The L22's have been all alone since the rest of the Southern Resident orcas headed out on the night of 7/12/13. Spirit L22, and her two sons Skana L79, and Solstice L89 have spent almost all their time foraging for Chinook salmon along San Juan Island, but on this day they were at Hein Bank, about six miles South of San Juan. As I watched the three orcas from the "Odyssey" of San Juan Excursions, they seemed to be in an active mood. To read into the history of the L22 matriline, check out my last post about them here.
Spirit L22, estimated to have been born in 1971.
Spirit does an inverted tail slap. She also cartwheeled twice.
Solstice L89, born in 1993, tail slaps. He tailed slapped a lot on this day.
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Solstice L89 surfaces, his exhale creating a rainbow.
A few minke whales were even active today, lunging as they ate schools of herring. To learn more about minke whales, check out this post here.
One minke lunges through some herring. . .
. . .while another one hits the same school!
This was the second time I had ever seen a minke whale lunge feed, let alone two doing it within seconds of each other! We left the L22's as they headed back to San Juan Island and as I write this, I can see the L22's swimming past my house on the West side of the island, their breaths illuminated in the sunset.
