After spending the night in South Puget Sound the Resident Orcas that past Seattle on Monday headed back north past Seattle this morning. These have been identified as members of J and K pods. Behaviors included foraging and travel...some breaching was also seen as well as one whale that became inverted....image attached is poor due to distance and air conditions near the water surface.....so please forgive the poor quality.
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Inverted whale
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This is a late post from October 2017 from Nisqually Delta. While this a part of the Puget Sound the animals are distinctly fresh water...and trees. They are included here just because it was impossible for me to leave them out of a post due to their cuteness....and their abundance in the Nisqually Delta. Usually the Delta is the place to go to see ducks, geese, and other waterfowl as well as herons as well as eagles, hawks, falcons, and a variety of other birds. This year the Pacific Chorus Frogs stole the show. Garter snakes were almost as common as the frogs.
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| Ladybug larva |
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| Ring-bill Gull |
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| D.C. Cormorant |
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| Dragonfly |
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| Wood Duck |
Another sunny day in Seattle.....That makes 8 in a row...maybe a record for Seattle in December. Resident Orcas - identified as members of J and K pods cruised past West Seattle Monday afternoon...making it just before sunset. Most of the group stayed well to the west side of the Sound...as they often do, but a few strayed closer to West Seattle allowing some good viewing from Constellation Marine reserve. The whales were foraging likely on Chum and Coho salmon which are the draw for Orcas to enter this area in the fall months. Sunset wasn't half bad either.
It's a strange December when the forecast for Seattle is dry from December 3rd through the 18th....but that's 2017....last winter the rainiest and last summer the driest.
But we will take it......as it makes our days out looking at wildlife much more comfortable than 38 degrees with rain and wind.
So here are some images from this week.....while the whales preformed beautifully they stayed about 3 miles away so excuse the low quality of the images. The geese and swans and inverts were much more cooperative. Orcas are from J Pod and L87 (prehaps more L Pod whales but not identified.
Happy Holidays All
