Whale Watching Naturalist with Young Whale Watcher

Today on both of our trips, we encountered J-pod.  First off of the west side of San Juan Island where they were headed northeast and then off of East point, the most northwestern point of the United States, and headed into Canadian waters.  Our whales went international today, visiting a few countries along the way.

Within the pod, we were able to identify Mike.  With Mike, we found his mother J16 (Slick); she has a little...

As the sun dissipated the daunting clouds, we encountered J-Pod near Pile Point as they headed north toward Lime Kiln Point. A few individuals breached while the rest of the group continued to move at a slow pace in a spread out formation. We were excited to identify Riptide (J-30), the alleged great-grandson of Granny (J-2), who is believed to be 100 years old and the eldest female of the entire Southern Resident Community!

Kirsten Dale, Naturalist

With one short of a full boat and some sunshine peeking through the intermittent clouds, we took the Sea Lion up north towards Canadian waters in search of some Pacific northwest wildlife.  Just outside the harbor as we were coming around the corner, a passenger spotted a bald eagle perched high in the top of a pine tree: conveniently photogenic.

Our luck kept rolling in as we soon found a large pod of orcas who turned out to be J-pod!  Rather than traveling at a quick pace, they...

J pod was present and playful today! We first saw the orcas at Saturna Island’s East Point as both juveniles and adults took turns breaching, lob tailing and spy hopping as they slowly made their way east. Two mature males were in the lead for some time, which we believe to be the pod-mates Blackberry (J-27) and Mike (J-26). An exceptional day to be viewing wildlife and on the water!

Kirsten, naturalist

We headed north out of Friday Harbor with reports that there were some orcas coming down the Strait of Georgia towards Saturna Island. On our way to start our search in Canadian waters we were lucky enough to encounter lots of harbor seals hauled out on the rocks at Yellow Island and some more at White Rocks.

From there we headed across the border at Boundary Pass and had everyone on board helping us look for signs of orca. Once we passed the Canadian Navy and a large cargo ship we...

As we circumnavigated San Juan Island we encountered species at every turn.  The San Juan Chanel was full of harbor porpoises and bald eagles, the Haro Straight teemed with Dall’s porpoise and three minke whales were feeding around Salmon Bank where California sea lions rested on the buoy.  An exciting day!

Kirsten, Naturalist

Another beautiful day on the water!

We headed south through Cattle pass, stopping to take a quick peek and a steller hauled out on the rocks.  When we got a little closer we were surprised to see a male California sea lion lounging beside the steller. I have spent a lot of time around CA sea lions.  I have seen them in the water and the big males can be quite intimidating.  The CA we were looking at was certainly a big male with a huge sagittal crest, but the steller beside him made...

What a day.  If I go into every detail this blog could be of epic proportions.  I'll try to reign it in a little bit and we'll see what happens.

It all stated with the nicest, warmest day of the year; the first day I have worn a t-shirt without several other layers over and under it  (and that lasted until we picked up speed).  Toward Cattle pass we could see Mt Ranier, tall, majestic, snow covered, and over 100 miles away.  We headed out toward the Straight of Juan de Fuca on glassy...

Northbound from the harbor, we soon found our dead harbor seal with about five bald eagles sharing its carcass off of Sentinel Island.  Day three of its destruction and the seal still had some meat on it to feed the local raptors.  Onwards around the north end of San Juan Island, we started to see sporadic dorsal fins belonging to harbor porpoises.  Into the Haro Straight, we passed Lime Kiln State Park on the west side of the island.  We were lucky to have sunny weather with...

The clear, sunny day brought out the normally elusive harbor porpoise…and Mt. Rainier!  The massive volcano, which is over a hundred miles away, was in the backdrop of as we headed through Cattle Pass.  There we saw a minke whale, harbor seals, stellar sea lions and many harbor porpoises.  Once in the Strait of Juan de Fuca we sighted at least two other minke whales alongside many birds.  Near Spieden Island a juvenile bald eagle ate a decaying seal while many others were in the top...