Written by Alison
on Jun 21, 2026

Orcas by Deer Harbor

Orcas by Deer Harbor

July 11, 2026 PM – Well some days you have to go 20 miles to see whales and some days you don’t. Today we lucked out with Bigg’s Killer Whales just north of Friday Harbor! We started our encounter along the San Juan Island shoreline where we had dark green water and backlit blows. I had only snapped one picture before they went on a long dive and completely changed direction. When they came up next they were headed east aiming for Deer Harbor on Orcas. Today we had the T100’s. Hutchins is the 47 year old mother of the family group and was traveling with her 24 year old son, Laurel and her youngest of 3 daughters, 12 year old Estrella. Laurel is a very impressive adult male with a huge dorsal fin! When our time was up with the whales we went exploring. We headed up to the Cactus Islands then up into Boundary Pass and cruised by the Turn Point Lighthouse. From there we headed to Sentinel Rock to checkout some Harbor Seals. Our attention was quickly drawn to the exotic game animals on Spieden Island. We had some of the Mouflon (Big Horned Sheep) right down near the water and some European Fallow Deer up higher on the hill. Perched on a very low hanging limb was a Bald Eagle! Bald Eagles can have a few brown feathers mixed in with the white on their head when they are nearing maturity. Somehow this one looks more like dirt, possibly from feeding on a dead animal. What do you think? From here we made one last stop to see our rare visitor to the San Juan Islands, a Sea Otter!

Photographer and Naturalist: Alison Engle – Instagram: @AlisonEngleArt – Website: www.AlisonEngle.com – Instagram: @WesternPrinceWildlife – Facebook: Western Prince Whale Watching Adventures

 

Written by Alison
on Jun 21, 2026

Orcas by Deer Harbor

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