K27 Deadhead (it’s a funny name, I know. She’s named after Jerry Garcia of the Greatful Dead) welcomes her first little bundle of joy into the world - K44! This little calf was probably born on July 6th or 7th and the Center for Whale Research has already confirmed that it is a male. The new little baby seems to be very healthy and has no trouble keeping up with mom. CWR reported that when they went to photograph the baby for the first time, Deadhead pushed it up to the boat on her head! It’s almost as if she was showing off. Here is the only photo I have of the new baby. It’s not very good, but you can make out the tiny little guy in the left of the photo. Congrats to K Pod and K27 Deadhead. We hope this little guy lives a long and happy life:

We had two trips out on the Western Prince today. It was a gorgeous, lazy, sunny Sunday. The whales spent the majority of the day resting in Open Bay off the south end of Henry Island. We saw all of J pod, the K13 subgroup, and L87 Onyx all in a tight bunch methodically surfacing to take breaths while they all took a LONG nap:

What a fabulous day of whale watching!  Since July 4th falls on a Monday, the island begins swelling with visitors on Friday….and there are lots of foks with hopes of an Orca whale experience!

This morning our trip takes us to Rosario Strait, way over by Anacortes.  We find J Pod traveling south in family groups.  There are lots of boats, but the whales keep on a southerly track swimming swiftly at about 8 knots.  Can you pick up the third fin in this family photo?

The sunshine has finally filled the skies of the Pacific Northwest and we are all appreciative.  Flat water allows great views of our southern resident pod.

This afternoon we find the whales rounding the south end of Lopez Island, still traveling in small groups, with several large males on the edge.  Down by Salmon Bank bouy we enjoy lots of seabird sightings!  Rhinocerous auklets have their beaks full of small schooling fish!  Wow!  Great catch!

It’s an easy day to stay and enjoy the sunshine, warm temperatures, glassy water and incredible mountain views.

J Pod and L-87, hurry up the westside of the island.  Maybe some meet up plans?  Or perhaps tonight to the  Fraser River?  As we turn in Cattle Pass to return to Friday Harbor, it only leaves me to wonder, “And what about tomorrow?  Where will we find you?  Where are you going?  Adios!”

Oh look!  One last feather floating on a silent sea!  Maybe an omen for good luck tomorrow!?

This day starts early with a ride up to Roche Harbor to pick up folks traveling with Backroads Tours.  A grey, northwest day for sure, but with so many whale sightings lately, spirits are high.  Our trip down the west side of San Juan Island is a smooth one, in fairly flat water with no wind.  We see the Salmon Bank bouy from way off, but no fins?  Scanning 360, help from everyone…and then, blow in the air!  We watch whales on both sides of the boat for a wonderful hour.  The breach!  The tail slaps!  Then the two group come together.  They move off toward Salmon Bank….maybe for salmon!?  There is lots of socialization going on as the whales roll, turn, twist, do a few back strokes, and then, hey! … Fins up everyone!  If whales could dance, this would be it.  Maybe they can!

We stop to see 100 or more harbor seals hauled out, and one bald eagle among a sea of cormorants at Whale Rocks.

For the trip home, out come the blankets and woolie hats.  Our guests from Flordia got a real taste of the Northwest this morning!

Back out in the afternoon to find the whales were really “making tracks”….or “fluke prints” as they are now headed north up Rosario Strait.  Now this is a first for me….watching whales by Burrows Island, with Anacortes close by!  The J family is joined by the K-13’s and yes, L-87 for this afternoons travel.  Again, flat water makes whale watching so easy!  Foraging behavior keeps the whales very busy.  Let’s hope it’s productive and tonight they have full bellies.  Folks with their eyes glued to the action, have the awesome experience of watching orca whales do orca whale things.  One sub-adult male goes for a record with 17 tail slaps in a row!  A few young ones spy hop their way along followed by adult females.  Then some rolls and twists for what I decide to call a “Whale Jumble.”  Is that like a good old fashioned “Pig Pile?”  But whale style!

Lovely, lovely day on the water.  Fantastic whales.  Smiling faces.  Good company!

J32 Rhapsody has been one of the most entertaining whales to behold this season. It just seems that she has discovered how darn good she is a breaching - if fact most of the photos I have of breaching whales this year happen to be her! Yesterday was no different. We had a fabulous encounter with the J11’s, the J22’s, and the J17’s on the west side of San Juan Island yesterday. The whales must have had full bellies because all they were doing was playing, playing, playing! J32 Rhapsody certainly wasn’t going to be left out of the fun. She breached over 7 times yesterday! What fabulous fun to watch her fly though the air!

