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Humpback Whales and Biggs Orca

We had Heather Raptor and Orca pod of Biggs Killer Whales known as the T49A’s. The T49A’s consists of mom, the matriarch T49A. Her oldest is T49A1, an 18-year-old male. T49A2 has not been traveling with his family. The other siblings T49A3 through T49A5 have been, This is a group of 5 whales we were viewing today. The youngest T49A5 was born to the family in 2017.

We started this morning towards Orcas Island meeting up with the pod just west of Pole Pass. They were doing a bit of zig-zagging as they were hunting. They caught something indicated by the seagulls diving for bits of blubber.

Seabirds and Land Mammals

A few Bald Eagles and a short view of a couple of Mouflon Sheep, one of which was a young ram, but I was unable to catch with the lens.

On the next tour, we were in more turbulent waters. The pod would plow their way through the waves as they surfaced to take in some air.

On this tour, we saw Heather Raptor and Orca. We spent time with the T49A’s, and when it was time to head back to the harbor, we had a pair of Humpback Whales in our path home.

Heather is one, and Raptor was the other humpback. Heather can easily be identified by looking at her left fluke underside that shows a natural tattoo or birthmark of an “H.” Raptor and Heather have been traveling together for a couple of years now.

More Seabirds

I shot a few seabirds including Bald Eagles, Canada Geese, and Rhinoceros Auklet. The Auklet from the naked eye I mentioned it had a couple of fish in its beak. Looking at my pics on the computer, it seems like at least four fish. I do not understand how they can keep catching more fish while not losing any of those already caught.

Haro Strait was pretty choppy on our way over to the Canada shoreline but on the way back it was much nicer going with the seas.

Check out some of my other photoblog pages at Whale Tales.

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