San Juan Island County, Washington

Teaching Your Baby to Hunt!

WOW, OH WOW!!! OMG, what an incredible whale-watching excursion I went on yesterday in the San Juan Islands of Washington state!!! Even our boat captain (Josh, of Outer Island Expeditions) said this was quite the unusual show and had to break out his camera. Now, mind you he does this ALL the time, so this was truly a very special afternoon.

We watched and gently followed this pod of transient Orca whales (aka "Killer Whales") between Lopez and Orcas Islands in the San Juan islands. This was the pod known as T77A and there were about seven whales, plus a very large male in the distance who was communicating with his harem to which they would visually respond.

The portion of the pod we were following were the adult females with their calves, and we actually got to witness this particular mom catch a harbor seal and show it to her baby!

We saw them play with each other: tail slaps, jumps, spy hoping, belly rolls, back flips! OMG, it was SO incredible!!!!

As a nature photographer its VERY, VERY rare to witness wildlife acting like this, and I will NEVER EVER forget what an incredible experience we all had on the water on this day!

--Jim--