The A34s (minus A62s) opened the day with a long stretch of calls and echolocation in Blackfish Sound, from about 5:27 to 8:47am. True to their recent form, they remained in the Sound and did not head for Blackney, before dipping back to the west into Queen Charlotte Strait.
Alex and Olivia watching from Donegal Head could see the A67s (part of the A34s) at 1:26pm — seen heading east close by, then turning around and heading west again out of view. The A34s spent the next while between Donegal and Lizard Point, reported foraging and resting, without much sense of direction for the majority of the afternoon. Just out of range of our hydrophone! Finally, at 5:33pm, they appeared right off the Donegal Head shore, angling for Stubbs Island and out of sight towards Weynton Passage.
Meanwhile the A25s were reported at Race Point, just south of Seymour Narrows, at 10:22am, and later westing fast at Chatham Point by 3:54pm… coming back up the Strait, perhaps?
The A34s were visible in Johnstone Strait from the Cracroft Point platform, in line with Beaver Cove, at around 6:34pm. They milled off Telegraph Cove for a good couple of hours, and reports indicated a large number of Pacific White-sided Dolphins in their midst. They took Weynton Passage back to the north again at 9:05pm, into Blackfish Sound, faintly audible at first, then very chatty by 9:14pm, with calls and echolocation continuing through to 10:00pm. The last calls came at 10:10pm, mostly masked by boat noise — and we presume they headed out west from there back into Queen Charlotte Strait and out of our range.
The night and early was quiet for a while, until A5 calls rang out on Strider Rubbing Beach at 4am — the A25s back from the east! They continued slowly easting from there, while the A34s had slipped quietly out of Queen Charlotte Strait into Johnstone Strait via Weynton, turning up off Blinkhorn by 6:48am. Calls from both groups mixed together as they closed the distance between them and, by 8:00am Katie, watching from Cracroft Point, could make out fins over by Kaikash Creek. We surmised the two groups met around here as she could see A61 amidst fins from the A34s.
By 8:28am they’d made it west towards Blinkhorn, hugging the Vancouver Island shore. Not moving with much urgency, and a little lost in the morning mist, they were mid-Strait just east of Telegraph Cove by 9:30am. By 10:22am they had settled on Weynton Passage again, heading for Blackfish Sound.
Researcher Jared Towers was observing A55 and A34 off Bold Head around 1:30pm, while the rest of the A34s and A25s sat further west, off the Donegal Head viewpoint in Queen Charlotte Strait. At 2:02pm they were in line with the White Cliffs from Donegal, switching directions and foraging. By 5:27pm they’d settled into a slow drift north through Queen Charlotte Strait.
From our perspective, the evening then shifted to Bigg’s orcas. At 6:06pm, some Bigg’s were spotted from the Cracroft Point platform coming from the east, close to the Cracroft Island shore. By 6:16pm we were tracking them into Blackney Pass, passing very close to Guardian and baby, the humpback pair who’d been feeding off Cracroft Point all afternoon — with Magician also on the scene, trumpeting as the Bigg’s went by. By 6:31pm the Bigg’s (identified as T023s) were in Blackney Pass heading north, and had cleared the Pass by 7:04pm.
A second group of Bigg’s, the T060s, briefly entered Blackney Pass very close to Burnt Point at 7:51pm before turning back into Blackfish Sound. Alex and Olivia up on Donegal Head could see both groups in Blackfish Sound as the light began to dwindle. The evening closed with with some very clear Bigg’s calls in Blackfish Sound from 8:25pm to just after 9pm — always lovely to hear!
As we approach our historical “busiest week” of August, we wonder if there are more groups just around the corner, making their way to the rubbing beaches of Johnstone Strait.
