By Captain Ken Rea
A beautiful day with Biggs T34s, 36s, 27s, 46s and Black Oystercatcher chicks. I was afraid the falcon had gotten the chicks, but I saw one today and hope there are more.
We spent most of our tour today just shutdown watching the nature show right before us. There was a lot of socializing and some mating activity taking place between the pods. For more than an hour they were being very playful and didn’t move a bit. Just tail lobbing, rolling over each other and enjoying each other’s company.
We had members from multiple pods. I shied a couple of fast running boats from going over them and hollered at a sailboat under power that he was too close to the whales. He veered away and seemed to get the message and was following me. But, when the whales popped up with a hard left close by and I shut down, he kept motoring along with the whales as close as 25 yards from him. He didn’t get it.
Ken Rea, owner and operator of the Spirit of Orca, is also the tour guide, photographer and naturalist on his Whale Watching and Wildlife Tours in the Salish Sea, San Juan Island, Washington.
Photos by Ken Rea
To learn more about Captain Ken, visit https://spiritoforca.com
