A New Calf
Today was an awesome fall day with the J’s, K’s, L’s, Humpback, T49A’s and T123’s and new calf T123D
T123’s and a new calf T123D. Also viewed were T87, T90s and Humpback Whales. Two tours and the first was with a pod of Bigg’s Killer Whales that went right by Friday Harbor.
They went around the top of the island then basically pointed towards Victoria. These were the T123’s including the newborn calf. The calf is anywhere from one week old to two months old, with conflicting reports.
I was thrilled to see this little guy/gal for the first time. Sex has yet to be determined. We need a breach shot to see if there are three slits or one slit on the underside. Three means it is female and that two of those are mammary glands. Just one slit would mean a male. A nice day with these J’s, K’s, L’s, Humpback, T49A’s.
Other Critters
The Bald Eagles were around, Harbor Seals, Harbor Porpoise, Stellar Sea Lions and a few other seabirds. The Stellar Sea Lion shots portray them as kids. The Sea Lions are real touchy with their personal space, “you’re in my space, I don’t like that”. They growl and snarl at each other.
On the afternoon tour, the “Rezies” were long gone. So, we viewed the T90s with T87 a lone male who travels a lot with the T90s. In this set of pics, we witnessed a couple seal kills and you can actually see a seal being tail slapped to stun it before they devoured it.
Two Humpbacks
A pair of Humpbacks entertained us on the way home. They are known as Raptor and Heather. One of them did an upside down surfacing where you can see both pectoral fins during the surface.
It is always a treat to see these animals playing around and having fun. Swimming upside down, breaching, slapping pectoral fins or tail flukes. Porpoising and racing each other. When this happens my guests are always happy.
A very good day on the water for sure. So happy to be able to spend time with these T123’s and new calf T123D Biggs Orca in their own wild environment.
