Today Captain Jim and I went on one of the longest journeys that the Hawk has been on this season! It was worth it to have such a great experience on the salty Captain's last day of the season.
Despite the wet weather earlier in the day our passengers were excited and ready to see some wildlife, and so were we! We left the dock under sunny skies and headed South through Mosquito Pass. As we cruised through the windy (and windy!) Pass, we checked out a great blue heron and a small colony of harbor seals, both enjoying the benefits of low tide: One searching for tasty snacks trapped in tidepools, one resting and soaking up the sun before returning to the chilly water.
Once we entered the Haro Strait, we began our long chug down towards our whale reports just North of the Olympic Peninsula. The earlier rain had cleared much of the particles from the Western Washington fires from the air, and our visibility was excellent so we were scanning for black dorsal fins.
After an extremely long but scenic journey down the Strait decorated with incredible cloudscapes, we finally saw what we were looking for: several black dorsal fins breaking the surface! We entered an area where dorsal fins were surfacing as far as the eye could see! J Pod, K Pod and L Pod were all represented in this infrequent "superpod" occurrence. Often when all three groups get together, we see lots of activity like breaching and tail slaps and spy hops, but today they had a different agenda: eat.
In typical resident fashion, these whales were spread way out as they covered as much water as possible while hunting chinook salmon. One of these groups decided to grace us with their presence and consisted of J49 (T'ilem Inges), his mother J37 (Hy'ahqa) and his great-GREAT grandmother, the notorious J2 (Granny). You don't get to have great-great-grandchildren without having lived a long time, and its thought that Granny is roughly one-hundred-and-four years old (and still spry)! Granny often travels with her grandchildren, and it was quite special to witness this obvious family connection.
After getting some great looks at the trio, a glance closer to the boat revealed an awesome surprise: a small flock of Red-Necked phalaropes! These tiny birds that stir up the water to eat crustaceans were already in their winter plumage for their southern migration through our waters. As Autumn aproaches, many migratory birds will hang out or simply pass by the San Juan Islands as they head for warmer climates.
We also got a look at K21 (Cappuccino) and L87 (Onyx) as the entire pod took advantage of the seemingly abundant salmon feast.
Unfortunately, we did not have all day to spend watching the tail slaps and dives for food of these orcas, so we soon began our chug back up North to Roche Harbor. With the wind and tide at our backs, wildlife in our memories and smiles on our faces, we even managed to get one group back in time for a wedding!
Another Whale of a day in the San Juan Islands!
Naturalist Mike J
M/V Seahawk
San Juan Outfitters