August 30: Superpod in Unreal Lighting

On August 30th I got out to Lime Kiln in the middle of several large groups of the superpod were heading north. They were quite a ways offshore, but the sheer number of them in one group was pretty darn impressive:

With a few friends in town, the conditions were right to meet up and head out on the boat to show them some whales before sunset. As intriguing as the lighting was at Lime Kiln, it got even more amazing as we followed the whales towards Stuart Island. They were now spread out all the way across Haro Strait in smaller groups, and no matter which way I looked I could see whales in amazing light.

Can you spot the orca?

A little easier to see the whale in this one

J2 Granny

K25 Scoter - no filter needed

Heck, on the way back in, the scenery was pretty darn spectacular even without the whales in it ;)

August 23 - 26: Let the Superpod Begin!

In the afternoon of August 23rd, we met up with the whales we had seen the day before coming back down from the north. All the Southern Residents except the L12 sub-group were there, but whereas the day before they had been in 2-3 large groups, on this day they were all spread out. When we encountered them they were spread for many miles both north-south and east-west across Haro Strait. As a result we didn't see/identify nearly as many whales, but we did get to spend some time with a few animals we don't see as often.

A big spyhop from K16 Opus, who has a little beauty mark on her chin

10 year-old L106 Pooka (pretty sure - this guy and his siblings are hard for me to tell apart)

On August 24th the L12 sub-group came in to join the party, meaning we had our first full-fledged superpod of the summer! All 81 Southern Resident Killer Whales were here! I didn't catch up with them until late in the day on August 25th, out on our boat Serenity. We could see a huge group of whales in the distance heading out into the middle of the straits, but the only group of whales we got close to on this day was the L54s.

L54 Ino in the middle with her two offspring, L108 Coho and L117 Keta

All the whales hung out down south that night, which meant they were either going to head west and leave or Lime Kiln was going to be an awesome place to be the next morning, on the 26th. Turns out it was the latter! So glad I made sure I was there. At first just a few Js and Ks came by...

J2 Granny and K12 Sequim

But then all the other Js and Ks came into view in one tight, active group right on the rocks. Best. Feeling. Ever.

As they got close I switched to video, and I'm glad I did. I think it captures the moment a little better than stills would have. Someone had the hydrophone playing on a speaker, so you can hear their live vocalizations in the video.

After Js and Ks passed, we could see another huge group of whales to the south: L-Pod! Unfortunately for us they stalled out and turned back south, but not before L41 Mega breached a couple of times, impressive even from miles away! (He's the biggest living Southern Resident.)

Breach from L41 Mega

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.

September 6th: Five Epic Hours of Whales and Wildlife at Lime Kiln

With word the night before that all three pods were inbound from the ocean, I knew I should get out to Lime Kiln early on the morning of Saturday, September 6th. When I got out to the park at about 7:00, it was one of those blissfully peaceful mornings, so calm you can hear the porpoises breathing. I was sitting on the rocks about half an hour after arriving listening to those soft exhalations: Pfft.......Pfft. Suddenly, I heard a different noise. Faint - far away - but distinct. Kawoof! That was no porpoise!

It was pretty magical for me to hear the orcas before I  saw them. After hearing two breaths, I started scanning to the south and spotted a dorsal fin a mile or so away, but heading north towards me! Fighting an ebb tide, it took this first small group of whales a looonnnng time to get to Lime Kiln. When the first one finally arrived, I wasn't too surprised to see it was J2 Granny!

J2 Granny surfaces in the beautiful early morning light off Lime Kiln

Not far behind Granny were J16 Slick and her son J26 Mike. I could see more blows to the south, but very spread out, and when Mike stopped to forage for a while off Lime Kiln it was clear the whales weren't in any hurry to go anywhere. Eventually, over the next two hours, the rest of J-Pod "Group A" came by heading north: the rest of the J16s, the J14s, the J19s, and L87 Onyx:

L87 Onyx - look at that reflection of the dorsal fin!

Whales were visible pretty much all the time, but in the gaps when there weren't any close, there was so much other wildlife to look at it! It was just all around a very photogenic morning.

The first rays of sunlight on Lime Kiln Lighthouse

A belted kingfisher - the best photo I've ever gotten of one in flight!

The harbor seal action was incredible, too. There were at least three seals fishing right off the park throughout the morning, and they caught at least three large fish throughout the morning.

Harbor seal with a fish. He was looking at me with eyes like he thought I might steal it from him! The water looks so gray because this was before the sun really came up over the island - it was early!

Two harbor seals - much nicer lighting after the sun arrived!

A little early morning yoga, harbor seal style!

