365 Project, Day 168
Here is my day 168 submission to my 365Project
Ahh...nothing like a bit of whale watching on a beautiful sunny day with flat seas! This afternoon I worked for Great Pacific Adventures as marine naturalist on the King Salmon. It was a great afternoon and we had a great group of guests onboard.
On today's trip we got to see two Bigg's (previously known as Transient) mammal eating killer whales (Orcinus orca) who have been dubbed the 'twins'. I have not been working consistently on the water here lately so was not completely aware of the latest sightings information. I don't mind this though as I like the challenge of trying to identify the animals myself. Today was a bit more challenging though and it took myself and the other naturalist some time to figure out we were actually watching two animals...these two male Bigg's killer whales both look very similar and it was not until just near the end of our observation that they both surfaced at the same time and we could confidently say we were seeing two different animals, T77A and T49C.
This observation of the 'twins' occurred just outside Friday Harbour, in San Juan Channel off the east coast of San Juan Island, Washington State. My favourite thing about today's sighting was the effect of the backlit sun shining through the whales' blows when they surfaced. The air was so still that the blows hung in the air and slowly spread out above the animals. The effect was emphasized due to the dark background of the trees on shore and the backlighting due to the angle we were viewing them. Normally, such backlighting can be difficult to photograph the whales but this time it created a cool affect!
Ahh...nothing like a bit of whale watching on a beautiful sunny day with flat seas! This afternoon I worked for Great Pacific Adventures as marine naturalist on the King Salmon. It was a great afternoon and we had a great group of guests onboard.
On today's trip we got to see two Bigg's (previously known as Transient) mammal eating killer whales (Orcinus orca) who have been dubbed the 'twins'. I have not been working consistently on the water here lately so was not completely aware of the latest sightings information. I don't mind this though as I like the challenge of trying to identify the animals myself. Today was a bit more challenging though and it took myself and the other naturalist some time to figure out we were actually watching two animals...these two male Bigg's killer whales both look very similar and it was not until just near the end of our observation that they both surfaced at the same time and we could confidently say we were seeing two different animals, T77A and T49C.
This observation of the 'twins' occurred just outside Friday Harbour, in San Juan Channel off the east coast of San Juan Island, Washington State. My favourite thing about today's sighting was the effect of the backlit sun shining through the whales' blows when they surfaced. The air was so still that the blows hung in the air and slowly spread out above the animals. The effect was emphasized due to the dark background of the trees on shore and the backlighting due to the angle we were viewing them. Normally, such backlighting can be difficult to photograph the whales but this time it created a cool affect!
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