And With the Rains Come Salmon and Orcas...

It was a bit of a spiritual Pacific Northwest day today. The resident orcas are back in the area after a several day absence. I think the abundance of rain we've had lately may be brining even more salmon into the area which equals more time with the orcas.
It was a gray day - calm, glassy, and misty. We found these whales swimming in a tight, lazy social group: J2 "Granny", J1 "Ruffles", J14 "Samish", J30 "Riptide", J40 "Suttles", J45 "Se-Yi'Chn", K12 "Sequim", K22 "Sekiu", K33 "Tika", little baby K43, L7 "Canuck", and L53 "Lulu". Behind this very tight group was J37 "Hy'Shqa" and K37 "Rainshadow". These two youngsters seemed to be thoroughly enjoying their time together. They were breaching, spyhopping, tail lobbing, cartwheeling, and just generally being very rolly-polly. At first the whales seemed to be in no big hurry to get anywhere. They spent quite a lot of time just rolling around in a single spot while constantly changing directions. After a spell they seemed to commit to heading toward Turn Point. Ooops, but I'm wrong again. They turned due south and began to scoot slowly toward John's Island. This is when I saw two of the best spyhops in my history of hanging out with the orcas - first a female slowly swam for the sky while bringing over half of her body out of the water. She slowly and gracefully slipped back under the surface at the moment another huge head lifted itself skyward. It was Ruffles! He spyhopped just off the bow of the boat and hung at the surface for a few moments. The gaze of the orcas seems piercing sometimes. When they spyhop that close, you just KNOW they can see you and are observing you just as much as you are observing them. He slipped back below the watery depths just as the first few splatters of rain began to touch the surface of the sea. They were headed southwest now, with purpose, toward Turn Point and the large and foggy expanse of Haro Strait - the Pacific Northwest at it's best: gray skys, rain, glassy seas, green trees, and orcas breathing, slicing through the mist...