Saturday April 27
We left the Friday Harbor slip heading north with a report of Orcas in the area but no one was exactly sure where.
With an optimistic group of guests, Captain Brian, Naturalist Andrew and myself eventually traveled west to see what we could find. After crossing Haro strait to the Canadian side we finally received word that Orcas were spotted in south Haro Strait. We arrived to find a small group of Orcas that had surrounded a Northern (Steller) Sea Lion. These were...

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...

With a beautiful day at hand we traveled north from Friday Harbor up San Juan channel seeing groups of Harbor Seals, pairs of Rhinoceros Auklets and a few Harbor Porpoise.
We eventually found ourselves on the west side of Stuart Island watching the small nesting colony of Pelagic Cormorants when we notice one of the Peregrine Falcons that are nesting in the higher reaches of the cliff side.
Peregrines are are small rapture at about 18 inches high but one of the more fascinating. The...

We lucked out with the weather today with calm seas and blue sky. Traveling North passing by Yellow island we enjoyed watching Harbor Seals hauled out on the rocks. This was a common theme throughout our trip as we saw many seals hauled out near Spieden Island on Sentinel Rock as well as near the Cactus Islands.
Lots of Bald Eagles too. We stopped at O'neil island, next to San Juan Island, to look at a Bald Eagle's nest which happen to have one of the adults in the nest. The eaglets...

With another spring day of unpredictable weather we departed the dock with hopes of seeing Orcas again. As we headed north, the clouds gave way to blue sky and sunshine. Before long we came across a group of Steller Sea Lions also known as northern sea lions swimming along side Spieden Island just north of San Juan Island.These Stellers are primarily adult and sub adult males that are making their annual springtime move north. Adult males can grow to an impressive 11 feet in length...

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...

Catalog Choice Top 10 Tips for Holiday Waste Reduction 

1. Reuse foam peanuts. Most packaging materials for shipping can be used more than once.
2. Compost your leftover food. It's easy and makes for a great fertilizer!
3. Wrap creatively. Use comics, old maps, sheet music, fabric/wallpaper scraps. And use fun tins and food boxes you crush and recycle for gift containers.
4. Make festive recycling bins. They're a great addition for your holiday party and a great activity for kids.
5. Give the...

Seals basking on rock outcrops. A Minke whale in Griffin Bay. A Stellar sea lion wrestling with an OCTOPUS? Yes at Cattle Pass.  Harbor porpoise on the port side! The sea lion won. Then off to Hein Bank to view a Humpback whale. One single humpback lazily coming up for air, then a 5 minute dive - going to Victoria.

What a day.

Another busy day on the water with all the familiar faces of the Salish Sea. In addition to watching Transient Killer Whales south of D’arcy Island, British Columbia (48°30.86N, 123°16.48W), we also came across a lone California Sea Lion (a rarity in the Salish Sea). He was floating with just his head, hind flippers, and one pectoral flipper out of the water, a strategy sea lions use to regulate their body temperature in these frigid 48°F waters. On our way home we picked up a...

The Transient Killer Whales were all business today. A group of approximately 6 individuals were taking their sweet time below the surface, typical foraging behavior. They kept us guessing as to where they were going to pop up for a few breaths before their next long dive. Meanwhile we drifted in the calm, sunlit waters in sight of downtown Victoria (48°21.21N, 123°18.01W). On our way back in, we came across porpoises, murres, cormorants, loons, seals, sea lions, and a Minke...