L11's / Mega L41

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(you can click to enlarge and see the animals eye)








Today as most of the southern resident killer whales were north and out of our range (JKL pods were together) We found 4 members of the big L family unit off of San Juan Island close to Lime Kiln Park. They were spread wide apart milling, and one was logging at the surface alone but not sure who it was. When I looked at the photo of her, she appears to be looking above the surface in our direction. Mega / L41 was milling slowly around not going really in any direction. North, south, north, here and there. We spent the majority of the trip observing him, actually with only him really to see on our trip it was kinda cool to just watch one animal behaviors, we were all quite fixated on him. It was a glorious warm and sunny day. Yay and we have many more warm sunny days to come!! We anxiously await the arrival of all 3 pods.

LPOD!

(slow motion video (because of zoom) of Lpod traveling in a group together)


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We traveled to north Pender Island where Lpod was in a group / resting traveling formation. I assume they were reserving much of their energy for the high energy leap across the Georgia Strait towards the mouth of the Fraser River where Jpod was apparently already making their way. Flash / L73 is such a big boy and easy to spot animal in the group, even from distances. Today was beautiful flat calm and sunny. Summer is officially here! Yay!

Jpod! Lpod! Humpbacks!

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(Humpback Whale)


Wow! Today was a very busy whale day! At noon we ventured close to home, Race Rocks where all of Jpod were returning from the west and were traveling in resting behavior. They were grouped together nicely in a bunch and also in a line. Got an epic view of them against the Olympic Mountain Range. After such an amazing spectacle, we headed out to Sooke in search of humpback whales, as there have been 2 in the area. We found one, who was quite calm, making lazy dives, just barely lifting his tail flukes out of the water.


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This afternoon we found ourselves in a similar place but different whales! Lpod was coming in from the west also, (one can only assume what took place in the night ;) and were quite active on their way past Race Rocks. Big lunges, cartwheeling, porpoising, breaching, tail slapping. spyhops, groups traveling in 2-5's. Flash / L73 is reminding me a bit of Ruffles / J1 with that fin of his. He is a big boy who was traveling along side with what appeared to be another jouvenile male possibly his brother? Nyssa / L84 which was cool to see. They came up and broke the surface very close to one another almost touching it seemed. Saw the other part of the family on the other side of us; Saanich / L74 and mom Tanya / L5 with Indigo / L100 and I also assume Ino / L54..

Next, we headed towards Sooke where we caught another glimpse a different humpback. We spotted the second one way out in the Strait. We cruised through Race Rocks, admiring the bird life, seals and talking about Elephant seals and pinnipeds then caught up with Lpod for a final peek. They were now traveling a few miles spread apart in small groups, maybe 4 miles off the Victoria waterfront. The big males sped off into the distance, framing Mount Baker who towered so big behind them. A grand way to end a grand day!

Exhuberant Youngsters (Vancouver tour)

Our passengers on the morning trip from Vancouver to Victoria were treated to a beautiful display of exhuberance from Jpod's newest member J42, who was porpoising quite independently from her mom J16 - chasing after her big brother J2 6 Mike and surfacing near mum during a spyhop.
On our way back to Vancouver, we encountered Jpod near False Bay San Juan Island, and observed 3 youngsters playing, with some playful porposing and a couple of baby breaches. These youngers were definitely full of spunk today.
Ellen - Natuaralist Ocean Magic - Vancouver to Victoria

Jpod / San Juan Island

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Today we found ourselves at Lime Kiln park where Jpod was very spread out. Today is Canada Day! Also the traffic on the water was quite heavy. In the mix was Sound watch, Strait watch, NOAA Police and Washington State enforcement, Science and Research as well as freighters, ferries, kayaks, sailboats, pleasure craft and last but not least, us the whale watchers etc. Caught glimpses in the distance as the majority of the animals were very close to the Lime Kiln Park shoreline. Noticed moms and babies traveling together. Interestingly Mike / J26 was lounging not too far from us, between US enforcement, science, kayakers and pleasure craft. Of course seeing lots of Blackberry / J27 these days also traveling with other moms and babies like Slick / J16 and calf J42. Was most definately a busy day out there today on the water!










This evening lots and lots of cool behavior like; breaching, spyhops, lunging, playing between the calfs, tail lobbing, cartwheeling, tail slamming, group traveling and more.