Today’s expedition certainly turned it on!
We ventured to the west of the hotspot towards the typical Orca blows to find a large pod of twelve or so just ‘cruising’.
With the shearwaters swirling above the orca moved forward and back along the 1000 metre contour line. We had Chalky (large bull), Kidji (large female), Tatty (large female who is sporting some new scars on her dorsal) Kirra and plenty of babies. Two of these youngsters would have been under 3 years old and could not get enough of the vessel! It appeared to be that every time the group surfaced they would come over! The adults were pretty uninterested and at first kept their distance but once they realised we were not threatening and just idling alongside them they relaxed.
Some slicks appeared but no real hunt occurred. The nursing pod were snacking and the birds could tell it wasn’t worth their time. Two large wandering albatrosses rested on the oceans surface and looked like Dodo birds. While they cleaned themselves we played with baby orca!
One calf in particular was acting like it had learnt a new trick! It would come to our port side, turn and surf down the swell turning upside down as it went past our bow. Performing this trick over and over again, we could not get enough of the little orange tinged cutie!
We are so lucky to be able to work with such a variety of people especially our photographers as they bring their own specialties and can teach us! We have learnt much of the years about the bird life out in the canyon and today it came in handy. A very rare Barau’s Petrel fluttered past our bow and we had our quick trigger finger Jodie Lowe onto it straight away!
Another amazing day full of epic bird life and epic Orca whale watching tour!!
