J-Pod Visits Friday Harbor

After coming south down the westside of San Juan Island this morning, J-Pod did an interesting thing: they went north up San Juan Channel! This is a body of water they travel through maybe a couple of times a year, but usually not very often. It meant that I could go to the shoreline just about a mile north of my house and see the orcas. (Okay, I might have even been able to see them from my front porch, but way further away and only through the very narrow window around Brown Island.)

Here is L87 Onyx (still traveling with J-Pod) circling around the buoy marker just outside of Friday Harbor:

Onyx along with J2 Granny and J8 Spieden were in the lead. One other whale was with them. I don't know who it was, but she breached twice!

Most of the rest of the whales seemed to be in two big groups. I was able to ID most of the big adult males including J26 Mike, J30 Riptide, and J34 Doublestuf. Not many pictures today because the orcas were so far away, but here is another strange sight I saw a couple of days ago out in Haro Strait: this stand up paddle boarder WAY offshore:

Is it just me, or does he not look to be dressed appropriately for the 50 degree water being more than a mile offshore? Looks like he's wearing shorts and a baseball cap! At least it was a flat calm day. He was making good progress northward, too. Maybe he knew what he was doing.