May 30th - Orcas & Humpbacks!
- alees13
- Jun 15, 2016
- 2 min read
Today we encountered Transient Orcas out west in the morning and a Humpback Whale near False Bay in the afternoon!
The Transient Orcas were identified as the T75’s & T77’s and were moving west as we arrived on scene, a few miles SW of Race Rocks. The T77’s recently had a new addition T77E and the little calf looked happy & healthy when we encountered the T77’s & T75’s today. There is also a slightly older calf (born last year) on the T75’s, T75B2 that also looks to be doing well & growing quickly. Orcas have one of the longest gestation periods in the animal kingdom at 16-17 months. They feed on the mothers milk for at least the first 12 months of their lives. We continued following the T75’s & T77’s at a respectful distance as they steadily moved west.
We also stopped off at Race Rocks Ecological Reserve this morning. Race Rocks is managed by Pearson College who send international students to the site as part of their Marine Biology course. At Race we go to see several Bald Eagles, a large number of Harbor Seals (many looked heavily pregnant as we are at the start of pupping season), Northern Elephant Seals, and a large number of Sea Lions, mostly California Sea Lions! We also found our resident cutie Sea Otter hanging out in the Kelp Beds :)
This afternoon we had a wonderful encounter with a Humpback & Eagles! We encountered the Whale off the west side of San Juan Island and we followed the whales from Hanna Heights to Eagle Point. The Whale seemed to be foraging for food close to shore until it got to Eagle Point and then it started to move offshore. Humpbacks use Baleen to filter feed on small fish or krill. We also saw a couple of Bald Eagles at Pile Point during our encounter with the Whale.
Talking of Eagles we saw an amazing amount of them today both at San Juan Island and also at the Chain Islets. We saw two Immature Bald Eagles and two mature Bald Eagles, one of which had a Seagull under its talons….
We also saw a large number of Harbor Porpoise off San Juan Island and Beaumont Shoals plus Harbor Seals at the Chain Islets. It was a wonderful afternoon.
We also saw Seals, Sea Lions, Porpoise, Eagles and a Sea Otter :) What a stunning day!
Click the following link to see more images from these tours;
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