Wednesday, August 15

You couldn’t ask for more beautiful weather within the past few days on our whale watching trips. This morning we heard more transients had been spotted by Beecher Bay, a bay about 45 minutes west of Victoria. We drove along the shoreline of Vancouver Island and discovered a group of transient Orcas traveling east. The group appeared to have one large male, a few females and one calf. Based on dorsal fin markings we believe the whales may have been members of the T30 family group. But because we only view transients rarely in the area, it was difficult to confirm. Before leaving the pod we had a fantastic sighting of a Tufted Puffin! These seabirds have large bills strong enough to break your finger and are not common in the area. We then proceeded further west where we found a Humpback Whale. After observing a few tail flukes we drove back to Victoria.

For the afternoon trip we went further south, right off the shoreline of Washington State near Crescent Bay. We found the transients there in a resting state and they were now heading west. After viewing the transients we then went right up to the shoreline of Washington where we discovered a Gray Whale feeding along the bottom of the strait. We had some nice surfaces from the Gray Whale and then headed back to Victoria. On our trip home we stopped by Race Rocks and saw a number of pinnipeds (seals and sea lions) and observed a lot of birds including Heermann’s Gulls and Red-necked Phalaropes.