Whale Watching Report

Our day started off with a California sea lion hauled out on a channel marker in Guemes Channel. We found some harbor porpoise in Rosario Strait. Captain Michael did a slow down through Castle Rock and Lopez Island. This little slow down provided us with great looks at all sorts of wildlife. We started off with some pigeon guillemots and a couple of harbor seals hauled out on some rocks. As we made our way over to Swirl Rocks, we got to see some National Geographic uncut! We approached and found an immature bald eagle, which took flight and moved a little further east on the rocks. This move obviously aggravated a black oystercatcher who started harassing the eagle! The eagle took off with the oystercatcher right on his tail! Even after the eagle landed, the oystercatcher continued to fly circles around the eagle. We think that the eagle may have been too close to the oystercatcher's nest. While all of this is happening, in the water, we look down and see a seal eating something. On closer inspection, it was an octopus! So much wildlife, we didn't know if we should look at to the sky or keep our eyes on the water! After the action died down, we continued south in search of whales. We had to make one more stop before we could find any whales, we found two tufted puffins! We got some fantastic looks at them; they actually stayed at the surface the whole time we were with them! At McArthur Bank, Captain Michael found a minke whale that obviously didn't want to be found. We only saw him one time. We left in search of an elusive gray whale we heard was in the area. As we got on scene, the gray whale became really friendly and had great surface action. As we watched him for a few breathes, we actually identified him as one of our gray whale buddies from Everett! We found #53, Little Patch! We were so excited to see him again! He was definitely very comfortable with our boat and gave us some great looks and even fluked a couple of times! We spent some quality time with our old friend and then we continued to the east in search of other wildlife. We found a lot of bird action at Partridge Bank. We found another minke, but he was about as elusive as our first minke. Only a few of our customers were able to spot him. We passed Minor Island and got to see a bald eagle's nest that is actually on the ground as well as some harbor seals hauled out. On our way back to the marina, we came across probably the same California sea lion hauled out on the same channel marker, what a lazy day for him! We also saw double-crested and pelagic cormorants, rhinoceros auklets and common murres. It was a great day full of sunshine and wildlife!