Saturday, August 29th, 2009

I arrived home Saturday night to find a sick computer. It had a virus. Well, it’s been to the doctor, and we’re up and running again. It is now Wednesday and I’m going to try to remember all of the magnificent details of our memorable Saturday sighting. Even though I jot down notes, it’s still better not to wait so long…………We stopped to look at eagles on Lummi Island, then headed out to the Strait of Juan de Fuca to see orcas. On the way we saw a stellar sea lion swim by the boat. We also stopped to look at a minke whale. Other sightings included harbor seals and harbor porpoise. We arrived to find J pod spread out along the west side of San Juan Island. Most of our afternoon was watching J27 (Blackberry) with little six year old brother J39 Mako, (in Japanese ‘mako kujira’ means sperm whale. ) Little Mako has a lot of growing to do to live up to his name! After a while 14 year old sister J31 (Tsuchi) joined them and J19 Auntie Shachi and her four year old J 41 Eclipse. It looked like the little ones were getting a serious fishing lesson. Our birding today; Cormorants, pigeon guillemots, rhinoceros auklets, red necked phalaropes, common murres, marbled murrelets and numerous gulls. The following pictures tell the story of Saturdays sightings.