San Juan Island 5 hour sea kayak tour wildlife update for Sunday, July 4th:
Kayak guide Katy reported back from her 5 hour sea kayak tour today that not only did she see our Southern Resident Killer Whales but she was so surrounded by them that her return was delayed! She and her guests rafted up in some kelp, and had to wait for all the whales to swim away before they could paddle again.
San Juan Outfitters wildife report for Saturday, July 4th:
I paddled out on a 5 hour Whale Sanctuary Tour yesterday, and boy did we see whales! As we paddled down the west side we saw whales from J and K pod all spread out along the Haro Strait. We rafted up in a patch of bull kelp and watched them swim by for a long time. It was gorgeous watching them surface, and we even saw mothers and calves! The highlights were definitely seeing some behaviors like tail slaps...
Yesterday's whale watch trip started out unspectacularly- as we were leaving the dock the sky was overcast, with bits of drizzle here and there and we hadn't heard any news about whales in the area all morning. As a whale watch guest who has paid good money this uncertainty can be disheartening, but I assured all 8 of our passengers that sometimes while we are out we hear reports of whales from other boats and that sometimes we ourselves are the first ones to stumble...
San Juan Island sea kayak wildlife update for Tuesday June 8th:
Yesterday I paddled out on our whale sanctuary 5 hour sea kayak tour. We left under blue skies but stiff breezes, and had a gorgeous day on the water. We saw and heard bald eagles, harbor seals, cormorants, black oystercatchers and more! We were down by lime kiln when we received reports that L pod was coming up island from the south, so all our fingers were tightly crossed and we waited in hope, but then the...
San Juan Island sea kayak wildlife update for Sunday, June 6th:
Emily paddled out on her first 3 hour sea kayak tour of the season and what a way to start the summer! She saw a red fox on the beach, numerous harbor seals and eagles, lots of shore birds and our Southern Resident Killer Whales! Off the west side of Henry Island and moving north, she and her guests saw a few small groups at a time, from all 3 pods-- the SUPERPOD! J's, K's and L's were present and all slowly...
San Juan Island sea kayak wildlife update for Tuesday, June 1:
Yesterday afternoon Debbie and I paddled out for a 3 hour sea kayak tour with a private group. We were thrilled with the wildlife we saw-- lots of harbor seals sunning themselves and bald eagles doing exploratory flights. Debbie even found us some purple ochre sea stars to check out!
The highlight of the trip was catching a glimpse of wild bald eagle behavior that neither she nor I had ever seen before-- or...
Our Sunday afternoon trip (May 31 2010) caught up with a group of Transient Killer Whales that had been traveling from the straits into San Juan Channel. Apparently they had been hunting in the Cattle Pass area between whale rocks and goose island for more than an hour before moving northeast into San Juan Channel/Griffin Bay area. The Sea Hawk caught up with them just outside of Friday Harbor as the whales made their way slowly northeast.
It is not uncommon to...
Captain Brian G. and I went out for a private charter this morning, and what a gorgeous morning it was! Some spectacular highlights were watching a peregrine falcon in flight (3 different times!) off Turn Point, watching a school of harbor porpoise race towards an oncoming boat and bow ride (not typical behavior), and getting some amazing views of a large herd of male mouflon sheep. They were off by themselves, and we saw some good examples of aggression between...
I'm afraid I haven't been blogging as frequently as usual, and for that I blame Facebook and Twitter. We at San Juan Outfitters are on both (follow us athttp://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Friday-Harbor-WA/San-Juan-Outfitters/60... & http://twitter.com/sjioutfitters) and I've really been enjoying writing quick updates about our tours, staff, events, and of course, wildlife spotted.
I'll continue to blog, post and tweet(!) updates regularly, so keep reading!
The blustery weather cleared long enough for Captain Brian and I to set out on a whale watch tour. We were hoping for a sighting of transient orcas (killer whales), but no luck. We were lucky with a few harbor porpoise sightings, many many harbor seals, a number of bald eagles displaying interesting behavior and a wonderful up close look at a peregrine falcon sitting just a few feet away!
We also drove very close to Spieden Island where we were able to see large...