Happy New Year!

Best wishes for 2012!

New Calf in J-pod! Excellent news just in time for Christmas:)

The image above was taken by the Center for Whale Research of the newest member of Jpod, J48, born on Dec 17th, 2011! J48 is the 5th calf of J16 "Slick" and we wish them all the best.

New Calf in Jpod! Welcome J48:)

What a wonderful Christmas present!

Season's Greeting!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year 

from everyone at 

Five Star Whale Watching!

Annual Winter Bird Count! Dec 17th, 2011

 

Bald Eagle

 Common Murre

 Double-crested & Pelagic Cormorants

 Harlequin Ducks

 Trial Island

 Race Rocks

 Rhinoceros Auklet

Northern Elephant Seal!

On Saturday, Dec 17th, a group of volunteers led by Ron Bates, MMRG, departed Victoria Harbour to take part in the annual winter Bird Count. During our 3 hours on the water we spotted 25 species of birds and counted almost 900 birds! The species spotted included Canada Goose, Mallard, Harelquin Duck, Surf Scoter, White-winged Scoter, Bufflehead, Hooded Merganser, Common Merganser, Red-breasted Merganser, Pacific Loon, Red-necked Grebe, Western Grebe, Double-crested Cormorant, Pelagic Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Bald Eagle, Black-bellied Plover, Black Oystercather, Black Turnstone, Surfbird, Mew Gull, Thayer's Gull, Glaucous-winged Gull, Common Murre and Rhinoceros Auklet.

It was a beautiful day on the water for mid December with calm seas and apart from the various birds we also saw Harbor Seals, Steller & California Sealions and even a large male Northern Elephant Seal!

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2011 Season Highlights!

Here are a few images showing the highlights of our 2011 Whale Watching Season! This was one of the most consistent season in recent memory for sighting whales. From the end of May we saw some type of whale every day until the end of the season!

The types of whales we saw included Resident (fish eaters) Orcas, Transient (marine mammal eaters) Orcas, Gray Whales, Minke Whales and Humpback Whales:) In the Resident Orcas we had a couple of new calfs to add to the population, which is always excellent news! We saw a large number of Humpback Whales off Victoria again this fall, with the record being 11 Humpbacks during one day:) The return of the Humpback Whales to the Salish Sea is an exciting success story as these whales continue to rebound!

Apart from the whales we saw lots of interesting wildlife including large numbers of Harbor Seals, Stellar & California Sealions, Northern Elephant Seals, Dalls & Harbor Porpoise. The bird sightings in the Salish Sea were amazing with lots of different species of Marine Birds, attracted to the area by the large quantity of bait fish. We even saw Pelicans once again this year off Victoria, as well as Bald Eagles, Great Blue Herons, and even the odd Tufted Puffin:)

Thank you to all our wonderful guests that joined our excursions this season, you helped make 2011 one of the most successful seasons for Five Star Whale Watching! We look forward to seeing many of you again in 2012:)