The T100’s and Tufted Puffins by Smith Island on May 18th
May 17
Today there were rough seas of five foot swells in the Straight of Juan De Fuca where whales had been spotted, so we avoided the area for calmer seas up north of Orcas Island to see what we could find.
We saw Steller sea lions on a buoy marker fighting for space, with one juvenile male in the water making half-hearted attempts to get up.
Cruised north through the Sucia fingers, where we saw more Steller sea lions using each other as pillows on the beach. Pigeon Guillemots were all over, diving under the water and giving us a good look at their bright red feet.
On the way back south headed for home, we stopped by Alden Bank to look for baleen whales. The area between Cherry Point and Sucia Island is shallow and muddy, which are great conditions for them. We spotted a gray whale, which is a slightly rarer sighting than humpbacks, and were able to follow along its erratic feeding dives, with some great views of its dorsal ridge and the barnacles along its back. We saw one good tail fluke dive, and several tail tips.
May 18
Soon after we headed out from a gloomy day in Bellingham, we were greeted with a few Harbor Porpoise right in Bellingham Bay, as well as the sky showing signs of clearing. This is not uncommon as we travel further into the San Juans and the Vancouver Island rain shadow.
There were several remnants of bait balls, or schools of small fish, with a variety of birds resting in the water on the west side of Eliza and again towards Cypress Island. A small raft of Rhinoceros Auklets dove away from the boat.
We had heard word of the T100’s heading southwest from Deception Pass, and once we caught up with them, they were near Smith & Minor Islands, a pair of islands at the far south end of the San Juans, out in the Strait of Juan De Fuca. The Strait is less protected by the islands and therefore can be pretty rough. Luckily we had calm seas, and only partly cloudy skies today.
We head to Smith Island on our birding cruises, as the Tufted Puffins love it there and today was no different. We got to see a pair of them surface a couple of times in the water right near the north side of Smith island.
The weather made for clear views of the T100 orca pod. One male named Laurel born in 2002, and two female orcas: Hutchins the matriarch born in 1979, and Tharaya born in 2009.
They were surfacing every 8 or so minutes in a calm, slow travel pattern. Just before we had to begin heading back, we were lucky enough to have the T pod come within roughly 40 feet of us.
We got to see some sea lions on the way home. We are relatively accustomed to seeing Steller sea lions hauled out on islands, rocks and buoys, but today we saw the rarer California sea lion. Slightly smaller, more vocal and darker skinned. We also saw Stellers at Bird Rocks.
