Last night brought one of the nicest evening tours I can remember.  I decided to ride along as a passenger and try getting some pictures of Orcas.  As we cleared Cattle Pass we headed up the west side of San Juan Island looking for any members of the resident pods.  It didn't take long to see a blow, and then another, and another.  Stretching from shore to about a mile or so out were groups of fours and fives traveling mostly south.

The water was glassy flat and we were literally the...

Last evening I got out from behind the computer and went out on the whale watching tour that departs at 5:30.

We went out of Friday Harbor, then south down the east side of San Juan Island.

About 1 mile off the south west side of San Juan Island  there were many, MANY whales.

It was an exceptionally active bunch of whales that we viewed for about 40 minutes. The energy! Breach after breach. Slap after slap. Even the youngsters were getting into the act.

I have a new camera. A...

Today was sunny, warm, and absolutely beautiful as we left Friday Harbor in search of the wildlife that calls the Salish Sea home. On our way out we spotted several harbor porpoises in all different directions from the boat. We also stopped to watch some harbor seals that were not only hauled out on rocks, but were swimming around and poking their heads out watching us watch them. Not too long after we found the big guys; killer whales were off in the distance! We watched some...

The gigantic dorsal fins of Blackberry (J-27) and Double Stuf (J-34) sliced through the flat water as we rounded Mouat Point of North Pender Island. The two males appeared to be feeding when they would pause from their northward travel pattern to circle one another as they powerfully taillob the surface. Double Stuf, in his early stages of maturity at the age of 13, still bears a curved and skinner dorsal from youth. A group of four orcas, which consisted of a very small individual...

It started raining at exactly 1:00.  We slogged out of the harbor under a giant black cloud that seemed to cover only San Juan Island.  The farther away we got, the more sun we saw.  Finally, headed southeast over the top of Lopez Island and down the east side, we moved out from under the cloud and into the sunshine.  Guess who was waiting for us in the sunshine?  Orcas.  Resident orcas.  Lots of them.  We found them in Rosario Straight.  They were spread from the near side of the...

Woooeeee, the whales made us work for it today!  Resident killer whales were reported at nearly the farthest point we can travel on our trips and they weren't coming our way south either.  We loaded up both boats and headed north right out of Friday Harbor with not a moment to spare to stop and gaze at other islands as we went.  We crossed the border into Canada at the Haro Straight, went into Plumper Sound and  between Mayne and Saturna Islands to pop out on the other side in the...

Northbound along the west side of San Juan Island, we encountered about eight orcas allegedly belonging to both J and K resident pods.  From the get go, we saw curious whale behavior of tail-slapping, a pec fin slap and eventually even a head stand with the white of the tail exposed!  As they continued swimming north away from the island, the whales maintained a fairly tight formation and we were able to get a possible ID of the lone adult male of the group as J30, Riptide.  Was he...

We narrowly escaped the rain today; luckily, by trip departure time it was done raining in the San Juan Islands.  Overcast weather and threats of rain don't keep the whales away though and as we rounded Cattle Point and came up along the west side in some choppy waves, we were rewarded for our perseverance: J-pod was back from their few-day stint at sea.

Spread out in a long line along the west coast, we watched the orcas travel in their smaller groups past Lime Kiln State Park.  One...

Today we got spoiled: we had a choice between two transient killer whale pods!  The first group was called in as located off Sidney Island on the Canadian side of the Haro straight.  We left the harbor with these whales in mind but then we got another call; a second pod was seen between Saturna and South Pender Islands.

Once we caught up with this second group, we found that there were three animals in the pod: one male, one female and one calf.  Even with lots of helpful eyes on the...

Today we left the harbor and headed north toward Sucia Island.  Once there we spotted a small pod of transients.  There were 3.  One female, one male, and one calf.  They were taking long dives with a few breaths at their surface intervals before they dove again.  They were  cruising along, with one quick stop that I thought might have been a hunting opportunity, but after a brief spyhop from the big male they continued along their merry way.  When we first saw them they were on the...