Once Group A had continued north in their ones and twos, which took until almost 10 AM, I could see a lot of blows all at once off Land Bank to the south. Yesss!! Who could this be? Turns out it was all of Group B (J11s, J17s, J22s) traveling together, most of them right along the shoreline!

Photographer and whales - the best of shore-based whale-watching!

I love this shot because it shows just how close to shore the whales come! When you see them appearing over or around the rocks, you know you're a few moments away from an incredible treat!

Not only were they close, the lighting couldn't have been better! I've spent a lot of early mornings on the west side this summer without seeing anything, but this one panning out made it all worth it!

I've gotten photos of orcas and harbor seals in the same shot when I've been on a boat, but this was the first time I had a chance to take a shot like this from shore! Usually the harbor seals are on the rocks behind the whales, but this time the harbor seal is in the foreground!

The lighting was such that you could see the whales underwater as they swam past, truly one of the most magical experiences. Unfortunately the surface was just a bit too disturbed to get clear underwater photos, but it still led to some neat abstract shots. I really like photos like this, though I've learned over the years that unless you've looked at as many whales and whale photos as I have, it's not always clear what you're seeing! Here's one showing just the head of the whale underwater, and you're seeing the white chin, white eye patch, and the beginning of her exhalation:

Here's the next photo in the sequence to help you better visualize what you're seeing:

Here's another set of three shots where you can see a whale underwater, right before she comes up and surfaces onto the back of the whale in front of her!

Then in this one even I'm not sure of what all is visible in terms of how many whales or which body parts you're seeing, but I like it anyway! I do see the head of one whale in the middle, right above the ripple across the middle of the photo. That whale is "upside down" compared to the ones in the photos above.

Not only was the light amazing for seeing under water, it was perfect above water, too! How about this "rainblow" from J32 Rhapsody?

A beautiful "rainblow" from J32 Rhapsody

Two whales were trailing just a minute or two behind the main group, and all of a sudden they raced by to catch up. It was J28 Polaris and J46 Star.

J28 Polaris

At this time I wasn't even sure if all three pods had made it in, or stayed in for that matter. But when all of Js had gone by, I was still seeing blows to the south, so I knew somebody else was here! About 20 minutes after the Js came the K14s. As is always the case on these epic passbys, as soon as they had passed, the next set of whales was approaching. Following the K14s were the K12s, and then the K13s in three spread out groups of their own. The final two whales to pass were K20 Spock and K38 Comet.

K20 Spock and K38 Comet

When all of Ks had gone by (we're talking about a little over 4 hours of whales slowly passing by at this point), there were still more blows to the south! These whales (they had to be Ls, by the process of elimination, as everyone else but three K-Pod whales had been sen at this point) were milling, and while I waited to see if they would make their way up, the harbor seals continued to entertain.

It looked like the seals were catching salmon:

I'm not sure if these two both saw the same fish at the same time or what, but they proceeded to fight over one good sized fish right in front of me!

The action was happening so fast I was just clicking the shutter with no real idea of what I was capturing, but it was a real treat to go home and look through my pictures later! Here's one seal lunging out of the water right at the other:

And my gem seal shot of the day, one of the seals completely submerged underwater but visible holding a very tattered salmon in his mouth!

In the end, the whales to the south turned and went back south, but I couldn't complain! After five hours and more than five hundred photos at Lime Kiln, it had truly been an epic morning. Ultimately Js and Ks continued north to the Fraser River while the 3 K-Pod whales and all of L-Pod spent their whole day off the southwest side of San Juan Island. Big news came in the afternoon, however, when the Center for Whale Research announced that they had documented a new calf, L120, born to L86 Surprise!

If you've been reading my blog throughout the summer, you've probably heard me mention that J49 Ti'lem I'nges was the last calf born to the Southern Residents - in August of 2012! We had to wait an astonishing 25 months to welcome the next new member to the population. While we were all beyond thrilled to hear about this new little one's arrival, the long drought with no babies is certainly a cause for concern. The very latest research from the Conservation Canine crew (the folks that use scat-detection dogs to  collect killer whale fecal samples for some pretty cutting edge hormone analysis) is that it looks like the whales are getting pregnant, but seem to be miscarrying, perhaps due to nutritional stress. It goes back to the very same core message: no fish, no blackfish.

The arrival of this little one was also a little bittersweet because of the family group he/she was born in to. The last whale born to L86 Surprise! (yes the exclamation point is officially part of the name) met an unfortunate fate. You can read about L112 Sooke on one of my previous blog posts here.

But I don't mean to digress too far into the sad side of things - the arrival of L120 was a very happy day! So happy that I got tears in my eyes when I heard the news. It would take a few days until I would have the opportunity to meet L120 for myself, but I would get a chance to see him/her before too long!! Stay tuned for those photos - you won't believe how small a 6 foot long, 400 pound cetacean can look!