Eagle Wing Tours

The afternoon trip took us to in between Whiterock, BC & Bellingham, WA.

Theywere spread out but gradually came together in large groupings of 10-20 animals / group.

K 14 Lea was in the lead with her son Lobo K 26 who is now a teenager, Yoda K 36 who loves to breach, & of course her new baby/calf K 42. Lea's first two calves K23 & K24 died after only a few weeks

Lea & Yoda were playing with there new family member near the boat this afternoon. They 'presented' him/her to us at the surface of the water about 30 yards from the boat.

This is a behavior that is incredibly special and it never fails to humble everyone...puts things into perspective pretty quick as to the special importance of these animals.

It sure is a cutie!!!

Once again we were the only boat from Victoria to see Orca in the morning. The report was of 'lots of killer whales' off the Fraser River in Vancouver south bound. We also had reports of whales vocalizing off the hydrophone at Lime Kiln Lighthouse early in the morning.

 We took our time in Oak Bay looking at some harbour seals, eagles, cormorants, black oyster catchers, pigeon guillamots & some local plant life.

After hearing that some of the earlier boats were not able to confirm the reports of San Juan Island, I committed and when north to the BC Ferry terminal.  We arrive don scene just off Point Roberts with animals spread out feeding and foraging. K pod was in the lead followed by a portion of L pod and J pod was the caboose. All looked to be in good spirits, well fed, & fairly social.

Reports of whales...transients? or residents? It took a little while to positively identification of the animals early on in the morning. However when we arrived on scene near Iceburg Point it becmae apparent that we were being treated with a superpod day. All three families of Southern Residenmt pods-J,K,& L were travelling up Island in wonderfully close groupings and then spread out as the day progressed. Once they reached Lime Kiln National PArk on San Juan Island they reversed direction of travel and headed down island. Our afternoon tours were also fortunate to see all of these whales with perfect weather conditions...flat water, sunny/overcast skies, but warm & pleasant! It was great to see K21 Cappacino & Raggedy K40 swimming side by side. The only unfortunate news of the day was the apparant, potential confirmation of 'no sighting' of K7 Lummi (the oldest Orca in the Southern group...est. biurth 1910). Over time we wil be keeping a steady watchful eye open for her over the next several months. If we do not see her it will become evident tat she has passed on and will not be returning this year. For a female killer whale the average age is 55 years...so she has done well over the years, and it has been a pleasure to be a small part of her life. Cheers to Lummi!

Fraser river south bound was the information that we had this morning.

J pod had been feeding there all night.

Flat water most of the way and some 2-4 foot slop which I carved up with Eaglewing (our 38 footer with 750 hp). Only two boats were on scene when I got there around 11:20am. Another private experience for our guests.

The whales were spread but traveling with a definite course in mind towards Point Roberts. Ruffles, Granny, Mike, Blackberry, Shachi, Riptide, Slick & many others were there and at times some went surfing off the back of a BC Ferry coming into port at Tswassen. Our time was bitter sweet.

On the way we stopped at boiling reef to view some Harbour Seals & as we entered Active Pass we viewed a Bald Eagle in flight looking for some food near its nest.

My evening tour Saturday was breathtaking. Sunset on the way home, I was fashionably late arriving on scene with the whales as to be more pro-active-->which allowed me to show guests many other things. We arrived on scene near Hein bank and traveled southwest with L pod who was spread out feeding and foraging. The reason why I choose to arrive on scene later than the other companies is because I do not wish to be part of the initial 'rush' of boat traffic around the animals. I worked out beautifully this night...the other boats all left after about 20 minutes and we had a private whale watching experience with L pod.

We were fortunate this night with an encounter with Mega L41..We were in a parallel viewing sequence fro over 100 yards, when he surfaced well inside that distance in pursuit of a salmon. I shut down all engines and began to drift. He proceeded on a course that took him within 30 yards off of our stern.

The sun was setting behind us, as he surfaced with a powerful swooosh! He was highlighted by the setting sun & that moment could not be any more perfect. Truly a kodak moment.

