northern Vancouver Island. Not only is this where this whale is commonly seen, but the dark marking between the white flukes looks like a lighthouse.

But there were more than just humpbacks up there in the Strait of Georgia! We also got to check out the impressive sea lion (both Steller and California) haul out at the Belle Chains, and a pair of eagles in perfect lighting on a nearby rock.

A very vocal pup!

California sea lions - uncommon in the San Juans, but there were plenty of them up on this BC haul out!

Sea lions always have the best facial expressions >.<

After a trip down to Portland to visit family and friends for Christmas, we are now back in wildlife mode up north, and today spent time with the bald eagles that congregate along the Nooksack River in the winter to take advantage of the spawning chum salmon. I've been here a couple of times before and it never disappoints, but it was awesome to have more time to spend today. While it's impossible to capture in the photos the experience of having ~50 eagles visible in all directions, the shots speak for themselves in terms of the kinds of behavior that can be witnessed here!

Very close fly-by from an immature

Probably my favorite shot from the morning encounter - the smaller/compressed version really doesn't do it justice, but hopefully it gives you an idea!

Lots of multi-eagle interactions

This one is taking flight with a salmon carcass

I feel so lucky to live in such an amazing part of the world where there is so much wildlife to watch. Here's hoping 2020 starts off with some amazing encounters as well, but it will be hard to top the end of 2019!

Mr. T

First, a note, since I've been terrible at posting updates about my year list here! These are the species I've added since our Yellow Island trip a month ago, the last time I reported my total on the blog: Cassin's vireo, Townsend's warbler, house wren, American goldfinch, band-tailed pigeon, black-capped chickadee (can you believe this one slipped all the way to #160?! I can't - it was in the first ten species I saw every year until this one!), Wilson's warbler, sora, northern rough-winged swallow, Pacific-slope flycatcher, Bonaparte's gull, Eurasian collared-dove, brown-headed cowbird, and black-throated gray warbler. That puts me at 168 for the moment, and I'll do better about posting updates from now on!

Now, last weekend we had some friends in town and we went out whale-watching with Jim Maya. On our way there we stopped at the local alpaca farm, and I just had to share a couple photos of these guys first:

As we left the dock in Snug Harbor, we had a report of a single whale way up north! It was a long trip, but the water conditions couldn't have been better - it was beautiful!

It's fairly unusual to see just one orca, even a transient - the only time this generally happens is if its a lone bull. I guess this guy qualifies - he is 22 years old, though his fin is fairly short and looks more like that of a teenager. He also hasn't been seen on his own very often that I know of. When we got on scene in southern Georgia Strait, there he was: T124C.

He seems to be kind of an odd whale all around, not just size-wise. The last time I saw him was in May 2010, and he was traveling with CA058 - a California transient never before seen this far north! Here's a throwback image from that encounter - has he grown since then? I guess a little!

T124C in Haro Strait in May 2010.

Amazingly, we were the only boat on scene with him this time. One boat, one whale, and these amazing glassy calm waters that provided stunning reflections with every surfacing.

The scenery was amazing in every direction, too:

 

We ended up following T124C far enough north that when it was time to head home, we came back through Active Pass. I had only been through the pass a couple of times before, and now twice already this year! It's such a beautiful spot, especially in the late afternoon lighting as we went from east to west. Here's a shot of the Active Pass Lighthouse on Georgina Point on Mayne Island:

The colors in the pass were just amazing!

It's been interesting to see how transient sightings have continued with regularity while our Southern Residents have been conspicuous only by their absence. See my last blog post for a little more info on that - it turns out J-Pod came in for just about 24 hours before leaving again!

The T65As in Georgia Strait

Yesterday was my first time getting out on the water for the 2014 season, as I hopped aboard with my former employer Western Prince Whale and Wildlife Tours out of Friday Harbor. We left the dock without any whale reports, but I had a good vibe about the day, and it wasn't too far up San Juan Channel before we came across a group of obliging harbor porpoise that gave us all some good looks.

Shortly after this, we go the word we had all been hoping for, that the group of transient orcas seen the day before had been relocated. They were way north in the Canadian Gulf Islands, just at the edge of our range - in fact, after going through Active Pass, we turned north a bit further, taking me further than I had ever been on the Western Prince when I worked there! It was well worth the journey, as soon became apparent when we got on scene with the five whales.

The family group was the T65As, made up of mama T65A and her four surviving offspring, including little T65A5 that was first seen in March of this year.

T65A5, only a couple months old, pokes its head up

The whales had apparently made a kill a while before we got there, so these mammal-eating whales were out of stealth mode and into party mode. The whole group of them, particularly the juveniles, seemed to be in a frisky, playful mood.

Three year-old T65A4 lunges

We heard one of the whales vocalize at the surface, which encouraged the captain to drop the hydrophone into the water. We heard a few more eerie vocals over the boat's speakers.

From left to right: T65A2, T65A4, T65A5

The setting was beautiful, too, in the south Strait of Georgia - the whales even passed in front of our distant view of Mt. Baker:

Calf T65A5 with Mt. Baker in the background

It was pretty special getting to spend some time with this family! We started heading back to our home port and took a different route back, by East Point. Here we stopped to enjoy the abundant wildlife that seems to always hang out here in the spring of recent years, including hundreds of Bonaparte's gulls in their black-headed summer plumage. I love these gulls! They're smaller than our regular gulls and look so buoyant in flight.

One black oystercatcher in with this flock of Bonaparte's gulls - do you see him?

 We also got some quick looks at about twenty long-tailed ducks:

And on the nearby haulouts were lots of Steller sea lions and harbor seals:

Steller sea lions at East Point off Saturna Island, BC

We saw such a variety of wildlife, it was all I could have hoped for during my first afternoon getting out on the water this season!