Bigg’s Killer Whales T49A’s
Another day with the Bigg’s T49A’s Orca. Bigg’s Killer Whales & Windy was the theme of the day. They were SW of Victoria and headed for the sea. We decided to go for it and ran into a bit of choppy weather on the way but eventually caught up to them. On the way, one of my guests spotted a humpback whale a half mile to the north of us. We did not stop but kept going for the orca.
Mt. Rainier
On the way there I was able to get a shot of Mt. Rainier, one of the few days we can see it from the San Juan Islands.
This pod has five members that travel together. One member T49A2, the sixth member travels with other whales for some reason. This pod has a baby that I was able to capture with several photographs. The baby is T49A5 and is 1 1/2 years old.
After the long haul getting there, the first whale that comes into sight is the adult male, 49A1. He is the oldest child of T49A, the mom and matriarch of the pod.
We spent a half hour watching them before we needed to start the long trip back. The weather slowed us down and the whales were riding the ebb tide out making 8 knots.
A quick stop at Whale Rocks to share the Stellar Sea Lions and then get back to the dock well past our return time. My next tour was so gracious in my late arrival. We also did an extended tour just because we could and it was a beautiful evening.
The Lost Killer Whales
We started helping search for another pod of Orca that had been spotted a couple of hours earlier from shore. There were about a dozen boats searching different areas but none of us found that pod. What we did find were several seabirds and three humpback whales.
We were with one humpback up in the Strait of Georgia for a few surfacing then moved on to search more for the lost pod and see what else we could find. Departing the single humpback we headed for Jourgensen Pass and Plumper Sound.
Humpbacks
On the way, we happened upon two more humpback whales. They popped up fairly close unexpectedly at one point. Windy is the name of one of them. I did not get a fluke shot to ID the other. Windy got her name by having some folks down-wind of her and smelling her foul fishy smelling breath.
Bigg’s Killer Whales & Windy made everyone very happy allowing us to view them.
I was doing thirty knots trying to pace a Great Blue Heron to snap a couple of shots of it. I was on the down-sun side so the silhouette is the best description of these pics. A Pigeon Gullimont was grooming itself nearby while we were watching some harbor seals. The Bald Eagle I captured earlier was nice enough to stay put and pose for us.
Check out some of my other photoblog pages at Whale Tales.
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