Whale Watching Report

The conditions were ideal for whale watching today, with some sunshine and very calm water. We started our trip out by watching three California Sea Lions as they lounged around on a channel marker near Jetty Island. It didn't take long after that before captain Michael spotted our first gray whales of the day near Whidbey Island. As we cruised over to see them we saw a huge flock of western grebes that numbered in the hundreds. Soon after that we were close enough to watch our two gray whales. One was Patch, #49, and the other was #53. They gave us many great looks. #53 surfaced with his head far out of the water on one occasion, and Patch swam right up to our stern while we sat motionless with the engines shut off. Next we traveled up the shore of Whidbey Island and found one more gray whale that was feeding in the shallows with a flock of surf scoters following nearby. We weren't able to identify this individual but he showed us one of this tail flukes several times while he was feeding near shore, and he did one spyhop for us!! Next we headed back to look for our first two gray whales again, and we found them swimming and surfacing side by side with the Cascade Mountains in the background. Other wildlife spotted today included many harber seals, red-breasted mergansers, and pigeon guillemots. What a great day for my first trip of the year! Naturalist Bart Rulon