Odd Mixture of Js and Ls

Our heat wave has abated so now it is just pleasantly warm, and the whale sightings continue to be fantastic. Yesterday we had a neat encounter with J27 Blackberry and J39 Mako, two brothers who were actively foraging a few miles offshore of San Juan Island. J27 was sharking (high speed swimming just below the surface with just the top of his dorsal fin sticking above the surface) and lunging in all directions. At one point he was close enough that we could see him swimming at top speed under water - amazingly fast, and amazingly cool to watch! There was a bit of a swell so it was too tough to take photos unfortunately. Then, on the way home I saw my first Heermann's gull (year bird 214) of the season. This was the last species I felt like I would get for sure this year, so now any others I add in the second half of 2010 will be an unexpected bonus! There are a few good potentials (come on barred owl!), but no guarantees.

Today was another beautiful day as we headed out this afternoon on the Western Prince, and we met up with part of J-Pod and part of L-Pod off of Kellett Bluffs. They were spread out, well in shore, and non-directional when we got on scene which made viewing a little bit unpredictable and difficult, but after a while they grouped up and started heading north, so we got some great looks. They also started getting more active, as we saw a breach, some big surface lunges, and lots of tail slaps:

The majority of the time we see the whales they are in their immediate family groups, so when we see a whale we recognize we know who to look for right around them. For instance, today we saw the female L86 Surprise with her two offspring L106 Pooka and calf L112 right beside her:

This year, however, the whales have been doing lots of different things, and groups of whales we typically expect to see together have often been mixing things up. For instance, J-Pod has often been splitting into two groups, something they haven't often done in the past. Four K-Pod whales have been traveling with part of J-Pod, and the rest of K-Pod hasn't been seen in some time. L7 Canuck and L53 Lulu have also seemingly switched back to traveling with J-Pod as they've done over the last few summers, after traveling with L-Pod earlier in the season.

Although it makes it more difficult to figure out what is going on, I like it when the whales do the unexpected. Aside from being a fun challenge to keep of track of who's where, I think it gives us a glimpse into their social relations and hence their society. Above I talked about some longer-term associations, like L7 and L53 traveling with J-Pod for a whole summer, but I like looking at more temporary associations too. Today was very interesting as we had an odd mixture of whales traveling together - by my estimation about half of J-Pod and at least half of L-Pod.

The oddest group I saw was made up of the female L77 Matia and the male L95 Nigel (two L-Pod whales from different family groups) who were traveling with the two brothers J27 Blackberry and J39 Mako. Here are the four of them, with J39 Mako giving the tail slap:

I wonder what would bring these four whales (ages 23, 14, 19, and 7) together? I can only guess, but it's fascinating to see! Here's another shot of L77 Matia on the left and L95 Nigel on the right:

Dave has requested some video footage, so I've made a few attempts using the video feature on my Nikon. Here's a short clip from today showing the four whales described above. What do you think, should I try to do some more video? It takes a while to upload, I'll tell you that!

Alaska Reflections

When you take an epic trip, like my recent five week journey to Alaska, it almost takes a while for the whole thing to sink in. On one hand, once you've returned to your regular day-to-day routine, it almost feels like the trip never happened, or that it was over so fast. On the other hand, when thinking back on the trip every once and a while it sinks it - wow, I was really there, and I really saw all those amazing things. It's hard to capture the essence of the trip.

I don't really fancy myself all that much of a poet, but I have recently been intrigued with haiku, since to me they seem to often convey both natural beauty and personal emotions. There were a few times throughout the trip when free-form haiku seemed to just come to me, so I thought I would share them here as one way of reflecting on my trip.

Alpine flowers grow
Solitude in the tundra
Only bears walk here

Waterfalls cascade
The canyon slowly changes
I want to stop time

Humpback whales surface
Alaska rain showers down
We are all looking

Sun shines bright on snow
At the base of the mountains
How little we are

Haiku are sort of an artistic way of reflecting on the trip, but I also have a more scientific, factual side that likes to keep track of numbers and statistics. So I call my second way of looking back on my trip "Alaska By the Numbers".

Miles traveled by car: 5092
Miles traveled by ferry: 1728
Miles traveled by bus: 132
Miles traveled by train: 40

Number of bird species identified: 147
Number of year birds: 50
Number of life birds: 16

[Note: I added the purple martin (year bird 212) and willow flycatcher (year bird 213, NA life bird 336) on the last day of the trip at the Anacortes ferry terminal.]

