Whales Everywhere: Js, Ks, Ls, Ts

There have been so many orcas around throughout June it's been hard to keep up - not that I'm complaining! Here are some highlights from June 15th and 16th.

On June 15th Js and Ks made their way east from Victoria and up north in Haro Strait. I saw them from Lime Kiln.

J16 Slick with her youngest daughter, 6 month old J50

On June 16th some L-Pod whales joined the party (the L4s, L47s, and L95 have been a unit so far this summer) and members of all three pods did the west side shuffle. I saw them heading south past Lime Kiln mid-afternoon. The lighting wasn't the greatest and they rocketed by, but some of them were pretty close to shore.

J35 Tahlequah and her son J47 Notch

J22 Oreo and her son J34 Doublestuf

K12 Sequim, K37 Rainshadow, and K43 Saturna

K25 Scoter

On the evening of June 16th, a friend gave us a head's up that a group of transient orcas was heading north past Friday Harbor. We went to a park near our house to have a look, and spotted some blows on our side of the strait but quite a ways to the south. We settled in to wait, and while they took their time meandering up towards us, it turned out to be very worth it!

By the time they finally got to where we were watching, the T65As and T77s were in cruise mode, but luckily a friend with property further north invited us to go watch from her property. What followed was one my all-time best transient killer whale encounters (from shore, no less!) where for nearly an hour we watched them go back and forth harassing harbor seals. It was getting too dark for photos, so I took video instead, and I'm glad I did, because I think the video captures the whole scene much better than pictures would have. The whales on their own took our breath away, but the backdrop and sunset was additional icing on the cake!