Sunday, June 28, 2015
Residents in the afternoon, transients in the evening...
A fine whale day. A long whale day, but fine.
I was on my usual boat for the afternoon trip... up to Saturna Island (Canada) where we had the whales to ourselves for about 20 minutes... and then, boat by boat, more arrived, until there were about a dozen commercial boats enjoying the J-16 group from J-Pod. Plenty of other good viewing on the way home. We had a fun, diverse group on the boat; I like when there is a lot of "ooohhing and aaahhing" coming from our boat.
For the evening trip, I was on the our other boat. J-Pod had moved north beyond our range - but, there was a boat at the northeast edge of the San Juans who was on a group of transient whales... that's the plan. It took a while to get to them... and they were being elusive. At first. Then, nice surface activity with the whole group. More happy folks.
I never had the chance to get my camera out of my backpack. All day.
We made our way back through Obstruction Pass, past Orcas Island, down Upright Channel, then back to Friday Harbor. Mother Nature decided I should ride home on the scoot with some sprinkles.
My sweet Honey held supper - fresh made pizza - until I got home about 9:30. My growling belly let me know I had missed our normal supper time. Tasty!
Days off coming up. I'm sleeping in tomorrow. :-)
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3 comments:
Now Jim, part of the deal I cut with Big Mike From J-Pod was that for them to stick around where you could find them you'd be posting pics of them on a very regular basis. He texted me today and said that he was checking your blog and the pics were few and far between and there was better seal hunting further north. I assured him I'd have a very serious talk with you about that and that I was SURE you'd be doing a much better job. He said he'd give you another chance. Oh yea, he said to tell you he knows which boat is yours so stick to the deal....
Just passing along his message friend.
Ummm... one kinda major "hole" in your story, Mark: Mike is one of the SRKW Orcas (Southern Resident Killer Whales). They are not mammal-eaters; they eat salmon. In fact, a big fella like Mike will eat about 400 pounds of salmon per day.
Understand that I am NOT questioning the validity of your comment... I think Mike might be messin' with you. He has a pretty good sense of humor and can be like that. ;-)
"Seals"... that Mike is such a kidder.
I know he knows which boat... I painted the bottom of it black and white. Shhhhh - that's a secret.
I will bring my DSLR along on the next trip to see if I can't get some photos. Sometimes that boat-driving work stuff gets in the way of getting photos. Check out the San Juan Safaris or San Juan Outfitters posts on FB for photos our naturalists have taken of the whales. Some very nice images there.
Well dang.....that crazy Mike really pulled one on me. He'll get a good laugh when he reads your blog tonight. He always does his online time at night you know. Gotta get rested up to whip up a salad or something during the day. No seals for him. I also forgot that J-pod didn't pick up the option on his contract and he's now a free agent. How could I have forgotten that! Couldn't be the nasty heat and humidity around Oklahoma making me delusional.
I'm sure he'd appreciate some of your great pics with your DSLR. Seem to be able to get better close ups with it. And yea he told me about the bottom painting. Something about you sticking out among the throngs of big noisy fish that don't know how to dive.
Well enjoy your week off and keep the pics coming!!!
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