Summer has finally arrived! The sun is shinning, the water conditions are flat as a pancake, the whales are playful, & people are coming out of hibernation!

This was a busy day for us at Eagle Wing tours today with 3 departures.  Our 11am, and 1:30 departures ventured over to San Juan Island to view L pod (between 30-45 whales). They were spread out feeding and foraging for the most of the day. L 77 Matia was rather inquisitive with us on the afternoon tour, as she engaged a fish near the surface and rapidly swam over towards our boat (a drift) and gave all of us a thrill.  Her big brother Mega L 41 was not too away. He is about 30 feet long, 6 feet tall in the dorsal and has a very adventurous personality. 

Many years ago I had an experience that I will never forget: Once upon a time I used to drive 'rubber' boats (zodiacs)...I hesitate to publicly admit this now. I was a drift and viewing from a distance the L 12 Sub pod (10-15 whales at the time). 

Their was an odd feeling that came over me when all to once Mega surfaced just meters away from the boat on the Port side (left). He slowly approached our boat on the surface and came along side of the vessel ( a beam-parallel). He proceeded to simply float at the top of the water and gently tilt his head to one side and stared up into the boat directly at the passengers!

He then slowly turned around, still on the surface, and made his way around the boat to the other side and did exactly the same thing...stared up at the guests in the boat! I could not believe my eyes. Never have I had a moment on the water like this EVER!?!?!?

After he was satisfied (2-3 minutes) he lazily left the starboard side (right) and arched his big, took a big deep breath & left.

WOW!

Check out these two links:

Orca webcam:This camera is a fully controllable live-feed system that allows visitors to view the west side of San Juan Island from the deck of the center for whale research. You might get lucky & see killer whales swimming on by the center!

Orca Sound: A growing coalition of scientists, educators, and citizens are working together to expand a regional hydrophone network in the Salish Sea. This site is part of the SeaSound Project of The Whale Museum and is an experiment in sharing real-time underwater sound from different "nodes" of the network via the Internet.

Have fun! 

Follow the following link to acquire and look at the photo id cards for the entire Southern Killer Whale Community!

 Identification cards here...

When we identify individual killer whales we look at distinguishing markings and unique features on their Dorsal fins and saddle patches. The dorsal fin is like the human nose...it is made of cartilage, blubber & skin. We all have unique & different noses as do they with their dorsal fins. If you compliment the dorsal fin with the saddle patch (the white mark on their backs in behind the dorsal fin) you have an 'orca fingerprint' that is distinct to each whale.

ENJOY!

 If you have ever wondered what it is like to listen to the 'pure' sounds of the killer whales, breathing, vocalizing, & echo-locating be prepared to be hypnotized by the following link...

 Click here for some absolutely amazing sounds of Killer Whales from the Southern resident Kiler Whale Community.

The above link takes you to the Center for whale research which is a non profit facility that develops, promotes, and conducts benign studies of free-swimming Cetaceans for the purpose of conserving their populations and informing governments and the public of their ecosystem needs.

They also pioneered the technique of individual cetacean photo-identification and have improved it over four decades.

Summer weather could be on its way?!?! The couds have blown over head and replaced with sunshine. Thank goodness. I was starting to feel like we were going to have to re-name June to Juneuary...ha, ha.

The sun felt great and the whales were poised for another fantastic show. Goldwing left the dock today. The weather was irregular and choppy but still no match for 35,000lbs of solid aluminum!

Our Oak Bay adventure, looking for seals, birds, and meandering through shallow water inter tidal environments was pleasantly interrupted with some very good news...K & L pod off Seabird point heading north towards J pod!

This was heart thumping information so we immediately made way to the scene which was just around the corner. We had perfect timing as our arrival was exactly at the moment of 'greeting'. The three families met with over whelming energy and engaged in social, playful & mating behaviors.

We followed the Southern resident pods from Canadian to USA waters and left them heading towards San Juan with a definate northerly direction.

Last report was 7:30pm north bound at Turn Point on Stuart Island.

Looking forward to another hot sunny, adventure filled day on the west coast.