November 26, 2021 – Quite an adventure with much persistence to see a rare pod of orcas known as the T167’s. They’ve made some appearances to our area in recent years with the last being Dec 31, 2020 and again on Jan 3, 2021. They spend much of their time on SE Alaska. We caught up to them near Lovers Leap on Stuart Island. They were pretty tricky to keep track of with constant direction changes. Let’s hope they like it here and visit more often! On the way back to Friday Harbor we spotted the blows on a pair of humpback whales near Pt Caution. One of the humpbacks gave us a nice view of it’s tail flukes and we were able to ID it as BCY0458 aka “Raptor”, but the other we haven’t been able to figure out the ID based on the dorsal fin alone. We saw so many bald eagles on Stuart Island, many harbor seals by the Cactus Islands, and over 30+ Steller sea lions on Green Pt, Spieden Island.
Bald eagle outside Friday Harbor
Male common mergansers
Waterfalls outside Friday Harbor
Biggs/Transient orcas T167’s along Stuart Island
Biggs/Transient orcas T167’s along Stuart Island
Common mergansers flying by
Lovers Leap with Turn Pt Lighthouse, Stuart Island
Beautiful day
Biggs/Transient orcas T167’s
Biggs/Transient orcas T167’s
Whale watching
Biggs/Transient orcas T167’s with N Pender Island
Biggs/Transient orcas T167’s with N Pender Island
Biggs/Transient orcas T167’s with Turn Pt Lighthouse
Biggs/Transient orcas T167’s
Turn Pt Lighthouse, Stuart Island
Bald eagle
Turn Pt Lighthouse, Stuart Island
Bald eagle in Madrone tree
Biggs/Transient orcas T167’s along north shore of Stuart
Biggs/Transient orcas T167’s along north shore of Stuart
Skye and Barbara
Ripple Island – National Wildlife Refuge
Harbor seals on Little Cactus Island
Pair of black oystercatchers
Steller sea lions at Green Point, Spieden Island
Steller sea lions at Green Point, Spieden Island
Steller sea lions at Green Point, Spieden Island
Mt Baker
Pair of humpback whales outside Friday Harbor
Friday Harbor
Pair of humpback whales outside Friday Harbor
Humpback whale tail
Humpback whale BCY0458 “Raptor”
Humpback whale BCY0458 “Raptor”
Humpback whale BCY0458 “Raptor”
Humpback whale BCY0458 “Raptor”
Route map 11-26-21