Spring Wildlife Adventure! April 9, 2010.

Yellow Bellied Marmot

Here are just a few images from todays exciting Spring Wildlife Adventure!

We headed out this afternoon into blustery conditions in the Strait Of Juan De Fuca on a beautiful Spring Day! During our tour we saw at leas 4 Bald Eagles, a dozen Steller Sealions, 4 Northern Elephant Seals and a large number of Harbour Seals.

Our passengers also got to see the dead Grey Whale that was washed ashore during a recent storm. The whale has attracted a lot of visitors from the local community wanting to get a close look at this large baleen whale.

TUESDAY, April 6, 2010, Transient Killer Whales near Becher Bay, not far from Beached Grey Whale

TUESDAY, April 6, 2010, Transient Killer Whales near Becher Bay, not far from Beached Grey Whale

That makes us 5 out of 6 trips for seeing Killer Whales, amazing for this early in the season!

Add Race Rocks Ecological Reserve and its many bird species, Harbour Seals, Steller Sea Lions and Elephant Seals and this was yet another wonderful day.

These Transient (Marine-Mammal-Eating) Killer Whales were successfully hunting and feed: How do we know this when we never saw the prey? Note all the birds, mostly Glaucous Wing Gulls and Western Gulls, swooping down to pick up stray bits of seal, sea lion or porpoise flesh!

Monday, April 5, 2010 Transient Killer Whales, Elephant Seals, Steller Sea Lions & Beached Grey Whale

Monday, April 5, 2010 Transient Killer Whales, Elephant Seals, Steller Sea Lions & Beached Grey Whale

As always, Five Star Whale Watching headed out to search for as wide a variety of marine wildlife as possible. Showing our passengers the tremendous range in species and size of creatures encountered by those of us who are fortunate enough to live here allows us to explain that none of this would be possible without a vibrant, diverse ecosystem.

The health of that ecosystem supports prey of every size (From Krill & Shrimp to Humpback calves) and that in turn attracts predators ranging from herring to salmon, seals to seal lions & elephant seals, porpoise to whales.

The Apex Predator, the top of the Food Chain in all Oceans, is the Transient (Marine-Mammal-Eating) Killer Whale. And Five Star Whale Watching's passengers saw some today!

Here are pictures of just some of what we saw today, amid the turbulent waters as a Southeast wind and flood tide hitting underwater sea mounts created upwelling that brought even more oxygen, food and nutrients to the surface. It is nice to know that the sometimes bumpy ride that this process causes for human visitors was not in vain!

Here is a backgrounder to the Grey Whale seen in the attached photo:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/04/05/bc-beached-whale-sooke.html

"A dead grey whale found beached near Victoria could prove to be a valuable specimen for researchers, says a marine scientist from the area.

The nine-metre whale, which is a protected species, was discovered Sunday on the shore in Sooke, on the west side of Vancouver Island.

It's still not clear why the whale became beached or why it died.

Determining the cause of death can give researchers a good indication of the species' overall health, said Laura Verhegge, a marine scientist at Pearson College in Victoria."

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/04/05/bc-beached-whale-sooke.html#ixzz0kHUi62b3

Monday, April 5, 2010: Yellow-Bellied Marmot Returns!!

Monday, April 5, 2010: Yellow-Bellied Marmot Returns!!

Like any good newpaper writer, the above headline is very misleading.

The Yellow-bellied Marmot that took up residence on the lawn and in the gardens of The Fairmont Empress Hotel in the Fall of 2008 has returned... Again! (Actually, he has probably been hibernating for a second Winter in Victoria and has just reappeared for Spring).

Why is he special? Well, Yellow-bellied Marmots don't usually live in Victoria or even on Vancouver Island, so he probably hitched a ride on a Transport Truck from the Rocky Mountains.

