What I love about living in a rain shadow is that the weather tends to clear up in the afternoon, just around the time we reach whales. Today was one of those days. We departed Friday Harbor at 1:30 pm in a hazy fog, heading south. Expecting at least some rain, we all suited up in our yellow rain slickers, binoculars in hand. There were a few harbor porpoise, but what was super unusual were the two huge, male Stellar sea lions hauled out on Whale Rocks! We typically see these sea...

What a difference a day makes; we had blue skies and the glorious warm sun to greet us as we cruised out of Friday Harbor.  First wildlife sighting was just north of Griffin Bay with several harbor seals getting a suntan.  Next we viewed a bald eagle’s nest and admired the massive construction.  It is incredible to think that they can be six feet in diameter.  As we rounded Cattle Point, we were on the lookout for orcas!  Sure enough we saw L87 “Onyx” foraging outside of False Bay...

Many thanks to Mark for sending in these

absolutely wonderful Orca Whale and Bald Eagle photos.

We circumnavigated San Juan Island today, seeing wild life all the way around. We left Friday Harbor heading south and ran into a group of harbor seals hauled out on the rocks. Shortly after, around Goose Island, there was another large group of seals foraging in the water!

Continuing around to the west side, we ran into some fog and slowed. We could make out some boats, so we stopped and started to look for whales. Through the fog we heard the distinctive “powoof” of a killer whale...

We caught up with killer whales just as they were swimming across Turn Point, off Stuart Island, heading west. The whales were not just slowly traveling by; they were porpoising out of the water, moving fast! All together there were four of them. Two were right next to each other, their bodies flying out of the water in full synchronization.

Four more killer whales followed shortly after. There were two large males in this small group. We could see their massive dorsal fins at least...

It’s been a while since the last time we had to travel far north out of Friday Harbor, but this afternoon that’s just what we did to spot some killer whales. The ride up was beautiful! The water was like glass, the sun was shining, and the breeze was warmer than it has been all season. Plus, harbor porpoise were in no shortage as the surfaced in every direction from our boat as we motored north of East Point.

We saw our first, large Orca dorsal fin slice through the water at 48º52.88...

Prize: $38 plush 3 foot long Orca Whale

Another beautiful, sunny, warm day around the San Juan Islands! And even better, killer whales were in no shortage. We left Friday Harbor heading south with word that there were whales along the west side of San Juan Island. But that wasn’t all we saw along the way to the whales; there were harbor seals soaking up some of the glorious sun as well as two large bald eagles perched high in the tree tops.

The whales came next, just off False Bay (48º 27.462’ N 123º 03.376’ W). We first...

Southern Resident Killer Whales today!

Caught up with about 7 slowly foraging members of J-Pod, including Granny (J-2), Blackberry (J-27) along with Onyx (L-87) on the west side of San Juan Island at 48.27.388N 123.03.597W. We stayed with them until peeling away at the light house at Lime Kiln to complete a circumnavigation of San Juan Island.  Caught a quick sighting of 2 Dall’s Porpoises close to Kelp Reef too.

On the way out, San Juan Channel was busy with Harbor Porpoises (at...