Orca Whales Sighted!!
Orca Whales have been sighted just north of Anacortes heading south! The Island Explorer 3 will be leaving the dock shortly for the 9:30AM tour - stay tuned to the Whale Report for updates from Naturalist Bart Rulon! Our morning trip started out well since we knew the orcas were close to home. As we left the dock we watch a bald eagle get chased around by some glaucous-winged gulls. He perched in a tree close by giving us a good viewing. Since there was an extreme low tide today we also saw many ochre sea stars along the rocks and pilings. It didn't take very long before we were able to find J-pod just off the south end of Lopez Island. We saw a lot of J26, Mike, close up and we also watched as two J-pod calves played around together, porpoising, tail slapping, and just rolling around with each other. No moms were nearby to help identify which calved they were, but they sure were having fun. A bald eagle flew low to the water right toward us and gave all our passengers a great view on the bow. Next we spotted a minke whale amongst the orcas. We spent 15 minutes watching the minke whale and he came out of the water twice lunge feeding at close range. We were close to Swirl Rocks so we decided to take a short detour to look for wildlife on the rocks. We spotted lots of harbor seals on the rocks, and several oystercatchers were flying around causing lots of noise. The seals seemed to get alarmed by the oystercatchers antics and about half of them slipped into the water. Next we drove back out to watch the orcas one last time as they had moved north along San Juan Island. We said goodbye to J-pod then headed back along the path we drove out on. Naturalist Bart Rulon
3:30Pm Trip - By our afternoon trip the weather had improved. The rain stopped and the sun kept trying to come out. We started out this trip with our bald eagle perched on the same tree we saw him on this morning. The orcas had moved further away from us so we knew we probably wouldn't make any stops until we reached them. Along our way however we saw lots of harbor seals in the water, harbor porpoise, and several Dall's porpoise. Shortly after that we found J-pod again out near Hein Bank. They were spread out pretty well. The first orca we saw was Mike, J26. We watched him for a while then we moved over to watch a group of 4 orcas traveling together closer to shore. It was J11, Blossom, J27, Blackberry, J31, Tsuchi, and J39. They were swimming in a tight group then as they got closer they appeared to be chasing salmon because they spread apart and did several changes of direction. All day we heard chatter on the radio that nobody had spotted J1, Ruffles, or J2, Granny. We were the first boat today to spot Ruffles, J1, as he was swimming slowly by himself. We never did find Granny but I'm sure she was out there somewhere because J-pod was pretty spread out today. The last sub pod we watched today was J14, Samish, J30 Riptide, J37, Hy'Shqa, and J40. It was a beautiful evening with orcas, sunshine and calm seas. Naturalist Bart Rulon
posted by Island Adventures Whale Report @ 8:31 AM
0 Comments
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home