Yellow-bellied Marmot (Marmota flaviventris), also known as the Rock Chuck, is a ground squirrel.. It lives in the Western US and southwestern Canada. Yellow-bellied Marmots usually weigh between 5 and 11 pounds (2 and 5 kg) when fully grown. It inhabits steppes, meadows, talus fields and other open habitats, sometimes on the edge of deciduous or coniferous forests, and typically above 6,500 feet (2,000 m) of elevation. DOESN'T HE REALIZE THAT HE SHOULD NOT BE HERE, AT SEA LEVEL?

Saturday, April 3, 2010: MARINE MAMMAL?

Saturday, April 3, 2010: MARINE MAMMAL?

A curious creature was seen near the Victoria waterfront and on Five Star Whale Watching's Expedition Catamaran "Fast Cat".

Reports are that sometimes it hopped, while at others it ambled along very much like a hominid.

This animal seemed to pose little threat to humans and, in fact, was seen handing out small eggs that tasted very much like chocolate.

Very much at ease on land or at sea (on the boat!): We seek help in identifying this marine mammal(?) from small children as they seemed to recognize it and a few kids were heard calling out a name that they had for it.

Send your best guesses or drawings to orcas@5starwhales.com

SATURDAY, April 3, 2010, Elephant Seals, California & Steller Sea Lions & Harbour Seals

SATURDAY, April 3, 2010, Elephant Seals, California & Steller Sea Lions & Harbour Seals

An early morning report of Transient Killer Whales showed us all once again just how humble we should be... Less than 2 hours after the last sighting, eight vessels went out on a wide grid search (covering more than 200 sq kilometres or 80 sq miles!!) looking for them and no one found them!

But one of the joys of setting out into the Salish Sea is that there is such an abundance of prey for Marine Mammals that chances are if you do not see one particular species you will likely see several others.

Passengers on Five Star Whale Watching's "Fast Cat" went out West to Race Rocks Ecological Reserve and saw Northern Elephant Seals and Steller Sea Lions. Then the headed East to the Chain Islands and saw Harbour Seals.

On our way to Race Rocks Marine Ecological Reserve we saw a large tree that had long held a Bald Eagle's nest... The tree had been snapped in half by the very strong winds that blew threw the area the night before, and a nest that was almost 2.5m (8 feet) wide and had been there for nearly 10 years was gone!

WEDS, MARCH 31, 2010 Fifteen Transient Killer Whales Get Together To Hunt!!!

WEDS, MARCH 31, 2010 Fifteen Transient Killer Whales Get Together To Hunt!!!

As recently as 15 years ago if you went to a seminar or class to learn about identifying Killer Whales, you likely would have been told, "If you see more than 5 Killer Whales together you are almost certainly looking at Resident "Fish-Eating) Killer Whales because Transient (Marine-Mammal-Eating) Killer Whales rarely travel or hunt in groups of more than 5 animals".

Funny thing about watching wildlife: It keeps one very humble! For yet again, likely the 30th or more time in the last two years, we went out today and saw many Killer Whales hunting together and they were clearly Transient (Marine-Mammal-Eating) Killer Whales...

How do we know that they were "clearly Transient (Marine-Mammal-Eating) Killer Whales"? Here are the key clues:

1. They were foraging and hunting for seals and porpoise (Note the pictures where animals were swimming in different directions, triangulating around prey). Resident Killer Whales do not hunt or eat Marine Mammals;
2. Their dorsal fins are much pointier than the more rounded fins of Resident Killer Whales;
3. Their Saddle Patches (The white patch just behind the dorsal fin) are all "closed", meaning that there is no black pigment swirling or entering into the white patch; and
4. Their saddle patches extend farther forward underneath the dorsal fin.

We look forward to posting full I.D.'s of these animals once we have had a chance to properly examine these photos. Identification is done by matching dorsal fin shape, saddle patch shape, nicks, scratches and marks and comparing them to identification survey guide photos.

What will tomorrow bring?! That's what keeps us so excited to get back out there and take you with us each day!