Whale Watching Report

Orcas were swimming southward through Rosario Strait right when we left the dock today so we pointed southward in order to catch up to them. As we approached Iceberg Point I spotted a few Heermann's gulls flying around a bait ball. They just started showing up and should build in numbers soon. By the time we found the orcas we were with the trailers offshore of San Juan Island. It was part of L-pod spread out looking for fish. The first orca we watched was L41, Mega, swimming by himself. Next we saw a larger group of females swimming together so we cruised over to take a look. It was Mega's sisters L94, Calypso, and L77, Matia, with Calypso's calf L113. Before long Mega swam over and joined this group of females. L25, Ocean Sun also swam over to join this sub-pod. They all grouped up and appeared to go into a resting mode, but it didn't last for long. Pretty soon we saw dorsal fins slicing through the surface at high speed as they were chasing salmon. We saw this happen on three different occasions. Eventually it was time to go, but we saved enough time to visit Swirl Rocks on the way back to the dock. We watched a bunch of harbor seals hauled out there. We also visited a bald eagle's nest on the south end of Lopez Island. Eventually we spotted one of the adult eagles on the beach feeding on a dead fish. We also saw lots of turkey vultures soaring in the area. Naturalist Bart Rulon