Welcome to the Whale Report Blog

Birding has quickly become one of my favorite year-round hobbies here in the San Juan Islands. We have an incredible diversity of birds, both in the marine environment as well as terrestrially. In these modern days of smart phones and other screens, it can be so fun to go on an adventure just requiring a pair of binoculars and a camera if you feel like it! Here are three of my favorite spots to go birding!

[Naturalist Erick D., M/V Sea Lion, 7/29/17, 1:30PM]

Yesterday Captain Gabe, Kelsey, and I headed out with a boat full of great folks to go look for some marine wildlife outside of Friday Harbor. We started by going north through San Juan Channel and soon into Presidents Channel between Orcas and Waldron Islands. We then saw a blow in the distance!

It was a pretty big blow, and as we approached we saw that it was a Humpback Whale! It was swimming towards us so we turned around a...

[7/29/30- M/V Sea Lion- Kelsey, Naturalist- 5:30PM]

The group of passengers on today’s M/V Sea Lion sunset trip were bumped up to Level Expert Whale Watchers, because they sighted their own whale that no one had seen all day! We do not use sonar or fancy equipment to find whales and other wildlife in the sea when we are on our trips, so we need everyone putting their eyes to the water and looking for cool animals. Today’s group did just that!

We were headed from Friday Harbor on San...

[Naturalist Erick D., M/V Kestrel, 7/26/17, 2:00PM]

On Wednesday, Captain Gabe and I took a full boat of excited folks along on the M/V Kestrel to go look for some marine wildlife.  That day it was a bit windy down south so we headed north to go look in Boundary Pass, Haro Strait and in between the southernmost of the Southern Gulf Islands just across the border in British Columbia.

Our First stop was to look at some Bald Eagles around Sentinel Island. There was one perched...

(7/28/17- M/V Kestrel- 10AM)

Today we left Friday Harbor with no reports of whales in the area, not an uncommon occurrence out on the water.  We cruised around and looked at some wildlife at Flattop Island, including a few bald eagles and a number of harbor seals with their pups.  We then got a report of a humpback whale on the south side of Vancouver Island so we headed that way! 

We got to the area of the whale sighting and watched as the humpback did a large number of shallow...

[7/28/17- M/V Sea Lion- Kelsey, Naturalist- 1:30PM and 5:30PM]

Sunny skies and whales in the forecast- it was turning out to be a beautiful July afternoon! Our first group departed on M/V Sea Lion from Friday Harbor on San Juan Island and headed north through San Juan Channel and President Channel. We reached Sucia Island and the top of Orcas Island, and lucky us, TWO family groups of transient, or mammal-eating, orca whales were around, just three miles apart!

We arrived on scene...

[7/21/17- M/V Kestrel- 10AM & 2PM]

 J pod is still here!  We left Friday Harbor and headed East towards Rosario Strait, where the whales were hanging out pretty much all day.  On our way we stopped at a beautiful eagle’s nest on the northern tip of Lopez Island.  Eagle’s nests can get about 6 feet deep and ten wide wide and can weigh over 2,000 pounds. 

Once we got some good eagle looks we continued East towards Anacortes were we encounter J pod!  Most of our viewing was of the J38...

[Sarah M. – 07/26/2017 – M/V Sea Lion – 05:30pm]

Today’s sunset whale watch from Friday Harbor was one for the books. With glassy waters and beautiful islands, the night was already off to a great start. Add in a late afternoon report of killer whales and the night got even better!

We left Friday Harbor and headed north towards Boundary Pass, which separates the San Juan Islands in the United States from the Canadian Gulf Islands. There we found the T046 family group of Bigg’s...

(7/23/17- M/V Sea Lion- 5:30 PM)

This evening we departed from our Friday Harbor dock with reports of some of our Southern Resident Killer Whales heading up the west side of San Juan Island.  This is only my fourth time seeing these whales all season, so our guests today got a real treat. 

We headed up San Juan Channel where we stopped by some rocks and saw a few harbor seals hauled out while the tide was out.  Harbor seals haul out usually once a day in order to warm their body...