San Juan Whale Watching

We had a wonderful encounter with J-Pod, K-Pod and part of L-Pod off of the northwest side of San Juan Island today. Each pod is a matrilineal family group, meaning that all offspring spend their entire lives with their mothers and that, of course, the whales do not mate within their own pods. So, it is only natural for the whales to be extra “social” when all three pods get together. There was a lot of that going on today, with several sightings of what we sometimes call “sea snakes”. Lots of spy hops as well, and general foraging and goofing off. There is really something special about seeing these guys being so playful with each other.

On the way home we encountered a couple of Peregrine Falcons soaring off of Spieden Island. We normally do not see Peregrines much, but these two have been in this same area the last few afternoons. They are amazingly fast and have no problem chasing off the errant Bald Eagle. In fact, it almost seemed that they took pleasure in dive bombing a juvenile eagle that made the mistake of flying too close to the falcons. What a cool thing to watch!