Beautiful Whales Beautiful Day

I had a beautiful day with the T37A’s and T18’s today. My guests were celebrating their 11th anniversary this weekend and I was priviledged to be a part of it.

The T18s includes T18 matriarch, T19, T19B and T19C. B and C are two adult males whose dorsal fins are very different from each other. The T37As include matriarch T37A with the notch in the back of her dorsal fin. Then T37A1 through T37A5. T37A4 is the one we have called “Floppy Top” in the past with its folded over dorsal fin. T37A5 was born this past spring sometime.

I had a dificult time getting on the sunny side of the pods today. Everytime I tried to make my way over one or more orca popped up in my path. We were in Haro Strait near Victoria. Once we passed by Discovery Island they allowed us opportunity to view them on the sunny side for a bit. We stopped off at Discovery and saw some Black Turnstone’s the little birds. We also saw a Great Blue Heron grooming itself then flying off. There is one pic with a seal and a Heermans Gull. A pic of one of our most common sea birds the Pacific Common Murre that sounds like someone is strangling it when it calls.

Then we viewed the Orca again before heading home. A couple stops to see Harbor Porpoise but they are shy. We did stop and see a Pacific Loon on the way back. My plan was to show my guests a Common Loon but it was actually a Pacific Loon that we ended up seeing.