Wow has it been a busy week! We’ve had the very pleasant issue of having whales everywhere! J pod has been around consistently for almost the entire month. They have been swimming the classic “westside shuffle” where they just constantly travel up and down the west side feeding on salmon. They have also, every now and again, been doing big loops around all the islands in search of food. The K13 subgroup has also been hanging out with J pod for a over a week now and of course, L87 Onyx continues to be the honorary J pod member. Come out and join us on an adventure! More notes from the field coming soon! Stay tuned!

Over the past week or so we have had tremendous encounters with J pod. They have been continuously traveling up and down the west side of San Juan Island doing, what many of us like to call, “The Westside Shuffle”. Orcas are known to travel great distances and can easily swim 50-100 miles in a day. So why is J pod just hanging out in the same general area? The answer is quite simple - FOOD! As the tide moves into the Salish Sea through the Strait of Juan de Fuca, it brings the whales’ favorite menu item along with it. Of course I am speaking of salmon. The tide pushes the salmon against the west side of San Juan Island and therefore, this area becomes one of the orcas’ favorite dining spots. Our resident J, K, and L pods are very picky eaters. If you think your five-year-old kid is a picky eater, you haven’t seen anything yet. The resident orcas in this area eat salmon, salmon, salmon, and…oh yeah…more salmon. Large males may eat up to 500 pounds of these tasty fish every day! Now that’s a lot of sashimi!
So today was no different. We met up with the whales on the west side of the island. They must have had full bellies. Why do I think this? They were spending quite a bit of their time socializing and then proceeded to take a nap while gently swimming and letting the flood tide carry them to the north. Here are some photos from today’s journey:

~katie

Whales!  Yes!  We head into Haro Strait and dead ahead J Pod appears as they make their way north.  J-27, Blackberry swims off our starboard side with more J Pod family members.  It’s easy to spend an hour watching as the orcas travel up the strait, over to the shore of Stuart Island, and around Turn Point.  There are some breaches from the youngsters!  Then a spy hop!  The water is flat today and half way through the trip the clouds give way to sunshine.  Magical!

Today we are lucky.  When you have time to see things, you really see a lot of things.  The whales were close by today, so as we start the trip home we stop to watch a Peregrine falcon perch on the edge of  a cliff wall.  The beautiful black and white checked feathers on the breast look fancy!  Checking out Flat Top Island we find harbor seals, and then….my binoculars focus on….river otters wrestling around on top of the rocks!!  The icing on the cake is the adult bald eagle on nest sitting duty, high in a fir tree.  Hum…Mrs. or Mr. Eagle?  No way to tell!  Soon I’ll be looking for small grey heads popping over the edge of the nest!

Another GREAT day on the water with whales….and more!

~Nan

Leaving the dock at noon we quickly head north on a hunch.  J Pod headed toward the Fraser River last night.  Crossing the international boundary we enter Canadian water.  In the distance….fins!  And they are coming this way!

All of J Pod comes speeding across Georgia Strait, with a few breaches for style.  Several set off into cycle breaching, launching into the air several times in a row.

Once on the other side of the strait, the whales split and one group hugs the shore, while the other takes a route right down Boundary Pass.  Time passes magically (and fast) when it’s all about the whales!

On our way home we stop by Skip Jack Island, a wildlife refuge, and find Harbor seals basking on the rocky shore, sea birds and adult Bald eagles!

The water is flat calm today and…a bonus…there is a hint of sunshine!

~Nan

Finally a summer-like day.  Temperatures “soaring” into the low 70s!  We left aboard the Western Explorer without any whale reports, so we thought we’d better keep our eyes open for anything.  As we were heading past Salmon Bank, we began to see some very vigorous splashing.  As we slowly approached the area, we discovered a lone Stellar Sea Lion gorging on an octopus!  It didn’t take the big guy very long to demolish his lunch, and soon he took off on a long dive.  By this time, we had reports of a humpback out off of Constance Bank, which was well within the range of the Western Explorer, so off we went.  Soon we were stopped in the very glassy water, and waited.  It didn’t take long for the massive adult to come to the surface, and the long blows would echo across the water.   But unlike my previous experiences with humpbacks, this one would take 2 short dives, dive for about a minute or two and then surface again.  It was almost as if it were in some type of resting pattern, as it made very little headway in it’s travel.  Too soon it was time to head back, but we did manage to find some time to compare this Mysticete with another–a minke whale that was actively feeding near Salmon Bank.  It was great to be able to show our passengers two types of whales in one trip!

On Friday and Saturday this week we have fantastic trips, full of wildlife including great views of Minke whales.  The weather for these two days is a great asset to our trips!  It is super!  There is nothing more uplifting to the heart of a Pacific Northwesterner than sun and severnty degrees!

The Minke whales appear to feed off Salmon Bank on Friday and Saturday, and we even find one right in San Juan Channel on Friday!  What a surprise!  The tide rips through Cattle Pass and perhaps that sets up a good food supply for Harbor porpoise, Harbor seals, Minke whales and many many seabirds.

