To sum up yesterday and today's whale watching tours:
The Orcas are still here!
Yahoo! It's been a fabulous September for viewing our Resident Killer Whales.
Yesterday we met members of J & K pod a mile or 2 off of Eagle Point, San Juan Island. They were very spread out with frequent changes in direction...lots of foraging going on! Gulls were swooping in looking for scraps of salmon that the Orcas had left behind.
On our way back in we saw a Harbor Seal with a huge salmon in its mouth...the salmon was still very fresh amd was wiggling around. Birds were trying to steal what they could. With a few quick movements, the seal with salmon in its jaws, actually swam up out of the water smacking the fish on the water's surface from one side to the other. A few minutes later the seal surfaced and the only bit of salmon we saw was the tail, the rest already swallowed! Now that's fast food!
Today...a little further out near Hein Bank we met up with the Orcas once again. Some nice breaches, half breaching- spyhops, and frequent directional changes. More foraging behavior. A large mass of birds hovered above a small group of Orcas awaiting any scraps they could find. It was a swell day, with sightings of Bald Eagles, Harbor Seals, Stellar Sea Lions lounging on Whale Rocks, and Harbor Porpoise in San Juan Channel. The water flattened out and the first rain drops were just starting as we tied up at the dock in Friday Harbor.
-Jaclyn Van Bourgondien, naturalist
Orca Whales and Wildlife Are Our Only Business. ©