L-Pod Orca Whales
Some of our resident orcas came back for a visit today!! During the middle of the day yesterday we heard that some southern resident orcas were spotted way up off Campbell River in Canada heading south. So we decided to head north to start our trip, banking on the assumption that the orcas would keep heading southward toward us. On our way we spotted lots of wildlife through the inner islands including bald eagles, harbor porpoises, harbor seals, pacific loons, all three species of cormorants, pigeon guillemots, marbled murrelets and rhinoceros auklets. Just as we crossed the border north of Stuart Island was when we reached the orcas heading southward. It was a portion of L-pod and we were so happy to see them. They were spread out and moving fast toward United States waters. The first orca we spotted was L41, Mega. Next L5, Tanya, came over to visit us, and we could see L79, Skana too. At times the orcas would be porpoising at high speed. We spotted one orca that cartwheeled then breached in the distance. Then the orcas started to group up a bit and we saw 5-6 of them porpoising at the same time. Then we saw another breaching orca! It was hard to say goodbye to L-pod after not seeing them since last year, but we had come a long way to find them. On the way back to the dock we spotted another pair of bald eagles and we had a finale with a California sea lion snoozing on a channel marker in Guemes Channel. What a great day!! Naturalist Bart Rulon, 5/14/2010
