Whale Watching Report

We had beautiful conditions today with sunny skies and calm seas. Before any of the passengers boarded the Island Explorer 3 today we had a bald eagle fly right over us at the top of A dock as captain Michael was briefing them about our trip today. Later we headed south around Lopez island and slowed down to look at wildlife around Castle rock. We saw several harbor seals hauled out on the rocks there. We found J-pod just north of the Lime Kiln Lighthouse on the west side of San Juan Island. We spent most of our time watching J16, Slick, and her family J26, Mike, J33, Keet, J36, Alki, and J42 the youngest member of J-pod. They were all swimming in a close group and surfacing together for some great photo opportunities. Later we moved off-shore to check out J1, Ruffles. He was obviously chasing salmon at the surface with many changes of directions and circling back and forth. We shut down the engines to watch him hunting. He was in hot pursuit of fish on two different occasions then he changed directions and came right over to pay us a visit!! He gave the passengers a good look at just how big an adult orca really is. As we waved goodby to J-pod we drove past Speiden Island and saw many of the exotic animals there such as the mouflon sheep, sika deer, and fallow deer. Several bald eagles and turkey vultures were gathered up on the hillside of Speiden in two groups squabbling over a kill of some sort. Other wildlife sighted today included Canada geese, pelagic cormorants, rhinoceros auklets, pigeon guillemots, and harbor porpoise. What a great day!! Naturalist Bart Rulon