July 9, 2020 – We decided to sail south today with reports of the Southern Resident orcas from J pod still doing the westside shuffle since July 4th. At first we had some misty air with fog down south but as the sun came out the day progressed with beautiful weather. The ebb was in our favor giving us a boost as we made our way down to Cattle Pass. Harbor seals were hauled out on the rocks during the low tide. Deadman Island was busy with black oystercatchers, harbor seals, bald eagles and turkey vultures. On Whale Rocks there were many Glaucous-winged and Heerman’s gulls, plus many cormorants and harbor seals. All the steller sea lions have dispersed temporarily for mating season.
We thought it would be fun to sail over Salmon Bank to look for minke whales. We got lucky spotting 3 of them. One of them was our regular that we call “Minke Mouse”. Another was distant so we weren’t able to obtain the best ID photos. But, it looked familiar to us with its thick, stubby fin. There wasn’t much obvious feeding behavior but rather more circling around the bank.
After our fun minke encounter we decided to start heading up towards the westside of San Juan Island to see J pod. Offshore of South Beach we spotted a nice group which included the J22’s and J17’s. They traveled in a tight group northbound. We spotted a few other whales way offshore closer to Vancouver Island and wondered if they were part of J pod or if they were in fact transient orcas. In shore we spotted J19 hanging out with J39. Soon enough they joined the group and made their way up to False Bay. At that point they flipped direction and turned south and we decided to stick with them. We kept scanning to the north and spotted some fins coming down island very close to shore. This group included J31 with youngest J pod member J56, J41 with son J51 and possibly all the J14’s. They swam quickly overtaking the group we had been with and continued down to Eagle Pt. Soon enough another group came down island and these orcas were the J16’s. The only J pod whale we didn’t see today was J27 who was foraging off Eagle Pt. Incredible day seeing 21 out of 22 J pod members!
After a few breaches the group with the J22’s, J17’s, J19 and J39 flipped back north again. We were hoping to sail with them up to Henry Island, but the orcas stopped to forage south of Edwards Pt. Onwards we went up and around the island by way of Henry Island, Jones Island and the Wasp Islands and back to Friday Harbor.
Harbor seals on Shark Reef
Bald eagle
Purple (ochre) sea star
Black Oystercatchers on Deadman Island
Black Oystercatcher fly by
Black Oystercatchers foraging
Sailing adventure
Harbor seals with Cattle Pt Lighthouse
Minke whale #1
Minke whale #1
Minke whale #1
Minke whale #2 (our friend Minke Mouse)
Minke whale #2
Distant minke #3
Orcas in the distance close to Vancouver Island
Group including J22’s and J17’s
Bald eagle
Group including J22’s, part of J17’s, J39 and J19
Group including J31 with calf J56, J41’s, J14’s and J53
Group including J31 with calf J56, J41’s, J14’s and J53
Group including J31 with calf J56, J41’s, J14’s and J53
Group including J31 with calf J56, J41’s, J14’s and J53
Group including J19, J39, J22’s and J17’s
Group including J19, J39, J22’s and J17’s
J47 breach
J47 breach next to J39 tail slap
J35 tail slap next to son J47
J39 with J38 (both males born 2003)
Orca breach
Orca breach
J41 with J51
J16’s
J16’s
Conservation Canines hard at work looking for orca scat
Orca pec slapping
J19
J22
Black oystercatchers near Low Island
Route Map 7-9-20
