San Juan Whale Watching

We had some unseasonably cool, rainy weather today. Fortunately for us, the rain started just as we were coming in from our morning trip, ended as we began our afternoon trip, and then started again when we returned. Of course, the whales didn’t mind, they are already wet.

This morning J-Pod turned up off of Victoria, heading towards San Juan Island. Yeah! They then proceeded to repeat yesterday’s “West Side Shuffle”. We had lots of foraging, multi directional behavior today. This makes for great whale watching, allowing us to spend a lot of time with our engines off as the whales slice back and forth through the water after their prey. Looks like a lot of Salmon around, which is very good to see.

One of the highlights of today were the 10-15 Oyster Catchers that we found at the south end of San Juan Channel. These are some of my favorite birds, with their shrill cries and bright orange beaks.