Puffins and Minke Whales
Today's trip started with another sighting of a California sea lion hauled out on a Guemes Channel marker. Our next wildlife viewing was in Rosario Strait where we spotted several harbor porpoises. Next we stopped at Colville Island to view 40+ harbor seals hauled out on the rocks. We had a big group of bird watchers as passengers today and they must have brought us good bird luck because we spotted a pair of tufted puffins just after we watched the seals. A passenger asked me if this was a mated pair? I answered, "most likely considering the time of the year" and a few minutes later they started mating. Next we headed out toward Hein Bank and Captain Carl spotted our first minke whale of the day. Unfortunately he was staying down under the water for long periods of time, so we moved along to try to find more. Our bird watchers got a good look at several beautiful pacific loons mixed in with a flock of gulls. A few minutes later we spotted another minke whale that was being more active at the surface. It was a smaller minke whale, and he was being very friendly. Before long we had another mike whale joining us and it became difficult to keep track of which was which of the two. Next we cruised over toward Swirl Rocks where we spotted more harbor seals, and Castle Island where we spotted a black oystercatcher. We got lucky today because the rain didn't come until the last part of our trip. Naturalist Bart Rulon
