Super cropped photos taken from shore underneath the Juneau/Douglas Bridge.  There were at least seven whales in the pod.  They are transient orcas, although I am unsure which pod.  

We spent some time in our boat and had two very brief encounters with one humpback and two orcas.  The orcas were super elusive and difficult to track.  We gave up trying to find them after looking for 20 minutes.  I was only able to get three photos.  I did find out that others had seen a large pod, and they were identified as AG pod.  I believe the two we saw were also from AG pod.  

I heard there were orcas in the channel so I headed over to the bridge and waited for them to pass by. It was snowing so my photos did not turn out as well as I would have liked them to.  I was also standing on shore, so the orcas were either coming towards me or swimming away from me.  It was difficult to get a good side photo of the saddle patch and dorsal fin.  However, the T037s have been identified.  These are transient (mammal eaters) orcas.        

We were able to count five whales, including a very young calf.  Three (including the calf) appeared to be socializing, as they were rolling around and spy hopping.  We also saw a couple pec slaps.  We thought the calf might have been nursing at one point.  Also, we actually could hear them vocalizing very briefly.  This was the first time we have heard orcas vocalizing.  It was so neat!  AG pod is a very large pod, and we only saw five individuals.  I couldn't help but wonder where the rest were. 

Recently I counted up the number of times I have seen orcas since moving to Southeast Alaska nearly six years ago.  This was number 80!  I hope there are many more to come.      

I heard there were orcas in the Gastineau Channel so I raced over to the Juneau-Douglas Bridge.  The pod ended up passing by as I was standing under the bridge.  

I was pleasantly surprised to find AG pod (resident orcas) in Fritz Cove.  I had heard there were orcas in the area and fully expected them to be transients.  I watched them from shore as they passed False Outer Point and then drove to the westside of Douglas Island and was able to see them from there as well.  It's always a pleasure to see this pod of lively orcas.  

I was headed to Fritz Cove when I heard that there were orcas in the area.  I quickly got out there and immediately found them right next to shore just off from the road.  They had a group of sea lions pinned against the shore, although I believe that is a defensive tactic for the sea lions; move into shallow water. We could see the bottom where the sea lions were.  That is how close they were to shore and the orcas were just out from them.  It was quite the sight. However, I made the mistake of getting out of my car and attempting to follow them along the road on foot. They were moving way too fast for me to keep up.  By the time I made it back to my car and attempted to catch up with them, they were gone.  

The orcas I photographed have been identified as the T064s.  There was a larger group that passed by that I was unable to get photos of.  Judging from a video I saw that a friend had taken, there were at least ten orcas in the area.  I was able to get photos of three. 

I did notice at least two humpbacks in the area; however, I did not get any photos of them.   

We decided to check out the whale activity in Fritz Cove from our boat.  We found Flame along with three other whales.  Two of the whales (Twin Peaks and False Butterfly) were traveling together, while Flame and Nibblet were off by themselves.  We left the area and headed toward Saginaw Channel.  The water ended up getting rough so we headed back towards Auke Bay and encountered a pod of orcas near Spuhn Island.  We watched as they headed towards Fritz Cove.  We knew they were transients and expected them to go after one of the many sea lions or even harass one of the humpbacks in the area.  They were pretty elusive and seemed to be heading towards Shaman Island when we lost sight of them.  We briefly looked for them, but they simply vanished.  We left the area thinking they were gone.  Close to two hours later we stopped by Fritz Cove and found them again. I am thinking they went into stealth mode and began hunting sea lions causing us to lose sight of them earlier in the day. When we saw them later in the day, it was obvious they had successfully made a kill based on their behavior and the bird activity in the area.
Photos are super cropped and super grainy. It was nearly dark when we saw them the second time, and they were super elusive the first time we saw them.

We spent some time in our boat and spotted a pod of five or six orcas, including a small calf, exiting Barlow Cove.  I immediately recognized T072, aka Young.  We have seen him at least two other times.  The T100Bs and T065Bs were also identified.  These are transient (mammal eaters) orcas.  We were in a hurry, therefore, I did not get many photos of them.   

We spent some time on our boat and saw multiple humpbacks in the North Pass area.  They were seemingly everywhere.  I believe there were at least 20 in the area.  I was able to get fluke shots of eight of them, and was surprised to see that there were several that we are unfamiliar with.  After spending time watching the humpbacks, we spotted a large pod of orcas near Gull Island.  They were heading south toward Lena Point.  They were very playful and super fun to watch.  We saw one breach and multiple tail slaps.  I was excited to discover that it was AF22 pod (residents).  We saw them for the very first time 11 days ago.