Friday Harbor San Juan Island

San Juan Island today is experiencing beautiful weather - in the 60's after two damp and cool days.

3 gray whales were seen off Langley, Whidbey Island and Transient Orca Whales were seen off Victoria yesterday

Here is a website you will want to take a look at. Classes on all types of wildlife.
Adopt A Stream Foundation
Slugs and Snails (it looks interesting - really!) Native Plants, Raptors, Amphibians, Stream and Wetland Basic Training and more.


Dont Forget Saturday April 3 is opening day for San Juan Safaris. Tour departs at NOON.
The Washington state ferry departs Anacortes at 9:30 AM and arrives one hour later.

Orca Whales and Wildlife Are Our Only Business. ©

Gray Whales And A Submarine

We went to Whidbey Island, near the Whidbey Island Navel Base, to see not one, but two gray whales.

One appeared to be a bit larger than the other. Gray whales are amazing animals.

While there, we also saw some very cool Navy Jets flying right over us!!! On the way back we spotted a submarine... I had to take a couple of double takes but sure enough it was a submarine. After our submarine encounter we then headed toward Long Island and found a bald eagle.

On Whale Rocks we saw another bald eagle and some harbor seals hauled out.
Another beautiful day on the water and a great adventure with San Juan Safaris!!!

Naturalist Jeannette
Orca Whales and Wildlife Are Our Only Business. ©

Gray Days

What a day to see gray. A whale that is. As our balmy (82 degrees F, 28% humidity) weather continues here in the San Juan Islands we took to the seas to find cool breezes and cool animals. True to our Pacific Northwest abundance we were not disappointed. Craig expertly captained the MV Sea Lion while Jeanette and I performed for the crowd. Our boisterous group of guests, along with Junior Mariners, were super wildlife spotters and found lots of things for everyone to see.

The waters continue to be full of driftwood and kelp rafts from the high tides that we had last week and the increased snow melt from these warm days. We skimmed past it all as we watched Harbor Seals bob like corks in the glass-like waters before rolling under the waves once more. The cormorants were out in force on Goose Island, along with the various gulls. Disney got it right in the movie Finding Nemo when they portrayed the gulls as saying "Mine, Mine". Listening to a large flock of gulls sounds just like that now.

Naval Air Station Whidbey Island was busy today as we motored into the waters just West of there. It looked as if the pilots were doing touch-and-gos in the fighter jets, roaring through the sky giving us quite the air show. The noise did not seem to disturb the Gray Whale as it continued its foraging behavior. It has been several days now that this single whale has been seen feeding in the area. There were also Harbor Seals around, so the buffet must be good. Those passengers on the stern of the boat got a real eyeful when the whale came up and blew not 25 yards behind the boat at one point. It then moved off in another direction as did we. I could not get any confirming reports about how bad the breath was though. Clearly more study is needed.

As we were motoring back towards Lopez Island one of the guests saw a sea lion in the water. We made a quick u-turn and a few people were able to see it before it tired of the attention and swam down into the deep. The Long Island Bald Eagle was again in attendance today, but we could not see any action in or around the nest. All of the creatures that we saw today looked robust and healthy though and seem to be making the most of our lovely weather.

Our noses pink and our minds full of beautiful mental pictures we arrived back in Friday Harbor to take our new found peace ashore. So, to all of you out there from all of us here at San Juan Safaris, thank you and we will...

See You In The Islands!
~Tristen, Naturalist


Orca Whales and Wildlife Are Our Only Business. ©

Gray whale!!!

Gray whale today near Whitbey Island Naval Base.

These whales have a streamlined body with a narrow, tapered head. Gray whales are always great to watch. We observed the whale foraging. We even saw the whales fluke.

Gray whales are bottom sediment feeders. The whale exhibited the predictable breathing pattern. Gray whales are a mysticete or baleen whale and have two blow holes.

Sometimes you can see a heart or v-shaped spray shape. This is really cool... We also got to see some harbor seals, bald eagles and harbor porpoises. We also saw an eagles nest.

Jeannette Miller, Naturalist
Orca Whales and Wildlife Are Our Only Business. ©

2 Dead Gray Whales Near San Juan Islands

Sunday a gray whale was found floating near Camano Island, south east of San Juan Island.
Yesterday, Monday, a gray whale washed up near Blaine, about one hour north of San Juan Island.

It is not that unusual to have gray whales die in the general are at this time of year. On average six gray whales die at this time of year in this area. The gray whales are migrating from far south, Baja, to far norh, Alaska.

Orca Whales and Wildlife Are Our Only Business. ©

San Juan Islands Experiencing Beautiful Summer Weather

Blue skies and puffy white clouds today. In the hi 50's
There are gray whales out today way way over in Canada.
On a separate subject, orca whales were seen yesterday in Oregon, Depoe Bay. Apparently they are after the Gray Whale babies that are coming up from Mexico to Alaska.
Today started daily 1:00 departures until October 3.
Join us!
Orca Whales and Wildlife Are Our Only Business. ©

Transient Orcas are around near Canada

The Transient (meat eating) Orca Whales were seen again yesterday off Canada.
Gray whales continue to be sighted off Cameno Island.
Orca Whales and Wildlife Are Our Only Business. ©