June 3: All of J-Pod and the L12s

Late in the morning on June 3rd all kinds of rumors were flying around about whales on the west side: J-Pod, transients, L-Pod! It sounded like whales were everywhere. I just had to get out there and see what was going on so I went out to go investigate. I met up with three fellow whale watchers at Land Bank, and we weren't sitting there too long before the first whales started rounding the point to the south of us.

In the lead, not surprisingly, what J2 Granny. With her was J19 Shachi, J41 Eclipse, and J26 Mike. The four of them passed us and started angling in towards shore. I could see more whales coming from the south, but felt like I needed to get to Lime Kiln. The "whale chase" was on! I jetted over to Lime Kiln and got there about the same time as the whales. They were a bit closer to shore, but stalled out, and sure enough, soon turned and headed back south.

J26 Mike

Frustratingly, I could see blows to the south, right along the shoreline at Land Bank where I had just been! I waited a little longer, but all the whales eventually turned around and headed south, out of sight. Feeling like I should get back to put in a little more time at work, I decided to leave and take one last look from Hannah Heights before heading back to town. When I got to Hannah Heights, however, I saw several boats very close to shore and heading back north! I didn't even wait to see a whale before reversing my course and high-tailing it back to Land Bank again.

I got there just in time to watch the whales slowly approach in two large, tight groups.

There were clearly more whales than the 15 or so members of J-Pod that had been hanging around for the previous three days, but who else had shown up? My first clue was when J27 surfaced, and I think I exclaimed outloud, "Blackberry!!"

J27 was trailing some kelp off his dorsal fin for my first look at him in 2014!

Usually I'd expect a newly reunited group of whales to be all intermixed with one another, but interestingly enough it seemed like the original J-Pod group was still traveling all together:

My personal favorite shot of the day: from front to back J2 Granny, J37 Hy'Shqa, J49 Ti'lem I'nges, J36 Alki, and J16 Slick

It's always so neat to see the whales in a tight group surfacing in sychrony!

As the next group of whales approached, it became apparent that not only was the rest of J-Pod (the J11s and J17s) present, but the L12s were as well!

L22 Spirit

As the whales headed along the shoreline, I got a great photo op of another photographer. These shots really give the feeling of what it's like to watch these whales from the west side - if you haven't been out here before you may not have a sense of how close to shore they really come!

It almost seemed like the whales were a resting line, they were surfacing so slowly, but there were a few of them that were clearly anything but asleep!

Since the whales were traveling so slowly, I knew my whale chase was far from over. It was time to run up the hill and race to Lime Kiln for the second time in a span of a couple hours! When getting to the park, I ran down to the lighthouse, arriving completely out of breath. A few other whale watch friends turned around to greet me, clearly wondering what all the fuss was about. They could see some whale watch boats offshore, but could not yet see any whales. I told them the reason they couldn't see the whales is because they were so close to shore you weren't going to spot them until they came around the corner, right on the rocks!

One of the best feelings in the world: watching whales approach along the rocks

 I love, love, love seeing so many dorsal fins at once!

We were treating to tail lobs of all types as the whales approached:

Really, words can't describe it, so I'll let the pictures try to:

L41 Mega and J27 Blackberry

A couple young ones take twin peeks about the surface

11 whales in one photo!

L89 Solstice

Belly up!

The whales got just about to the lighthouse where I was sitting when they stalled out again. A few animals headed into the cove just north of the lighthouse. As the whole group slowly turned back south once more, this is what I saw around the corner of the rocks heading back out of the cove and right for us again:

It was another beautiful pass....

J37 Hy'Shqa and J49 Ti'lem I'nges

L89 Solstice - from the other side this time!

J26 Mike (front) and J16 Slick

As the whales meandered back south, I thought, "Okay, this was amazing, I really can leave now." But when I passed Land Bank heading back towards town, I had to stop one more time. The whales were further off shore but the sight of so many fins is always a breathtaking one. With the way last summer went, you really get the feeling you never know when you'll see these guys again, so I walked down to sit on the rocks and really savor the moment (and also rest from having run between Land Bank and Lime Kiln four times!)

The Center for Whale Research boat gets mobbed by whales

It was a quiet, but beautiful, ending to a stunning whale encounter.

Nothin' but water and whales. Lots of whales.

The visit turned out to be a brief one. The next day, the 4th of June, the L12s, J11s, and J17s were seen heading back west out the straight. How fascinating this new pod splitting and mixing is - 10 years ago it would be unheard of for J-Pod to separate this way! Thankfully, the rest of J-Pod would stick around, though!

June 1: They Stayed!

Sadly, it felt like our "new normal" was a flyby visit from the Southern Residents: they would come in, take a quick look around, and leave within about 24 hours. I think many of us were afraid the same thing would happen after part of J-Pod made a surprise appearance on Saturday, but happily, the word on Sunday morning was they were again heading north on the west side! I got out there in time to see a nice close pass by a mixed group of J22s and J14s.

