Part of our day was in pretty rough water, and I am feeling it tonight. Our day was filled with cool sights of marine life including Gray, Orca, and Seabirds plus Stellar Sea Lions. We left the dock and started out of the harbor when I noticed a Common Loon. He is a magnificently beautiful bird with ruby red eyes if you can catch the lighting just right.
Heading south while a couple of other boats headed north we started scanning for whales. A few shots of Harbor Seals aka Orca Sausage. Then quite a few Bald Eagles including some young, immature ones. The mature eagle in the pics has a band on its leg. I can make out 313 but cannot make out what is before or after that.
Observing the Stellar Sea Lions lounging around was entertaining. Then we started into the Strait of Juan de Fuca scanning for whales as we made our way towards Victoria where a Humpback whale was.
The water was not bad, not smooth as glass but about 1′ chop. After arriving on the scene with the Humpback and seeing it surface, we knew right away we were looking at a Gray Whale. Word came to us that a pod of Orca had been spotted up north of the islands. I started that way and Haro Strait was 4′ seas but fortunately, we were going with them. We just couldn’t run full speed.
Eventually, we caught up to the pod of Orca east of Matia Island. It was the T65A’s we were viewing a group of five killer whales including a young one. There was a 15-year-old male in this group too, not quite an adult.
A couple of shots of Rhinoceros Auklet and a treat to see a couple hundred, maybe more, Bonaparte’s Seagulls putting on an aerial show for us. They are fast and hard to get a focus lock on. I should have adjusted my F stop for more depth of field.
We had a gorgeously beautiful day with Gray, Orca and Seabirds and Stellar Sea Lions.
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