No calls but orcas nearby The night was quiet, with only a single humpback gracing our hydrophones with grunts and groans in Blackfish Sound, just after midnight. Blackney Pass was wrapped in a velvety darkness until the early morning; broken only by the familiar splashes and snorts of sea lions as they patrolled our shores. Just as the first light appeared, so did the orcas, at 6:08am on our Critical Point hydrophone, located in the Johnstone Strait. We heard G clan calls first, later confirmed to be the I15s, and some signature A5 N4 calls a short while later, at 6:14am. Only minutes later, we heard faint A5 and I15 calls on our rubbing beach hydrophone at 6:25am and 6:27am respectively. They continued to travel slowly east - foraging as they went - and we heard some beautifully clear, close I15 calls and echolocation for the next few hours. Just before 7am, as the light flooded over the islands and glassy waters, Quin found them on our remote rubbing beach camera and tracked them as they milled and foraged, flitting between east and west. We saw one male and at least three smaller fins, and their calls suggested that the two groups - A5s and I15s - were intermingled as they went. They didn’t seem to be committing to a particular direction, and at 10.00am we were hearing still regular, but more distant calls on the rubbing beach, and we could no longer see them on our cameras. Our last call was very distant at 11:28am on Critical Point, located in Robson Bight, suggesting that at least one orca was a little further west than the rubbing beaches. Due to the orientation and range of our hydrophones, it is always a little tricky knowing where to place the orcas at this point, but our best estimation was that they were either further to the Cracroft Island shore roughly opposite the rubbing beaches, or had decided to go further east down the Johnstone Strait where our extended ears cannot hear them. The afternoon was a quiet one. We collected some driftwood for our winter wood stores, keeping an eye and an ear focussed on Blackney Pass and our speakers, eagerly awaiting the return of the orcas once more. As dinner was underway and our evening was drawing on, our ears were rewarded with that familiar sound piercing the white noise - they were back. At 6.26pm Karien heard distant A5 calls on the rubbing beach hydrophone, and at 7:32pm they were joined by distant G clan calls. Although one should never make assumptions, we were fairly confident that this was the same two groups as earlier: some of the the I15s and A5s making their way west once again. Their calls gradually became louder, and the resulting melody was truly beautiful. Located in the ecological reserve - the rubbing beach hydrophone is perfectly place to capture calls in one of the orcas’ most frequented locations, and this evening we had the added bonus of no boat noise. Then came the cherry on top of this already delicious acoustic cake - they were rubbing! Although too dark for our cameras; at 8.13pm we heard the unmistakable “bubbling” sound as the orcas exhale, expelling air from their lungs to sink to the seafloor, followed by the characteristic grinding of stones as they propel their entire bodies seamlessly along the smooth stoney surface. This happened a few times over the course of only three minutes, before the orcas continued on their way. Due to the close calls we heard around this, we believe it was members of the A5s who were rubbing, with the I15s further offshore. At 8:55pm we heard A5 calls on Critical Point, meaning that some members had indeed continued to the west, although at 9:06pm we could still hear some A5s and I15s on the rubbing beach, meaning that the groups were still fairly spread out. Their calls continued and tapered out over the next couple of hours, and we last heard them at 10pm still on Critical Point. The evening concluded with a humpback grunting at 10:09pm in Blackfish Sound. Another beautiful day here on Hanson Island! OrcaLab 20 Sep 2019 12:43:29 PDT