We spot two sealions using the Salmon Bank bouy for a haulout spot, but our eyes pop out when we get close enough to verify what we thought we saw with binoculars: a California sealion and a Steller sealion sharing space on the same bouy.  Easy to tell who weighs the most!

What great trips!  Our search takes us from north to south, in and out of many small passages, around wildlife refuges, past Bald eagle nests, around Harbor seal haulouts, and right into Haro Strait.  Friday my Bald eagle count soars to 21!  The Peregrine falcon is a special addition to the cruise wildlife record sheet.

Although no one dares to say it out loud, I bet everyone is thinking it:

“Spring is here today.  Tomorrow is summer!

~Nan

The T18’s are probably my favorite group of transient orcas. They are very charismatic and easy to identify. When we arrived on scene with these orcas, we immediately knew who we were looking at because one of the animals has a sort of banana shaped fin - T19B “Galiano”:

Transient Orca whales!  Coming our way!!  This is a welcome message        from our whale watch network.  Only 20 minutes into our trip, flat  water, sunshine and now a whale report.  With this news we are on our  way up to Canadian water, in the northern part of our range.  We find four  Transient orcas milling around in the junction of Bounary Pass and  Georgia Strait.  There is a lot of shipping traffic so Captain Pete is on the  watch, keeping us in line with good viewing, and out of the way of  everything else.  We get good looks at the massive male and his incredible  fin.  Noticing that the tide is providing lots of action in the water around  Boiling Reef…yes, it’s startinng to boil, we motor over to check out the  Harbor seals and Steller sealions on the reef.  These two marine mammals  are definitely on the menu for Transient orca.  Although the Southern  Resident orca whales prefer fish, favoring the King Salmon from the  Fraser River in B.C., the Transients diet consists of marine mammals.

It’s fascinating to see these massive sealions hauled out on the rocks.  Their 12 ft. length and 2,000 lb. weight is evident.  That’s when our eyes pick up splashing and high action back over by the orcas!  It’s a quick trip back over to where the whales had been just gliding around, almost casually, and we see the scene has definitely changed.  No more casual.  Now there is a high stakes game of cat and mouse going on….or, orca and sealion.  Only the teams are unbalanced.  Four to one….one Steller sealion putting up the fight of his life.  We watch the amazing battle for almost an hour.  The whales have their game plan down.  They split up, leaving the smaller whales to watch the prey….and then the massive male and the female return at high speed, sometimes lunging out of the water with a twist and crashing down with their flukes, right on the sealion, who is pushed to the surface by the other two whales.  Flippers would surface, and then down they would go.  A sealion body came up, and then, it was smashed down…..over and over and over.

The next pass of the male orca showed a huge gash on the forward edge of his dorsal fin.  Sealion jaws at work?  The energy the whales put into the hunt was amazing.  And in the end?  Would it be dinner for four?  Or, just a snack?

The sealion did make a “run for it” when left unattended for a moment.  Could he make it to Boiling Reef?  What could be left of him?  How could he be swimming?  Or breathing for that matter?  The last I saw of the game players, the sealion was slightly ahead of the whales, swimming toward Georgia Strait, and four huge black fins were in persuit.

The Nature Channel….Live…on Saturday from The Western Prince II in the San Juan Islands!

~Nan

The Pacicic Northwest always holds surprises and today is no exception!  Leaving the dock we have no orca report, but the northerly direction calls us and Captain Pete points the bow up San Juan Channel toward Canada.  A quick stop at Yellow Island lets us check on  wildflowers and Harbor seals.  Before long a call comes in about Orcas, but they are out of our range.  With flat water and a light breeze, the Western Prince moves further to the north.  Then Orcas are spotted on the edge of our range, but they are moving toward us!  We’re OFF!  After a quick stop at Boiling Reef to admire the Steller sealions and a few more Harbor seals, we round the corner and continue up the edge of Georgia Strait.  There we find, not two Orcas, but 6 or 7!  The minute we arrive on scene, they stop, circle around, and then the hunt begins.  These are Transient Orca whales, and they are definitely in the hunting mode for seals, sealions and porpoise.  What team work…moving two at a time, turning, coming back to three more, then disappearing under the surface, quick dives, a few tail lobs, and lots of action.  The entire hour we got to observe them they were almost in the same place.  In the distance on the Bell Chain island reefs you could see lots of Harbor Seals basking in the sun.  Did they not know this massive predator was near?  It was a great afternoon, in the sun, rippled water and watching “the nature show” at it’s best!

After a few tail slaps and a great farewell wave, we turn our bow for port and our trip back to Friday Harbor is a smooth one.  Maybe summer is really approaching the San Juans?!