Eaglet
June 3rd, 2009: We saw a total of 7 tufted puffins today!
The weather just continues to be awesome out here right now. Today we ended up with another double hitter by finding a gray whale and two minke whales. We started out with the gray whale off Whidbey Island. He was very cooperative and gave us some good close-up viewing. Next we cruised over to Minor and Smith Islands. We got a good look at the bald eagle with her chick on the nest, some caspian terns, and lots of harbor seals. Out by Smith Island we spotted two tufted puffins. As we headed west away from Smith Island bird activity was everywhere, and it wasn't long before we spotted a minke whale amongst them. Soon we realized that we had two whales. We watched them and lots of bird activity for about 45 minutes and at one point a minke whale surprised everyone by lunging out of the water chasing candle fish right next to the boat! What a thrill! We spotted lots of other widlife today including a California sea lion, a pacific loon, a marbled murrelet, pelagic cormorants, double-crested cormorants, rhinoceros auklets, pigeon guillemots, glaucous-winged gulls, and more tufted puffins. It was a great day! Naturalist Bart Rulon
