[Naturalist Erick D., M/V Seahawk, 8/7/17, 2:00PM]
Some days are amazing whale days, and other days are amazing other wildlife days. The past few days have been super hazy here with a mix of smoke from Canadian wildfires and the normal fog that appears in August. It has made all the islands appear otherworldly as they slip in and out of view as the smoggy clouds traverse across the glassy waters. Yesterday, Captain Joe and I took a group of great people through this unique scene to search for whales and other wildlife. No whales had been spotted that day so we did our own search pattern through the northern San Juan Islands.
Exiting Roche Harbor, we first headed towards Turn Point on Stuart Island. We soon spied a few Bald Eagles that were perched near Lovers’ Leap on Stuart Island. There were a few adult ones that took turns flying back and forth between two trees and an immature Bald Eagle (all brown instead the white head and tail) that was sitting on the high hillside. As we watched these impressive raptors next to the high sea cliffs at turn point we something else careen into the water behind us, so we turned to go check it out. It amazingly was a Bald Eagle! It had dived to catch a fish but the fish was too large so as it tried to fly back up from the water it instead just splashed into the drink.
Bald Eagles once they grab ahold of something with their talons can’t let go until they have something to put pressure on. That means this bird was stuck with that large fish in the water. So, what did it do about that? Well, a birds got to do what a birds got to do. It swam to shore! Once on shore it start to peck at the still flopping fish, but this fish was pretty large and it soon had flopped itself and the Bald Eagle back into the water. Then the eagle had to swim out again, and finally once back on land for a second time it managed to finish off the large salmon and enjoy its supper.
Next we motored by the Turn Point Lighthouse and through Boundary Pass to search for more things. We stopped at a few bait balls to admire all murres, auklets, and gulls and wait and see if any marine mammals popped up from below. We soon saw a group of Harbor Porpoise along with a new calf. These are probably the most common cetaceans in the Salish Sea and definitely the smallest. They are usually very shy since they are very low on the food chain and don’t want to draw attention to themselves. But these five to six foot long porpoises are super cute and still fascinating. We still don’t know too much about them, mostly due to their shyness, but here are some more facts and the strange sounds that they make if you’re interested:
https://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/psb/acoustics/sounds.html
We watched this group for awhile until one of the adult ones leapt clear out of the water! In my four years here, I have never seen a Harbor Porpoise do that. Like I said before they are usually super quite and inconspicuous, but I guess this one wanted to show off – pretty amazing.
On the final part of our search we passed by Flattop Island and looked at a bunch of Harbor Seals both hauled out and swimming in the calm waters on the north side. There also were a bunch of pups too swimming and playing around this area as well. We learned a little bit about these pinniped’s amazing dive habits and how they can stay under for more than 30 minutes! Pretty neat!
And finally we passed by Spieden Island which used to have a large game hunting ranch on it. When that owner sold the island he left a bunch of the exotic animals he stocked it with there, and a few of those populations have survived till today. Three species: Mouflon Sheep, Fallow Deer, and Sika Deer all come from other parts of the work but now graze the hillsides of Spieden Island in peace. We actually saw all three species yesterday, which is pretty rare too since they usually like to spend the day time deep in the forested part of the island.
Whale folks, there goes another wonderful days in the San Juans, hope to see you soon.
Naturalist Erick
