Many Gray Whales Sighted in 2010
We've been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Jetty Island ospreys, and this morning they finally showed up for the first time this season. They got right to business adding sticks to their nest. That was a good sign that we would have an incredible day on the water. We started out watching three California sea lions sound asleep on a channel marker. A few minutes later Captain Carl spotted our first gray whale. It was #1105 and he was feeding in very shallow water. We watched him for about 20 minutes as he rolled around exposing his belly, side, pectoral fins, and tail flukes on many occasions. He gave us a great show. Later we decided to look for more whales out toward Possession Point on Whidbey Island. Instead we found three Steller's sea lions sleeping on a channel marker. Next we worked our way back to find #1105, but to our surprise we also found 6 other whales near him. We found 4 of them swimming very closely together. They were #383, 723, 56, and 53. Often two or more of them would surface at exactly the same time! Close by we also saw #22 and #1105 feeding on their own. We could see the last whale off in the distance way up in the river delta, and it appeared to be #531. As a great finale we cruised by a bald eagle perched on a day marker on our way back to the dock. What a fantastic day on the water with 7 whales spotted! To order photos of today's trip contact naturalist Bart Rulon at bartrulon@juno.com
