San Juan Island Adventures

Over the weekend several transient orcas were seen in the Puget Sound area.  These orcas came in to feed on the ample supply of seals, sea lions, and porpoises.   Transient orcas are excellent hunters, and often work together as a team.  Often in the San Juans we see them porpoising on top of their prey and coming up from below very quickly.

In the summer months we typically see transient orcas, when the Southern Resident Orcas are not in the area.  However, in 2013 there...

Our whale reports have been few and fair between these last two weeks, which is not uncommon this time of year. We will take this time to look back on some of our great accomplishments during the 2013 season!

The San Juan Journal readers have spoken! San Juan Outfitters was voted Best Kayak Excursion on San Juan Island. This is a huge honor to the staff at San Juan Outfitters because the majority of the votes came from our small community right here on San Juan Island. We...

Our Southern Resident killer whales visited the waters on the west side of San Juan Island three times this last week. Now, if only they traveled through the Salish Sea during the day! Each visit happened in the dark between 7pm and midnight. Although we did not see J & K pods in the daylight, we seriously enjoyed their playful chatter on the OrcaSound.net hydrophones. There are two hydrophones located on the west side of San Juan Island. The hydrophone node at Lime Kiln...

Southern Resident Killer Whales showed up on Christmas Day! J27 Blackberry, and J2 Granny (who is over 100 years old!) and about 16 Orcas were sighted heading southbound near Seattle near Shilshole Bay Marina and West Point/Discovery Park. The Southern Resident Orcas were traveling at a fast pace, moving at about 5-7 knots.

The next day, we received reports first thing in the morning of killer whales traveling across the shipping lanes from West Point toward Bainbridge...

San Juan Island received it's first real snow fall of the winter. The San Juan Islands and greater Puget Sound area does not get that much snow, surprisingly. We enjoy a relatively mild climate all year round. It does get very hot in the summer (anything over 80 degrees is considered "record breaking heat!) and winter days are usually 35 to 45 degrees. It was very exciting to wake up with snow! The kids on San Juan Island made snowmen & snow angles during their 2-hour...

Rare Transient killer whale behavior was recorded in Haro Strait on December 11, 2013. When killer whales "sleep," they form a resting line, where they are bunched closely together. On our whale watch & wildlife tours, we've encountered upwards of 50 Orcas shoulder to shoulder, surfacing with synchronized movements and breathing. It's pretty incredible! However, the Center for Whale Research captured this video a few days ago of Transient (mammal-hunting) Orcas "logging"...

And we have confirmed sightings of Southern Resident Orcas! This is a treat in December. During the last two weeks or so, our endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales have been frequenting the Seattle area, which is very common. Then, to our surprise, K pod was heard vocalizing on the Lime Kiln Lighthouse Hydrophone late last night around 10:00pm.

Then, around 10:30 this morning, we received reports of 20 killer whales traveling north in Haro Strait near Kelp Reef...

Photography by Mark Gardner

One of the most fantastic things about living in a small community is our holiday spirit. If you think San Juan Island is charming, comfortable, and cozy in the summer month, just wait until you experience Friday Harbor during the holiday season. It's wonderful. We've got some great holiday specials and events coming up in the next few weeks and want to share our infections island holiday spirit with you!

Here is a sampling of what's...

Transient mammal-hunting Orcas have been sighted several times in the past week! Transient killer whales were spotted just north of San Juan Island, near Spieden Island, on November 22, 2013. They just happened to be traveling along with a Washington State Ferry. Then this afternoon, we received reports of the same pod traveling in Haro Strait near Discovery Island (across from Victoria, BC). These killer whales were identified  as T035, T038, T038B, T038C, T038D, T075B...

Many of our guests who travel to San Juan Island have a goal to encounter killer whales by sea kayak on the west side of San Juan Island. Our Southern Resident Orcas calls the waters surrounding San Juan Island home mid-May through mid-September, and the highest probability of countering killer whales by kayak are mid-June through August.

Orcas are the ocean's top predators and travel over 100 miles in a 24 hour period. They are foraging, resting, traveling, and...