Friday, July 24, 2009

Today's trip we found the whales in our back yard! All of the San Juan Islands are our backyard, but today the whales were just on the west side of Lummi Island. After a trip across Bellingham Bay and around the corner, there was J pod! Before we started our whale watching we stopped and looked at two bald eagles: one on the east end of Lummi Island and on the west end. (Roslyn and Jimmy at Carter Point.) In Rosario Strait the whales were spread out and foraging. Ruffles J1, Granny J2, Samish and  baby J45 passed right by the boat, as we sat drifting in the currents. Whales were  in every direction! It was all twenty four that are in J pod. When they hit the rip tide where Bellingham Channel starts, there was a lot of action. Spyhops, some breaches, somersalts, and lots of enthusiastic tail slapping. Finally we left the whales and did a close pass by the Burroughs Island Lighthouse. Onward we went to Bird Rocks to see some harbor seals (and of course birds!) On the way a couple of harbor porpoise popped up, but they were being elusive today and we didn't get any more sightings. We went through Lopez Pass and up Lopez Sound. It's a beautiful scenic route between Lopez and Decateur Islands. As we passed close by Frost Island in the middle of the sound there were many purple and orange seastars along the water line. We also saw black oystercatchers and a great blue heron that was perched high in a tree. The rest of our birds today consisted of rhinoceros auklets, pigeon guillemots, marbled murrelets, pelagic and double crested cormorants, glaucous wing gulls and Heerman's gulls. Comments: ("You guys are great - from making the reservations to getting off the boat, thank you!) ("I enjoyed the tour below deck. The naturalist was excellent and made the trip a learning adventure! The boat was a perfect size for this kind of trip. I appreciated both decks!")