Orcas As Logs

Tuesday evening I joined the "Sunset Whale Watching Tour" with a group of about 20 guests. We started out of Friday Harbor and down the east side of the island headed south. We had a good report of whales spread out from False Bay to Lime Kiln.

Goose Island, on the south end of San Juan Island, had been vacated by the cormorants. The only remaining proof of their habitation were the many stacks of nest left over from spring and summer. The gulls had pretty much taken over and this evening had a few harbor seals lounging about with the gulls. I did see a handfull of stray cormorants on the southern-most part of Goose Island.

We rounded the southern end of San Juan Island and headed north up the west side of San Juan Island. Looking and looking through binocular, I couldn't see any tell-tale signs of orca. There were a handfull of boats obviously fishing on the southish end, but no other whale watching boats. We kept heading north and when we were nearly to Lime Kiln we saw orca dorsals. We were one of three boats on the scene.

The orca were 'logging'. A slow - rhythmic down (just under the surface) and up- exhale- sink down. Resting. So peaceful. Sloooooooooooow waaaaaaaaaaaay down.
Were were about 250 yards from them with the engine off - doing our best to be respectful and quiet. We spent about 25 minutes with them and the entire time the orca stayed almost exactly in the same spot doing exactly the same thing.The current was probably about 3 knots. The whales moved just enough to stay in place.

We then gently motored off going further up north spending some time observing the animals on Speiden Island, in its trees and on its shore. A mature bald eagle sat in a snag seemingly, starring at us.

The lighting is so beautiful at that time of day. I noticed many guests with what looked like professional cameras. Hope they mail in some photos. The photo in this blog was sent in by a guest of her two daughters Sammantha (left to right) and Hannah.

Over and out for now,
Naturalist and owner,
Colleen Johansen

Orca Whales and Wildlife Are Our Only Business. ©