September 21st started quietly, with only a few faint A34 calls on Strider through the early hours. Then, after nearly three hours of silence, the A62s appeared at Strider around 6:30am and headed straight in for a surprise morning rub. They remained almost completely silent, save for some buzzing and a few rather “honky” sounds, before finishing up around 7am and heading out west hugging the Vancouver Island shoreline.
By mid-morning, it was clear that we had two groups across the Johnstone Strait. Further west, the A34s (-62s) and Gs were widely spread and moving towards Weynton passage. The A62s remained further east in the Strait recovering from their morning rub, their distant calls continuing on Strider as they followed behind.
Around 11:30am, the A62s had reached Weynton and were travelling towards the Plumpers with A91 trailing behind. Ahead of them, the larger group of the A34s (-62s) and Gs had already made its way through, including G71 and several juveniles. Before long, everyone was crossing west towards Queen Charlotte Strait.
A34 and G calls reached Flower Island just after noon as the groups moved into Blackfish Sound. The Gs, A62s and most of the A34s were together there, while A55, A34 and the A96s appeared to be taking their time further behind.
By around 1:30pm, all of the subgroups had cleared west into Queen Charlotte Strait. The Gs appeared to once again be the G34s, G62s, and G64s. Their calls soon slipped out of listening range and silence filled the evening. Just before midnight, Flower Island came back to life with some beautiful humpback vocals, a wonderful way to end the day.
Written by Emily Vierling
