Whale Watching Report

A little kelp play for L92, Crewser.

We had absolutely beautiful weather for today's trip and lots of wildlife. Our first stop of the day was at the south end of Lopez Island where we watched harbor seals, pigeon guillemots, black oystercatchers, rhinoceros auklets and marbled murrelets. Two bald eagles flew by and we also checked out a bald eagle's nest. The eaglet was in full view on the top of the nest. It wasn't long before we were on scene with L-pod orcas. The first group we watched was L47, Marina, K83 Moonlight, L110 Midnight, and L91, Muncher. At one point Midnight did a cartwheel and several tail slaps as they approached. Next we noticed a bunch of orcas grouping up into a resting pattern so we cruised over for a look. It was L25, Ocean Sun, L41, Mega, L77, Matia, L94, Calypso, and her new calf L113. This group gave us some of the best views of the day as they all surfaced together time after time. Next we headed east and found L84, Nyssa, L72, Racer, L105 Fluke, and many others. The youngsters in this group were playful and one of them was swimming upside-down for about 400 yards. On our way back toward the dock we made a few more stops. One was at Colville Island to watch more harbor seals and a bald eagle, and another was in Rosario Strait where we watched some very cooperative harbor porpoises. It was a great day! Naturalist Bart Rulon.