Today Captain Chaz and I ventured west into Canadian waters to hang out with a huge killer whale named Galiano and his Mother, (T-19s) that were hunting with another group of killer whales, the (T-49s). Groups of these mammal eating transient orcas will sometimes meet up with other groups of transient orcas. On our way we got to see some of what these killer whales are on the hunt for. We stopped near an island called SkipJack to see a huge haul out of Harbor Seals, which are probably the easiest meal ticket for the orcas. In the tidal currents near the harbor seals we saw a number of Stellar Sea Lions catching fish conveniently brought to them by the currents. The orcas will also hunt these stellar sea lions, but because they are so much larger than the harbor seals, they often fight back, leaving the orcas with scrapes, scars, and battle wounds that actually help make those whales more easily identifiable.
On our way home we saw elusive harbor porpoises sporadically, and we decided to stop by the cliffs near Point Doughty to get a glimpse of the nesting Peregrine Falcons. Today we were lucky and got the chance to observe one of the falcons feeding. It was a truly wonderful day on the Salish Sea in a natural world, that is wild, and very much alive.
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