Whale Watching Report

We had perfect weather conditions for both of our trips today with calm seas and sunny skies. For our morning trip we cruised through the inner San Juan Islands to begin with. Along the way we spotted several bald eagles, harbor seals, turkey vultures, pigeon guillemots, and rhinoceros auklets. We went around the north end of San Juan Island and found J & L pods just north of Lime Kiln park. The first orcas we saw were Mike, J26, following around Baba, L26, and Ballena, L90. We got distracted by several planes flying in formation around and around over near Victoria. There must have been some sort of air show going on over there. In the distance we saw several breaches from young orcas. In the end we spotted Blackberry, J27, and we drove over to take a look at him. He gave us some great up close looks before we had to depart for the dock. In Rosario Straits we had a pleasant surprise, as the Lady Washington was sailing. Captain Al lined us up perfectly for photos of The tall ship with Mount Baker in the background. For our Afternoon trip we spotted a great blue heron stalking the shoreline and a bald eagle perched high on a rock within three minutes of the dock. In Rosario Straits we spotted several harbor porpoise and harbor seals. We were headed toward the area we left the orcas this morning, but along the way Captain Michael and first mate Mark spotted a minke whale at the same time. We watched this whale for three sequences of surfacing. Soon we found the orcas south of Lime Kiln Park. The first orca we came across was Faith, L57. He was changing directions often and it looked like he was chasing fish. Soon Baba, L26, and Ballena, L90 curved over and gave us a great close up look. Toward the end of our visit we spotted another lone male in the distance. We cruised over to take a look and found that it was Blackberry, J27, and he looked to be chasing fish with his quick direction changes. Mount Baker, the Olympic Mountains, and Mount Rainier were all visible in full view today. Naturalist Bart Rulon