A wonderful mix of Orcas, Humpback whales, Minke whales and more!
August 17th
Sightings: Orcas, Humpback whales, Minke whales, Dall's porpoise, Harbour seals, Stellar sea lions, Bald Eagles, Black-tailed deer, Rhinoceros and Cassin's Auklets, Marbled Murrelets, Common Murres, Black Turnstones, Pigeon Guillemot's, Belted Kingfishers and Gull species.
Sometimes one has to pinch themselves to make certain we are not in a dream. It was dream-like on our tour today mainly due to the variety of whales we encountered as well as the timing of these sightings. We literally saw whale blows only minutes after departing Alder Bay. We knew there was food around due to the large group of feasting birds that seemed to be devouring a bait ball. The individual Humpback that approached the feeding frenzy of birds, started to trap-feed only minutes after we stopped to view it. The large gaping jaw parted the water in which it rose from, to scoop up the schooling fish that innocently swam by. Although it seemed effortless for the whale it certainly takes time, patience and continuous foraging to score such a meal.
Shortly after the Humpback sighting we found the two Minke whales who had an hour earlier been sighted from shore on Cormorant Island where they had been observed travelling east past the Nimpkish River. It was exciting to see these two smaller baleen whales, especially so soon after the Humpback whale encounter and then only moments later we sighted Orca blows in the distance! We literally felt like we hit the jackpot on our tour today. The orcas were from the language group called G clan. They traveled and foraged and within this mix were spontaneous surfaces from Dall's Porpoise. How wonderful it is to see different species sharing in the abundance of the ocean. Our guests did not know which way to turn their heads as it was action packed at a full 360 degrees.
On our journey home, nature continued to reveal its splendour. A Stellar Sea Lion was thrashing about tenderizing a salmon it had successfully hunted. Humpbacks continued to keep our company and more bait balls were seen, shown to us by the large groups of foraging birds that made more noise than an orchestra tuning up. It was delightfully muddled and anarchic but music to our ears.
We saw two more Minke whales when nearing the dock at the end of our tour. It is likely the same two that we had seen earlier and was a treat to see that they were still together as sightings of Minke whales in our area is usually singular. We arrived back at the dock to off-load our emotionally drained passengers that departed with vivid memories that shall be stored in their minds for years to come.
Seasmoke Whale Watching photo's were taken with a telephoto lens by Dave Jones and have been cropped.