Today J pod was still spending time spread out and travelling along the west side of San Juan Island, Washington State. We arrived to the very spread out pod just before 1500. We watched the pod for about 45 minutes and during that time I was able to identify members of the J17s (J17, 32 year old female; J28, a 16 year old female; J35, an 11 year old female and J44 who was just born this past winter around February), the J14s (J14, a 35 year old female; J30, a 14 year old male; and possibly J40, a 5 year old juvenile and J45 who was also born around the same time as J44) and J26, an 18 year old male from the J16 matriline. (Check out J pods matrilines at the Center For Whale Reserch's website here)
J26, Mike, nearly mature 18 year old male
J17, Princess Angeline, 32 year old female who had another calf around February
J30, Riptide, 14 year old sprouting (maturing) male
J30, Riptide travelling along the west side of San Juan Island
J45, J14, Samish's, new calf probably travelling with its older sibling J40 (3 years old)
J30, Riptide (14 years old), travelling with his mother J14, Samish (35 years old)
We left the pod spread out along the west side of San Juan Island just before 1600 to make our way back to Victoria. On the way back to the harbour we saw a bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) sitting on the double-crested cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) nests at Great Chain Island in Oak Bay where they pick out chicks and eggs from the other birds including the cormorants and seagulls nesting on the island.
We finished our lovely afternoon at the Victoria Harbour at 1700...after a lovely day of watching J pod off San Juan Island and and spotting the eagle at Great Chain Island, Oak Bay!
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