Whale Watching in the San Juan Islands of Washington State

A newsletter I received from the Falcon Research Group in Bow Washington reported on a peregrine falcon named Elizabetha, who is an adult female and tagged in Chile on January 21, 2008 as part of the Southern Cross Peregrine Project. She migrated north from Chile all the way to Baffin Island, Canada to breed last summer. In September, after her chick fledged, she began her migration south following the classic US east coast flyway route. The amazing thing is on October 19th she was off the coast of New Jersey and got caught in Hurricane Omar. The newsletter states, “With solid tailwinds, she flew south all the way to Palm Beach, Florida in a day, a distance of at least 954 miles and a knock out world record. None of us had ever dreamed that a peregrine could fly that far in a single day. This is yet another example satellite transmitters are revolutionizing our understanding of so many organisms worldwide.”

For more information on the Falcon Research Group,  go to www.frg.org

This is the first time in about two weeks we’ve had blue sky. People often ask what it’s like here in the Winter. Some folks come in the Summer and think about buying a home here and living n the island when the weather is the best weather in te country. I always tell them to come back in the Winter.  Try and live under a grey sky day after day, with only about eight hours of daylight,  before they decide to buy and relocate. It can become depressing and overwhelming.  Having a warm place to live, and accepting the fact that  the grey is here to stay, will make livng here much easier.

The temperature here today is about 41 degrees.  It’s not difficult spending the day outside if dressed warm enough. We enjoy hiking and birdwatching this time of year. There’s always amazing things to see here no matter what the weather.

By the way, since I started writing this the sun went behind the clouds. Oh well, 30 minutes of blue sky was nice while it lasted.

It’s the middle of january and I am countng the days until we are back on the water being around the whales and watching their daily routines once again. The weather has not been extreme, except for a two week period in December, when we had very cold temperatures and lots of snow. The snow also had a layer of ice beneath it making driving a challenge. It lasted longer than out usual snow events and really slowed things up.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to slow down but a forced slow down was hard on everybody.

I’ve been geting a few reports of whales around, the last report being around Christmas when two transients were up by Turn Point on Stuart Island.  We probably won’t get many reports until we approach spring. In the meantime the “other” wildlife are here. Steller sea lions are the stars of the show right now, as well as bald eagles.

Jennifer and I have been working on getting off the island and heading down to Florida to our little sailboat, to do some needed warm water sailing. For any sailors reading this the photo is our boat, a 1969 Allied Seaind ketch. It’s just the right size for the two of us. We’ll get there eventually.