Saturday, June 27th
We met up with the whales in Bellingham Channel. This is always nice, because it is so close to home, we get to spend a lot of time with the orcas. We saw J pod and parts of L pod. Everyone took lots of pictures of J27, Blackberry with his sister J31, Tsuchi and their little six year old brother J39, Mako. Mako means ‘sperm whale’ in Japanese. Their mom died last year and they are very tight knit group. Mako stays close to eighteen year old Blackberry all the time. Their aunt J19, Shachi and her four year old calf are also in this group. We saw both of the calves that were born in February. They look so tiny next to their moms, but they are 6 to 8 feet and 200 to 400 pounds at birth! There were lots of breaches, tail lobs, and spyhops. Other wildlife that we saw included harbor seals, harbor porpoise and marine birds: pigeon guillemots, rhinoceros auklets, double crested and pelagic cormorants and two bald eagles perched on tree side by side on our way to see the whales. We took a scenic route home through Lopez Pass and up Lopez Sound past Spencer Spit and then Peavine Pass. These are narrow passages and allow everyone to get a close up look at the islands. The beautiful red barked twisted madrone trees cling to the rocky shoreline cliffs and turkey vultures and eagles soar overhead. We took a detour to a small island to take a look at the chicks in an eagle’s nest. We don’t actually get a good look, just a head or two that might pop up to look for their parents and food. They will fledge next month. It was just ‘another’ day in the San Juan Islands.
This was one of our passengers reactions to listening and seeing the orcas. (We put a hydrophone in the water to listen to them chattering back and forth).
"Listening to the whale's sound under water - loved it. When I saw my first orca I cried. I enjoyed learning and engaging with these beautiful animals. P.S. I will return!"
J27 Blackberry Photo by Lynda Crespin