Blogging is always so much easier as a naturalist when you have amazing trips. I must say, I have been extremely fortunate throughout the 2013 season in having great trips. Tonight was another one of those top five best nights. Our Southern Resident Killer Whales surprised us all, as they usually do, by swimming the (roughly) 90 mile voyage from the western side of Vancouver Is. BC into the northern waters of the Puget Sound. It's not uncommon for Killer Whales to swim 100+ miles a...

Today was a beautiful day to be on the water with plenty of action, and Caitlin, Captain Mike and I were out to experience it all! We left the dock and headed out to the south end of San Juan Island. As we went through Cattle Pass, there was a plethora of wildlife to be scene. A mated pair of Bald Eagles flew above the water in front of us and landed on Goose Island. Also on Goose Island were lots of hatchings! Fluff balls of down feathers and young, disoriented, hungry baby Galls...

Working on a tip from other whale watching boats, Captain Mike, Naturalists Andrew and Heather, and a hopeful crew, departed the Friday Harbor docks and set course for the northeast tip of Orcas Island. I made it known to our guests that we were embarking on a unique cruise. The majority of the time, the M/V “Sea Lion” explores the west side of the San Juan Islands, as the southern resident killer whale pods are known to focus their activity there. But two days ago, the resident...

Captain Mike, Andrew and myself left our Friday Harbor location today and headed south through the San Juan Channel and into Cattle Pass where we hoped to encounter some great whale activity. Along the way we stopped to say "hello" to my favorite small critters that are known to inhabit the Salish Sea: Harbor Seals. The harbor seals thrive on our large tidal difference here which create the upwellings they navigate through to hunt. Their whiskers on the front of their face are...

The day started off great! As we headed out into the San Juan Channel, Captain Mike, Naturalist Kevin and myself along with our eager guest came across our local Harbor Seals feeding in the amazing tidal rips that develop in the Cattle Pass area. We saw close to a hundred Harbor Seals!

From there, we heading out through Cattle Pass were we encountered at least a half dozen Minke whales. Minke whales are approximately 25-30 feet long and feed in the shallower waters off the south end...

At this time of year, it’s not unusual to leave the dock without a whale sighting to direct our course. The relatively predictable Southern Resident Killer Whales may not return to their summer feeding grounds in the Salish Sea for quite some time yet. Fortunately, the San Juan Islands harbor an abundance of life year-round, especially during the spring.

Today we passed by Yellow Island and saw sprays of color from spring wildflowers. Speiden Island is also looking oddly verdant. It...

Our 2013 Whale Watch season is off the a great start. We've hosted guests on four Whale Watch tours in the past week and encountered Transient mammal-hunting Orcas on each tour. Today was no exception!

We departed Friday Harbor without any reports of killer whales in the area and were having a great wildlife tour encountering Stellar's sea lions, bald eagles, and harbor seals galore. We were about to leave Spieden Channel to head North into Haro Strait when (to our surprise!!), I...

Today’s tour was a bit different than usual, yet so refreshing! With no whale reports since the night before, we took our tour to the inner islands.

Sure the San Juan Islands are home to one of the most charismatic animals in the world, the Killer Whale, but that is not the only thing that makes them beautiful. Often times the inner beauties of these islands are overlooked, but today we allowed our guests to discover these beauties. We toured along Flattop Island, the Cactus Islands...

Sky and sea blended together as we left Friday Harbor this afternoon. It was overcast and a bit foggy, but spirits were high in the hopes of finding killer whales. We headed south, and as we turned around Cattle Point it started to clear up, giving us good visibility. As soon as we reached False Bay, off in the distance was a large, triangular dorsal fin. Soon after that we were surrounded by killer whales, and even got to see a younger one breach three times before swimming off.

We...

We were excited to depart Friday Harbor with sun, glass waters and a boat full of passengers who’ve never seen whales in the wild before. We headed north into Canadian waters where the orcas were last sited. After viewing harbor seals hauled out on the rocks, we continued into the Strait of Georgia. It took us over an hour to get there, but at last, killer whales!

There were many orcas, perhaps two pods, spread out over a large distance. We stayed to the outside of the group and...