Number of mammal species seen: 29
Number of these that were marine mammals: 8
Number of bears seen: 21 (19 black bears, 2 brown bears)
Number of these bears that were in Canada, not Alaska: 16

In addition to being an amazing wilderness sight-seeing trip, it was filled with great quality time spent with my parents, to whom I am eternally thankful for letting me tag along on this adventure! I'm glad all my blog readers were able to follow along on our travels, and as many of you have expressed to me I hope you get to experience the wonder that is Alaska for yourself first-hand. I know I plan to go back!

I'll conclude my Alaska reflections with this quote that I saw on a sign along the way, which to me captures part of the intrigue of nature:

"The wilderness holds answers to questions man has not yet learned to ask." -Nancy Newhall, author

Breaching Js and Ks

The 80-90 degree weather we've been having the last few days is pleasantly cool for some of our visitors from elsewhere in the country, but for us this is as hot as it gets in the summer so it has been especially nice to get out on the water. This afternoon was perfect weather for cruising at high speed and enjoying the cool wind aboard the Western Explorer.

We met up with members from J and K Pods between East Point and Point Roberts and arrived just as they were changing direction from heading south to going back north again, maybe back towards the mouth of the Fraser River. I don't know what has gotten into these whales lately (hopefully an abundance of Chinook salmon is playing a role!), but they seem to have been especially active over the last week or so. Today we again saw breach after breach. For starters we followed along K21 Cappuccino and his sister K40 Raggedy, who have been spending a lot of time with J-Pod. Cappuccino breached a couple of times - it is always so impressive to see a big adult male clear the water! Here is J38 Cookie, a seven year old whale about to crash down on a belly flop:

You couldn't ask for a better view of an orca than this one we got right here:

We even saw a couple of almost double breaches. This whale is about to crash down next to the splash of another whale that had just landed:

We're definitely in the middle of harbor seal pupping season right now as well, as on the way home we saw about five mom and pup pairs. I'll have to try and get a better picture of them at some point - we give them a wide berth when they're hauled out and the ones in the water were too quick for me today, but they sure are cute!

An Extraordinary Experience

The pictures speak for themselves today, but I'm going to give you a few words to preface them anyway. To set the stage, last night we saw J-Pod heading south along the westside of San Juan Island, and heard there were lots of whales inbound from the ocean via the Strait of Juan de Fuca. There was hope that today might be a superpod, but I had little idea what it was in store.

I have been watching these whales for 10 years, and every encounter with them is different and exciting. Every once in a rare while, though, I get to witness something that absolutely blows me away. Today was one of those days.

These whales are known for being fairly active at the surface, but I have never seen them as active as they were today. They were in three large resting groups when we arrived on scene, and about 15 minutes after we got there they woke up and absolutely erupted. Tail slaps, cartwheels, breaches, double breaches - all happening every which way you looked and all happening at the same time. I really don't have the words to describe what it was like to be out there watching them, but hopefully these photos will give you a glimpse into the phenomenal morning I was lucky enough to experience.

Part of J-Pod in Boundary Pass and at Sunset

I think summer has finally arrived! Today we had sunshine all day and temperatures in the 70s, with more of the same forecast for the next week. It was perfect weather for heading out this afternoon on the Western Explorer, our zodiac-style boat.

On our way north we spotted several bald eagles hanging out on a small rocky island. A closer look revealed that they had a carcass they were feeding on, shown here at the feet of the left eagle.

Up in Boundary Pass we met up with part of J-Pod (for the last little while the Js have been traveling in two separate groups). Again some of the older whales were in the lead, and again they were fairly active. We saw a couple of cartwheels from J1 Ruffles, a distant breach and a spyhop by J8 Spieden, and a couple of breaches by J2 Granny. I'm not positive, but this may well be her:

A little later before heading home we had a nice closer pass by J8 Spieden, who is distinct with her comparatively short, stubby dorsal fin.

What do I want to do after spending a day at work, part of which was on the water on the sunshine watching whales? Enjoy some more sunshine and watch some more whales, of course. We headed out to Land Bank on the westside of the island where bait fish were jumping all over the place. There were so many of them it was even possible to get some photos!

I wasn't the only whale nut - some other Western Prince employees showed up too - just in time to see the same group of J-Pod whales that I saw earlier in the day head south in the golden sunset lighting. They were a little ways offshore but it was incredibly peaceful to listen to their breathing and watch their dark silhouettes break the calm surface of the water. One whale breached four times:

I liked this photo that captured the moment whale. An adult male whale continues south down the strait, a freighter heads north, and the Olympic Mountains catch the last of the sunlight in the background:

Ahhh....it finally feels like summer is here!!

