Whales, sunshine, and the hottest day of the year (so far)!

Another exciting and beautiful day out on the Salish Sea! Our morning trip took us south to first check out our quickly growing peregrine falcon chicks in the middle of lunch on Burrows Island. After some fun looks of these cute and noisy three chicks, we pushed on south through glass calm conditions, stopping briefly to see a snoozing steller sea lion hauled out on a channel marker. Continuing south with perfect conditions and beautiful views of Mt. Baker, Mt. Rainier and the Olympic Peninsula, we finally came across one of our favorite Bigg's killer whale pods, the T65As! Traveling with two other individuals, T77 and her fifth offspring T77E, the pods socialized and hunted while moving south towards the entrance to the Puget Sound. After plenty of viewing time with these animals and the gorgeous backdrop of Mt. Rainier, we decided to head back in the general direction of home with different stops along the way. One of these stops was Partridge Bank, and it was here that we found a minke whale! With the telltale sign of hundreds of birds feeding at the surface, this minke whale spent a good amount of time lunge feeding on schooling fish and giving us particularly great looks at this often elusive animal. Continuing on home, we stopped at Smith Island to observe some of our endangered tufted puffins as well as a quick look at Deception Pass Bridge before heading into the harbor. All in all, a beautiful and fun filled day!