No better feeling than watching a wild orca swim right at you

J34 Doublestuf does an inverted tail slap

The closest group was made up of J34 Doublestuf, J32 Rhapsody, J37 Hy'Shqa, and J40 Suttles.

J32 Rhapsody

J32 Rhapsody and J37 Hy'Shqa

J34 Doublestuf

A huge pec slap from J34 Doublestuf

Sitting in the sun by the water, watching whales swim by the lighthouse, I was overwhelmed with a feeling that all was right with the world.

Finally: whales off the lighthouse!

A bit further offshore, another group including J38 Cookie, J45 Se-Yi-Chn, and J49 Ti'lem I'nges stopped to do what looked like some fishing. After they were done circling around, they porpoised by to catch up with the rest of the group!

If this was all I was to see on this day, I would have been a very happy camper!

But later in the day, as luck would have it, I'd get word that Js had turned back around and were heading south towards the lighthouse again. The timing was perfect for a west side sunset passby.

It was so quiet and peaceful out: no boats, and hardly anyone on shore except eight other whale watchers, all of whom I knew!

J42 Echo

The sunset was pretty special in its own right:

But a golden-orange sunset AND whales? Breath-taking.

As amazing as all this had been, little did I know that the best was yet to come!

Last Day Of May: J-Pod!!

Another month has slipped away and still the Southern Residents have been scarce. My May 9th blog post focused on how dismal April sightings have become, and it looks like May is following the same trend. I've compiled another graph to show just how bad it's gotten - you can see the Chinook numbers in orange have pretty much flat-lined in recent years.

Blue shows number of days Southern Residents were present in inland waters in the month of May from The Whale Museum's Orca Master data set with a red trendline. Orange shows average catch per unit effort (CPUE) for the month of May for Chinook Salmon on the Fraser River's Albion Test Catch fishery. This data set has a green trendline. NOTES: No test catch data available from 2007. 2001 data is from 25 days, 2002 data is from 24 days, all other years are an average of all 31 days of May.

The surprise yesterday morning, however, was that J-Pod was suddenly on the west side of San Juan Island! This is why the camera bag always stays packed, because I think I set record time from bed the west side. My first stop was at San Juan County Park, where I saw a few spread out whales slowly heading north. A friend alerted me that were still more whales to the south, so I jetted down to Lime Kiln, where the conditions were just perfect for watching whales: blue, flat calm waters and that gorgeous early morning sunlight. The J16s were slowly, slowly making their way north.

Spyhop from J42 Echo

Luckily I was able to get out late in the morning with Maya's Westside Charters. We didn't have to go far to catch up with the more northern group of J-Pod. The first whales we came across were J2 Granny and her companion L87 Onyx.

L87 Onyx

J2 Granny

The J14s were just a little further north, just goofing around by the looks of it.

Big tail wave from J49 Ti'lem I'nges

Not far away were J19 Shachi and her daughter J41 Eclipse. Eclipse is a special whale to me because I saw her when she was just a few days old - I always love seeking her out in my first J-Pod encounter of the year to see how much she's grown. She's going to be 9 this year!

Mama J19 Shachi

J41 Eclipse surfacing behind J19 Shachi

It seemed like there was a little indecision about whether or not to keep going north to the Fraser River, but eventually the decided to continue on up to and past Turn Point. We got beautiful looks as the headed into Boundary Pass:

J14 Samish

J40 Suttles and J45 Se-Yi-Chn

 Here's J37 Hy'Shqa followed by two year-old calf J49 Ti'lem I'nges:

There were surfacing in synchrony, almost like a resting line, with long dives in between. It was SO NICE to see these guys! So rejuvenating for the soul. It had been since Thanksgiving Day last year since I had seen J-Pod.

So this lead group was made up of the J14s, J19s, J2, and L87. There were more whales meandering north miles behind them, so we headed back and met up with the J16s. The same whales I had seen four hours earlier off Lime Kiln had finally made their way up towards Stuart Island, too.

The whole J16 family!

J26 Mike passing the Turn Point Lighthouse

We didn't see them, but the J22s were even further behind the J16s. Interestingly, the J11s and J17s were nowhere to be found. In recent years J-Pod has split into "Group A" and "Group B", but the J22s are usually part of Group B with the J11s and J17s, so this was a different split.

It was good to see the whales commit to going up to the Fraser River, as hopefully this means there's enough fish for them to stick around for a while! A friend got some photos of whales with fish in their mouths yesterday, so they were at least finding something to eat! Here's hoping they stick around for a while and kick June off the way it should be: with lots of residents in inland waters. Last year the first week of June was my best stretch of shore-based whale-watching over the course of the whole summer, and I wouldn't complain about a repeat!