Well, the 4th of July is known for fireworks, and today’s trips had plenty of fireworks supplied by the many species of wildlife that call the San Juan Islands their home.  We had two trips today aboard the Western Explorer, and our first trip had the sun peeking out behind low clouds.  We headed north towards Battleship Island, and before we knew it, we were seeing a very familiar, large dorsal fin with a wavy back edge to it.  Yep–our good friend J1, Ruffles.  He was traveling like a good son near his mom, J2 Granny.  The bulk of whales were behind them by several miles, so we decided to hang out with Ruffles and Granny for a bit.  People ask how often big whales like Ruffles breach, and my standard answer in the past has been “well, he’s an older male and very large, so it doesn’t seem like he breaches very often….”  We had just talked about whales breaching when Ruffles decided he wasn’t so old after all and launched out of the water!!  And I guess he must have had some good food last night as we heard on the radio that he breached an additional 5 times that morning!  We then watched J27 and gang come by, and they were porpoising as they sped to catch up to J1 & J2.  We then headed over to Speiden Island, where we had the rare treat of seeing a peregrine falcon swoop off the cliff!  Not to be outdone, a nesting pair of bald eagles perched imperially in a tree, watching the currents for a bit of salmon.  And the wildlife kept showing up as we then had a mother harbor seal with her new pup hitching a ride on her back!

As the afternoon wore on, the clouds thickened and it started to sprinkle a bit.  But that didn’t dampen spirits on the afternoon trip!  We had a report of another group of whales that were just milling around Kellett Bluff, so off we went.  Along the way we made a very wide scan for dall’s porpoises, but they have been very scarce this summer.  As we floated about 400 yards from the small group of whales, we noticed that they were taking turns meandering into Open Bay, then out along the shore into the current, and back again. Whales were logging on the surface, some for 2-3 minutes at a time.  It was a bit choppy in the current, so getting IDs for a long time was difficult, even with zoom lenses and binoculars.  And then things started to get interesting.  One whale in Open Bay did a large cartwheel.  Another spyhopped along the shoreline at Kellett.

And then a big male came up and finally an ID–K21 Cappucino!  So knowing he’s tight with sister K40 Raggedy, we began looking for her tell-tale dorsal fin.  But no sign of her, just a whale with about a foot of her nose sticking out of the water.  Kinda like she was thinking of doing a spyhop, but just holding the nose out of the water.  For nearly 2 minutes!  And then she rose to take a breath and voila–K40!  The whales had been milling at Kellett for nearly an hour before we got there, and after about 30 minutes, decided it was time to head south.  K40 did 3 breaches, there were lots of surface percussives and more spyhops, and the whales decided “rest and recreation” time was over and it was time to move on.

An amazing 4th of July!!!