Skywatch Friday and J-Pod Off Lummi Island

I've never participated in a Skywatch Friday before, but after last night's sunset it seemed like a good time to start. It started with this spectacular rainbow that occurred during the early evening drizzle:

And turned into this fabulous sunset:

Luckily by the time we left on our Western Explorer trip this morning the sun had prevailed and most of the morning fog had burned off. We met up with J and K Pods off of Lummi Island. Ks were spread out foraging, but Js were in tight groups resting, which made for some spectacular views. Here are the J14s. The big male is J30 Riptide:

Last year it seems like we hardly ever saw the whales in such tight groupings; instead they were often spread out into ones and twos. It's been much more common this year. Here is another shot of the J14 family group, with little calf J45 right in the middle:

J1 Ruffles and J2 Granny used to be off on their own a lot, but this year they've traveled a lot with the J14 family group. They are all directly related as J14 Samish and J2 Granny's grandaughter, but I don't recall ever seeing them together this much in years past. Maybe the new calf has captured the interest of the older whales. In any case, it's always fun to see Ruffles and Granny, the oldest male and female in the Southern Resident community, traveling side by side: