It was a beautiful day at the San Juan Islands as we headed north from Friday Harbor to find the whales. Once we finally met up with the Southern Residents, they were acting very playful. They were breaching from every direction, as soon as you looked one way you would miss one jumping out from the other direction.
I was able to identify K21, “Cappuccino” fairly early on, due to his distinct saddle patch. He also seemed to be putting on a show for us. I caught him breaching in the back of a photo that I was taking of other Orcas closer to our boat.
It was such an amazing experience to be able to watch these beautiful creatures in the wild. With just about a half hour left of our time with the whales I swore I had seen one of the new babies (one of the four new Orcas that year often referred to as the Jabies). I for sure thought my eyes and mind were playing tricks on me as I would have been so honored to be able to see one of the new calves in real life. Finally the naturalist on the boat also confirmed- he has spotted a Jabie! I was right! Just about as soon as one of the babies was confirmed it was time for our boat to head back to shore.
Only seconds after the announcement had been made I had my camera pointed in the direction of the calf, in hopes to snag one last photo of it. And boy did I get a good one! Just then an Orca breached from the ocean and seconds after so did the calf! I couldn’t believe it ! My last photo of the day was a double breach including the new Jabie! What a great last photo! I still can’t believe I managed to capture it!
-Kerry
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