Another weekly recap is upon us, but we’re quickly coming to the last of them for 2026! As we’re approaching the end of our season, we’re really relishing every last beautiful autumn day on the water. Here is what we encountered across our trips that ran October 5th through October 11th:
Bigg’s killer whales that we encountered over this last week consisted of: the T19 trio, all of the T46Bs proper (9), the T49As who, at some point, handed off T50B1 and T50D to the T19s (8), and T49C was still traveling solo but absolutely munching on seals during almost all of our encounters with him! While these were not the only whales in the central Salish Sea over these dates, we’ve slowed down the amount of trips we are running, making our individual list seem much smaller than previous weeks. Still, a total of 21 individuals is pretty good given amount of trips and time of year.
A couple notable encounters occurred this week, the first with the T46Bs when they seemed to pop up in the only spot without dense fog on one of our trips, essentially *saving our bacon*. This family was very tight to one another, surfacing with some unison, which made seeing 9 dorsal fins on the surface together such a treat. I can’t think of another encounter with them over the last two years where they haven’t been somewhat spread out as they move along, being such a big family group at this point. The other was the T19s cruising right by the Cattle Point Lighthouse and “crashing” a wedding that was happening just at the point!
We encountered a few humpbacks over this past week, and those that we were able to identify include: BCX1377 “Nike” and “Stitch”, BCX1876 “Zillion” and her 2026 calf, and a couple whales that we were not able to get identifying photos for. At this point during the year, we are seeing lunge feeding as these whales put on the last of the pounds they can before turning south to head to the breeding and birthing grounds.
On calm days, the birds, seals, and sea lions are taking advantage of sunning themselves and feeding out over open water more. We’re noticing some salmon leaping at the surface, and we’ve had an uptick in grebe and loon activity as these birds settle in to ride out the winter along the coast. We’re keeping our eyes peeled for anything rare or abnormal for this time of the year as well, as can often turn up when birds start migrating with the seasonal change. Spieden Island has been very active with non-native Mouflon sheep, Sika deer, and Fallow deer grazing, as well. The shoreline is greening up with some of the rain we’ve been getting, as well.
As always, we look forward to seeing what next week has to offer us!