4th of July Fireworks ~ Orca Style

The Fourth of July holiday weekend is always the busiest of the year in Friday Harbor, and this year was no exception. With a wedding to attend and a couple of long work days I haven't even had time to look at my photos, let alone blog, until now! Luckily the whales continued to hang around and we saw them on both trips yesterday aboard the Western Prince.

In the morning we met up with part of J-Pod two miles south of Turn Point. As soon as we got on scene we had a great pass by J1 Ruffles, the oldest male in the Southern Resident community at an estimated 59 years of age.

It's always great to see him, and nearby was J2 Granny, the oldest female at an estimated 99 years old. As we watched them slowly make their way north we had little idea what was in store for us! It started with a huge belly-flop breach by Ruffles, who I often describe as a stoic whale that doesn't often participate in a lot of surface behaviors. In fact, before yesterday, I had only ever seen him breach once before. Of course my camera wasn't ready, but he gave me another chance as over the next half hour he breached six times!! Here are two of my favorite shots from a couple of the breaches:

Ruffles seemed to get some of the other older whales going as Granny, in the distance, gave two huge cartwheels. Before we left we saw J33 Keet and 77 year old female J8 Spieden coming along, and Spieden gave a huge water-clearing breach too! People often ask if the older whales slow the group down and I explain that often they're actually out in front leading the way. Today Ruffles, Granny, and Spieden showed that they are alive and well, and still going strong!

On our afternoon trip we met up with a different part of J-Pod who have been traveling with a couple of K-Pod whales. The swells had picked up a little bit which made IDs a little difficult, but there were probably at least six or seven whales traveling together in this group. At first they seemed to be lazily milling about, but then they grouped up and started to get a little more active. This male gave a series of tail slaps, generating some huge splashes:

J34 Doublestuf, a twelve year-old male, was doing a lot of rolling around at the surface with a female whale that we weren't able to get an ID on. It was fun to watch them, as you would see a dorsal fin here, a tail there, and then a pec fin or a belly as they continued to hang out and play around.

Despite all the fantastic orca sightings of late it's never just about the whales and we always have other wildlife to look at as well. The beginning of July always marks the start of the harbor seal pupping season in local waters and this week we've seen our first pups of the year hauled out next to their mothers. This one lifted its head to give us a curious look while it's mother paid us no mind:

We passed a group of a half-dozen harbor seals hauled out on Spieden Island, and when a bald eagle flew overhead and landed on the cliff above them they barely even looked up. Suddenly a river otter hopped out of the water right next to the seals and ran right by them into a hole in the rocks, and that certainly got their attention as all the seals bolted into the water!

In terms of bird sightings, in addition to several eagles we saw a pair of black oystercatchers, several flocks of rhinoceros auklets, and a group of 20 or so Canada geese on Green Point. We also saw this pigeon guillemot in Spieden Channel, and I like this photo because to me the water looks like something out of a painting instead of a reflection of the island and sky above:

The Friday Harbor fireworks at night were a great ending to the day, but all the orca "fireworks" were my highlight on this 4th of July!

Double Dose of L-Pod

Yesterday I worked two trips on the Western Prince and we saw L-Pod off the southwest side of San Juan Island on both trips. L-Pod, at about 40 whales, is the largest of the three Southern Resident pods and often splits up into two or more smaller groups. The L12 sub-group are the ones that I've had the chance to spend the most time with over the last several years as they usually spend more time in inland waters than the rest of L-Pod. I really enjoyed yesterday's trips because we got to spend some quality time with some different L-Pod families that we don't often get to see a lot of.

In the morning we had a charter and the sun was shining. As we left the dock we suspected the whales were along the west side of the island but we didn't know for sure. We pulled out into the straits just as another boat found some whales further to the north, but we knew they could be more. As we cruised along we were excited to find about 15 whales just south of False Bay. Included in the group were, from left to right, L27 Ophelia, L86 Surprise, and her one year old calf L112:

For the afternoon trip the clouds had moved in a bit which was actually beautiful because the waters were glassy calm and perfect for stunning reflections, as seen in this photo of a glaucous-winged gull:

We had seen some tight groups of whales swimming together in the morning, and they were a little more spread out this afternoon. A couple of the first whales we came across were L55 Nugget and her seven year-old daughter L103 Lapis:

We also saw the two brothers L95 Nigel (14 years old) and L105 Fluke (six years old) who were swimming closely together and seemed quite playful.

Several times they were swimming upside down waving their tails in the air, and we also had a big breach from Fluke:

On both trips, we saw lots of harbor seals, nesting double-crested cormorants, and several bald eagles flying overhead on the way back home to Friday Harbor after seeing the whales. Good stuff!