Today we learned that Heather has a calf. She is a Humpback Whale. I am going to include a pic from last season that is a photo of her poop. Dr. Deborah Giles, a marine biologist here on San Juan Island stated back then she wanted that poop. Had I been able to get it to her she would have seen from lab analysis that Heather was pregnant. But we did not know that until my pics today, showing Heather with a calf.
The day started out with us heading south thinking we were heading to see a Humpback whale in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It turned out to be a Gray Whale and a very elusive one at that. I grabbed a few pics and feel lucky to have done that. I then took us over to Smith Island to see some puffins we had been seeing. I was scanning for Orca that I knew were somewhere in the area but we did not spot them.
Once at Smith Island, there were no auklets or puffins. There was a Bald Eagle soaring over the kelp beds and that reminded me of a similar situation last year when we were not seeing the puffins because bald eagles were on the hunt.
There are a few bald eagle pics including a juvenile that looks pretty scruffy.
On the second tour today I headed up north where I knew a pair of Humpback Whales had been sighted. There was no one on scene so we had to do a search to find them.
When I did it was well worth it. We found the Humpback and learned Heather has a calf. I do not have great shots of Heather but one good enough to ID her. She has a natural “H” on the underside of her left fluke. Heather’s calf was the star today, non-stop breaching the entire time we were viewing them.
The little one was giving us quite a show today. I was surprised at the growth of Goose Barnacles on the calf already at its young age.
In some of the shots, you can see Patos Island Lighthouse in the background.
For my featured image, I am using a pic where you can see the calfs baleen that it uses to filter out the water whale retaining Krill and other food.
I hope you enjoy these pics.
Check out some of my other photoblog pages at Whale Tales.
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