Whale Watching Report

T20 was the star of our show today!
Two bald eagles soared right over us.

Today's trip started out with us spotting a California sea lion swimming in Guemes channel. A few minutes later two bald eagles circled right over us at close range, giving everybody a great view. Later, at the south end of Lopez Island, we spotted another bald eagle perched on a rock, and we were able to get a great look at him as he posed for us. Earlier in the day we heard that several transient orcas were swimming in from the ocean so we headed out toward Victoria to try and find them. There were three orcas in the first group we saw. It was T20, and two others. They were coming up and going down together and appeared to be in a resting mode. After about 15 minutes of viewing they picked up the pace and appeared to be moving swiftly over toward other orcas that were closer to Victoria. The two groups were swimming toward each other, and by the end of our viewing all the groups came together. The second group was split up into two groups one with about 6 orcas, and the other with about 10 orcas. They never all gathered right next to each other, but they ended up in the same general vicinity. Its not too often that we get to see this many transient orcas at one time, so the crew was as excited as the passengers. On the way back to the dock we spotted a huge Stellers sea lion off San Juan Island, we stopped to view some harbor seals on Colville Island, and we watched a Califronia sea lion posing on a channel marker. What a great day! Naturalist Bart Rulon