Anacortes Location
06/22/22
11 AM
Today’s morning trip began with a bright sunshiny weather – a rarity it seems lately! With boats searching north in the morning, our passengers and crew charged south from our Anacortes location to check out unexplored waters in search of whales. Our journey took us through a bit turbulent water, but alas – a gray whale! We found gray whale CRC 2445, a newly identified whale this year, swimming near shore of Discovery Bay outside Port Townsend on the Olympic Peninsula. After some time, our gray whale swam into shore and began feeding in the shallows, spitting out plumes of mud at the surface as it filtered out all the debris and water to keep its ghost shrimp snack. After these favorable views of both sides of the whale, we decided to continue on back north. On the way, Captain Jim found a couple young Steller sea lions on the Lawson Reef buoy! With some fun shots of this pair, we continued on, stopping at Williamson Rocks for hauled harbor seals and finally ending with some hungry (and therefore loud!) peregrine falcon chicks in their nest on Burrows Island with a watchful parent nearby. All in all, a great morning trip!
3:30 PM
With increasing winds against an opposing current, our second trip of the day decided not to challenge Mother Nature’s wrath down south. We instead chose to head towards Deception Pass and tuck into Saratoga Passage in search of whales in more protected waters. However, just before going under the Deception Pass Bridge, another gray whale popped up near our starboard side! This whale, easily ID-able as another newbie CRC2440 by a distinctive white patch, was travelling west outside the pass and eventually rounded the corner south along West Beach. After some good long looks with this gray whale (who has been in the Salish Sea since at least January), we turned back and went under Deception Pass to check out the bridge and its nearby inhabitants. After coasting through with the current we checked out our favorite bald eagle pair at their nest followed by a nice group of hauled out harbor seals on Strawberry Island with plenty of cormorants and oystercatchers around. After pushing back out under the bridge, we found our Steller sea lions still snoozing on the Lawson Reef buoy and checked out our noisy peregrine falcon chicks. We finally finished our extravagant day with a sunlit look at Burrows Island Lighthouse and Mt Baker around the corner.
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