Whale Watching Report

We headed south today to start out our trip. Our first wildlife stop was at the south end of Lopez Island and Castle Island. There we saw a variety of great wildlife starting with multitudes of pigeon guillemots in the water and on the rocks. Next a bald eagle flew right over us as we motored over to look at a few harbor seals hauled out on the rocks. As we passed by the seals at close range the tide was low enough that many purple sea stars were visible. Right before we checked out the eagle's nest on the south end of Lopez we saw two more bald eagles soaring together. Later as we worked our way west we saw many more harbor seals hauled out on Swirl Rocks, and one black oystercatcher. Next we headed out into the open water and we were able to find a minke whale out at Hein Bank. Within minutes another minke whale popped up close by too. Both whales were changing directions often, but they gave us some very good views. One of the minke's, with a distinct notch in his or her dorsal fin, surfaced right next to the bow of our boat giving us all a great close up view. Later the other minke whale came up lunge feeding after a long dive. After we said goodbye to our entertaining minke whales we visited whale rocks and saw close to one hundred harbor seals hauled out there along with another black oystercatcher, some harbor porpoise, and 5 harlequin ducks. It was definitely a good day for a variety of species. Naturalist, Bart Rulon