Whale Watching Report

Our 2008 Everett Gray Whale Program was the best yet! We had Gray Whale sightings on 44 out of 44 tours and saw lots of activity! Our guests saw fluking, spyhops, and breaches! We also had Minke Whale, and a juvenile Humpback Whale sightings, Sea Lions, Dall's and Harbor Porpoises, Eagles, Seals, and numerous other wildlife sightings!! Tomorrow, May 10th, we will be searching for Orca Whales! We have had reports of Orca Whales in our area today and we can't wait to show our guests lots of Whale and wildlife sightings tomorrow as we tour through the San Juan Islands!!

Jetty Island was full of bald eagles and osprey as we slowly left the dock this morning. Caspian terns circled overhead as we headed over to check out a California sea lion hauled out on a green channel marker. Later we moved south and found our first gray whale just north of Mukilteo. He wasn't surfacing very often in between long dives so we headed northwest toward Camano Island to look for more whales. As we neared Camano we spotted three gray whales along the shores of Whidbey Island just south of Langley. It was #21, #22, and #383. They were all swimming very close together at a slow pace, and we watched them for a while before we peeled off to check out the eagle's nest on the south end of Camano Island. We saw three eagles there with one perched in the trees and two soaring above the island. Next we headed back to find our three gray whales again, and they were right where we left them! They were all still swimming and surfacing together and they slowly made their way toward Hat Island as the sun broke out of the clouds for good finally. When they reached Hat Island the whales started to feed near the shoreline and they raised their tail flukes several times. They gave us a great show. Later as we headed back toward the dock we found yet another gray whale. What a great way to end our two month stay in Everett, with a 100% whale sighting record. Other wildlife sighted today included western grebes, rhinoceros auklets, barrows goldeneyes, double-crested cormorants, brant, canada geese, and harbor seals. We moved the boat back up to Anacortes tonight after our trip. Stay tuned for more whale reports from Anacortes. Naturalist Bart Rulon

Balancing Act (great spot David!)

Photo by Naturalist Kate Janes

Third Wheel

Photo by Naturalist Kate Janes

"It's a bird, it's a plane...no there really is a bird and a plane!! And there were Gray Whales on the horizon!! Departing the marina Glaucous-winged Gulls, Bald Eagles, Caspian Terns, and Cormorants were flying about while high over head 3 planes could be seen (two of which were commercial crafts and one a small island hopper)!! Our focus remained on the water as we ventured toward Gray Whales #383 & # 21!! Shortly after two more whales that were farther north started moving south towards us!! It sure seemed like whale soup as #49 & #22 came south and it looked like all four whales were going to join up. To our surprise these two pairs stayed separated but in close enough proximity that we could enjoy both groups!! After enjoying the company of #383 & #21 we said our goodbye's to identify and introduce #49, Patch, & #22 to our passengers! It was on this encounter that our guests enjoyed the "all-day" breath of the Gray Whale (their "morning breath" seems to last all day)!! All four whales treated us to an array of behaviors from deep dives producing a glimpse of their flukes to feeding behaviors! Before long our journey took us to Camano Head where a young passenger spotted something in the water!! A log!! But not just any log this log had a passenger of its own. A young Harbor Seal pup had found refuge from the cold waters on this "make-shift" island!! Then out of the waters yet another Gray Whale appeared!! Gray Whale #44 was our fifth whale of the day!! We then visited with a pair of Bald Eagles at home near their nest! It was another incredible day in the sound with fishing Great Blue herons in the shallow waters of Jetty Island, feeding Pigeon Guillemots, hauled-out California Sea Lions, soaring eagles, croaking Western Grebes, and fast flying Surf Scoters!!" - Naturalist Kate Janes

"It was a day of soaking up the sun while in the company of wildlife! Leaving the marina we spotted a juvenile & mature Bald Eagle perched on Jetty Island. As we departed towards a hauled out California Sea Lion, a Harbor Seal seemed to follow the boat enjoying our slight wake! It wasn't long and our first 2 Gray Whales of the day were seen heading towards the river delta! The calm water conditions made it possible to follow the whales movements through their footprints (what I call fluke prints)!! If one looked closely just moments before #22 and his companion (whom I was unable to identify) broke the surface of the water bubbles could be seen!! In these calm and clear conditions you can actually see the whales starting to exhale just below the surface as they ascend towards fresh air!! As the two whales moved further into the shallow waters another whale appeared in the distance towards Gedney Island. We departed the two in order to spend some time with the 3rd whale, who turned out to be Patch, #49!! Effortlessly Patch moved with grace proving our guests with great looks and even fluking!! On our journey we visited a Bald Eagle's nest, listened to the croaking of large rafts of Western Grebes, saw Surf Scoters fly by, watched as Rhinoceros Auklets dove for their next meal, witnessed a Harbor Seal feeding at the surface and enjoyed the company of three Gray Whales all on a brilliant May day!" - Naturalist Kate Janes

Wow! A Humpback Whale in May? You never know what nature will show you each day!! Stay tuned to the Whale Report for details on the sighting of two species of whales from Naturalist Jami Nagel! "Our 11 am trip we headed out finding our first gray whale feeding in the river delta just east of Hat Island. We watched him feed for awhile and then headed to the south end of Whidbey Island. That is where we encountered a juvenille Humpback whale!! We had our first double header (2 diffent types of whales) of the season! The humpback was feeding in a tide line just SE of Whidbey. We also saw bald eagles, western grebes, harbor seals, California sea lions and a large raft of Pacific Loons!" " Our evening trip was treated to some sunshine and 3 gray whales! The first 2 were in shore just north of Everett. We watched them for awhile then headed north to our third whale in Tulalip bay just off Port Susan. After leaving this whale we headed over and checked out several bald eagles and the eagles nest at the south end of Camano Island. As we headed back toward Everett we encountered our fourth Gray whale, #49 Patch. "

We started out our day sighting at least one gray whale before we even left the dock, thanks to Mark's steady hand with the binoculars. A few moments later we saw three immature bald eagles on Jetty Island, and two California sea lions hauled out on their favorite green marker. We made our way toward two gray whales hanging out together west of Jetty Island. One of the whales was Patch, #49. They were both heading toward the shallows. Once they got there the whales turned on their sides to feed, exposing their pectoral flippers and their tail flukes at the same time with lots of splashing around. We watched for a long time as they fed continuously while large flocks of western grebes, surf scoters, white-winged scoters, and Glaucous-winged gulls watched close by. Later we saw three new gray whales heading in our direction, and decided to give them a closer look. As we approached one of the whales did a big spyhop. I was able to identify one of the grays as #22. The three grays joined our first group of two and soon all five were rolling around in the shallows feeding. As the sun broke out we headed north to take a look at the bald eagle's nest on Camano Island. The female was in the nest, and we saw two other bald eagles nearby along with a red-tailed hawk. On the way back we revisited our large group of gray whales. They had moved in closer to land with the rising tide, and they were still feeding in very shallow waters. What a treat to see 5 gray whales hanging out so close together! Naturalist - Bart Rulon

Naturalist Bart Rulon reports:It was another great day on the water! We were greeted by 2 California Sea Lions hanging out on the Green Markers around Jetty Island. NW of Jetty Island we found 2 Gray Whales (Patch #49 and #22 )  feeding and rolling around in shallow water which allowed us to see their pectoral fins and their beautiful flukes. We  headed North to Camano Island where we saw an Eagle perched above it's nest. We headed back toward the whales and were lucky to find a group of 4 gray whales feeding together, this time they let us have a look at their faces. While we were watching the whales an Eagle flew low and close to the bow of the boat... Twice!!