Orca Whales Sighted From Island Explorer 3!
K40, Raggedy breaching during our 9:30am trip. 
A breach during our 3:30pm trip
Captain Carl called in to report that the Island Explorer 3 is on-scene with the Orca Whales! We headed well north on the morning tour toward Canada but we showed our guests whales! Stay tuned to the Whale Report for details from Naturalist Bart Rulon and click here to see where the Orca Whales are from space! We started out our trip this morning with lots of wildlife sightings a few minutes from the dock. A Great Blue Heron was stalking the shoreline on Fidalgo Island as we left Cap Sante Marina. Then we spotted a bald eagle perched in a tree just around the corner and several pigeon guillemots in the water. We drove north along the east side of Guemes Island and saw four more bald eagles perched in the trees or flying. On the south end of Guemes we also saw two Columbian black-tailed deer near the edge of the rocks and some harbor seals hauled out on the rocks. As the trip went along we ended up seeing a total of 9 bald eagles today. As we continued north in Rosario Straits we saw some harbor porpoise. In the Strait of Georgia we watched a flock of glaucous-winged gulls and then to my surprise a long-tailed Jaeger flew right by us!! Long-tailed jeagers are a really rare sighting for this area. We went as far north as Point Roberts today to find the orcas. The first orca we found was K40, Raggedy. She was in a playful mood and came out of the water for us on several occasions including two big breaches. Soon K21, Cappuccino, swam over to join Raggedy. The brother and sister swam very close together for a long time and we watched these two orcas for most of our trip. Just before we left the scene we watch another K-pod subpod swim by. This group was very playful showing some breaches, porpoising, and one calf even porpoised upside down!! Naturalist Bart Rulon3:30pm
The orcas from this morning headed southwest from their earlier position so we chose a route through the inner San Juan Islands for the second trip. We spotted another bald eagle perched in a tree on Fidalgo Island to start off the trip. We spotted several more eagles throughout the San Juan Islands. We also spotted a couple of mother seals swimming around with their pups close by. As we got close to the orcas we spotted hundreds of harbor porpoises just west of Waldron Island. Northeast of Stuart Island is were we found K-pod orcas swimming southwest toward Turn Point. We watched Sequim, K12, Sekiu, K22, Rainshadow, and Tika all the way as they rounded the point. They were moving pretty fast until they hit the current at Turn Point. Along the west side of Stuart Island we moved up to watch a few other orcas. One orca breached for us twice. Soon we were in for a treat as we watched Lobo, K26, appearing to be babysitting the newest member of K-pod K42. the size difference was really obvious. The two swam side by side for a long time. The last orca we watched as we waved goodbye to K-pod was K21, Cappuccino. Along the way home we had several great viewings of Bald eagles perched in the trees lit up by the evening sunshine. Naturalist Bart Rulon
posted by Island Adventures Whale Report @ 1:07 PM
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