The Whales of Washington - Encountering creatures

It was a drizzling afternoon when I walked back from the office to my home, the sun was setting and clouds were hampering the last rays of sunlight to reach me. As usual I was listening to music and day dreaming about all sorts of stuff while the cars are rushing by on the main road next to me.  Then my attention was moved to a garden on my right side. It took me some time to realize what I was looking at, but when I did my mouth fell open and I was pinned to the ground. Literally, I was standing on the side of the road with my mouth open. Because the little animal I was looking at, was a hummingbird. Never, ever, did it occur to me that these beautiful birds would live here.  Although I could have known for sure. Between the raindrops, with cars just meters away, in the capital city of Washington state, live the most magical birds! It was stunning to see. I feel so privileged and it made not just my day but my week. Especially because the whale watch tour for that week had been canceled due to bad weather.

The weekend after we went on the last trip of the season. It was a great trip! First we saw a pod of orca’s. The sea was flat, so we had the best view on them. The big male even came up to the boat (see picture) and that just took my breath away. It is hard to describe seeing these animals being wild & free like they are supposed to be, when there are so many pictures and movies going around now about the captive orca’s. They are made to swim amazing distances (documentation of them swimming over 2000km trips is not uncommon) and are incredibly social. We also saw two baby’s jumping and playing and the oldest female present in the pod called ‘Granny’, she is estimated to be over a 100 years old!

And as if that wasn’t enough, we got to see humpback whales feeding at the surface in a baitball. It was great to see the heads popping out, as these parts are mostly under water normally. So no tail fluke photo’s during this trip unfortunately, as I need those to ID the whales for the research. We did got treated in the end with an exhilarating performance by Dall’s porpoises. They started to bow-ride and we could see their white flanks under water! Dall’s porpoises swim fast (up to 55km per hour) and love to race in front of the boat. Haley and me were on the bow pulpit so we had the best view on the boat, as the porpoises were swimming just beneath us. I had the best trip of the season and it made me extra sad it was the last one. From now on, only office work ahead…