Another Beautiful Day

It was an exciting morning for those of us who were lucky enough to see the Humpback whale that was lunge feeding close into shore and beside the Government Dock in Alert Bay around 10.30 a.m. this morning. We watched while it circled fully the Bay, lunge feeding several times on its circuit around the Bay. It was taking shallow dives so we never got to see its large fluke that is usually seen when a Humpback whale takes a deep dive. All of us viewing waited until it finally went out of sight and it was last seen heading in the direction of Cormorant Channel on the North side of Cormorant Island. The first two photos on this blog is of that Humpback whale and was taken from the waterfront in Alert Bay this morning.

When boarding the boat for our tour this afternoon some passenger’s mentioned they had some wonderful viewing of a Humpback whale whilst walking along the boardwalk on the main street of the village. And so, on that happy note, our boat departed with all of our passengers having high expectations of what they might see. Although there had been fog early in the morning it had dissipated by the time we were out and about and slowly the overcast sky peeled back to offer up a blue sky and beaming sunlight that warmed us all.

The Orcas (A30’s), who had been in the Robson Bight Ecological Reserve earlier in the day had just begun travelling outside of the Reserve Boundary and west along the Vancouver Island shore, foraging as they went when we arrived. They were spread out and as we sat quietly with our engine off and drifting in the current we were thrilled to listen in on their fabulous A-Clan calls via our hydrophone. There is nothing better for the soul than listening to orcas vocalizing! It was also a treat to see some of the younger calves spy-hopping .

On our way back we also saw a Humpback Whale feeding, Stellar Sea Lions hauled out and a network of beautiful islands with narrow waterways separating them. Earlier on in the tour we had enjoyed watching Dalls Porpoises, Bald Eagles in trees and on the shore, Blackturnstones, Black Oystercatchers, Common Murres, Rhinoceros Auklets and Gull species.

It truly was beautiful day!