Valentine’s Day Orca by Powell River

It was a lovely Valentine’s gift to see Orca back in the inside waters and along the Sunshine Coast. Although I spent a short time out with them, there’s nothing like sitting there and hearing their blows even when it got too dark to see them. They decided to arrive in the neighbourhood almost too late to see them at all. I managed a few very poor quality photos of them, see below. After my last report wondering where the whales got to, I received a couple of Humpback Whale reports, see below. I look forward to the Humpbacks and Dolphins (other than Orca, which are actually of the Dolphin family) also coming back to our coverage areas.

Orca Tail Lob between Powell River and Texada Island

February 14, 2012

Photo: Susan MacKay, Whales and Dolphins BC

4:40 pm A call came in of 6 or 7 Orca off Armour Road, south of Powell River heading Northward – my way. Thanks to Nina Falls for the sightings report!

I had little time to grab gear and head out into the calm waters in front of the Powell River Harbour. It didn’t take very long to spot them, but as they headed close to shaded East side of Texada Island, the light wasn’t in my favour to get ID photos. I managed to count at least 6 and possibly up to 9 Orca. As for vocals, I set the hydrophone down a number of times, but there was far too much boat noise from the ferries and tugs transiting the area to hear anything other than boats. I thought I heard a couple of squeaky calls, but they were not conclusively Orca calls.

Orca (possibly T20) between Powell River and Texada Island

February 14, 2012

Photo: Susan MacKay, Whales and Dolphins BC

I’m pretty certain one of them was the Transient Orca T20 with his distinctive notch in that big dorsal, but they were distant and my photos were just too poor of a quality to be 100% certain. The females and the baby calf, merrily porpoising beside Mom, were also too far off; not to mention it was getting rather dark, to see clearly. I left them around 6:15 pmheading between the reef marker and Blubber Bay at the top of Texada Island.

5:43 pm Telephone message about the Orca out in front of Westview from neighbours Steve Grover, who suddenly realized he was also watching me, already out on the water with the Orca as he left the message. He also called my cell phone at one point to tell me that there were some Orca behind me which I did not see. Thanks Steve.

Orca Breach off the top of Texada Island

February 14, 2012

Photo: Susan MacKay, Whales and Dolphins BC

The following reports came in February 13, 2012 after my previous posting asking where the whales are. Most Humpback Whales are in Hawaii, but there was also a report of one in the Puget Sound area.

Hi Susan

It seems like a long time since we have had a visit but I do love your Blog and just wanted to let you know that we had many whale sightings while in Maui. Lots and lots of Humpbacks. There was not a day that went by without our seeing many breaches, especially against the darker background of Molokai. We had many sightings on our morning walk at Kapalua. We were smart enough to take our binoculars this time. While we were driving Erin back to the airport we had our closest sighting, just below the cliff edge, and huge! So we have been very lucky this past January. Hope all is well and you Anna hummingbirds are still okay.

Cheers Dulcie

Want to report 3 Humpback whales breaching. Saw them off our deck…..of course, we are in Kona, Hawaii! See you in the spring
Dee

Just saw the humpback in Hood Canal today, from 4:15-6 pm off the Bangor navy base!
Emma Willoughby

Still have the same four fighting over the feeder in Powell River. The male Anna’s are in their breeding plumage and have even redder heads than a few weeks ago. They are also going through a lot more food even though it’s warmer.

 

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