Summary for October 15 2019 Humpbacks, A5s, A34s Being woken up before daylight by a humpback song is an incredible feeling that gives you the most amazing strength to start another day. This is exactly what happened this morning with moans and songs, started on our Parson Island hydrophone at 6:09am. This recital continued distantly while the humpback was heading north towards the lab and by 6:36 am, we could hear it getting closer to our local hydrophone. Quin was rewarded to be up with calls and blows he could hear outside right in front of the lab at a time of 6:55 am. The orcas were not such early birds this morning but we started to hear very faint calls at 9:02am. It took some time to find out where the calls were coming from as they were infrequent but by 9:17am the whales were getting more noticeable in Blackfish Sound though still far away. Once again it was the A34s. After a short period of time, the calls disappeared and we stopped the recording by 9:55 am. At 2:27pm, the A34s resumed in Blackfish Sound with some very interesting calls at 2:37pm and 2:38pm as one individual seemed to venture further east in Blackfish Sound closer to the hydrophone. Before the whale(s) retreated back “up” Blackfish there were more interesting calls. What was going on was left to our imagination. Later that day, the family travelled into Johnstone Strait via Weynton Pass by 3:56pm. They were joined by the A5s at 5:30pm. We stopped hearing them all at 6:01pm.  OrcaLab 16 Oct 2019 09:22:20 PST Summary for October 14 2019 Harlequin (BCXuk2018#1) , A5s, A34s Very faint orca calls started at 6:59am in Johnstone Strait. We were able to identify the calls half an hour later as the A34s became clearer on our Cracroft Point hydrophone. They must have been headed towards Weynton Pass. At 7:57am, we started to hear the A5s in Blackfish Sound, followed by A34s calls at 8:18am. Faint A calls continued in the Sound for about 4 hours until last heard at 12:35pm. We heard Northern Resident calls again at 2:55pm back in Johnstone Strait while we were watching a humpback in front of the lab rolling around, accompanied by sea lions. For more than an hour, this chilled whale, Harlequin, mesmerized our team who was completely hypnotized by this incredible scene. We could even see Harlequin’s eye leisurely looking above the surface while close to the lab. The scene slowly shifted towards the Sea Lion rock by 15:30pm. Jackie Hildering, from MERS, later confirmed Harlequin’s (BCXuk2018#1) identification. The orca calls were sporadic and distant in the Strait until 5:40pm. We learned that the near “constant” Blackney Pass humpback, Guardian, was recently seen off Steep Island near Campbell River by Roger McDonnell. Rather nice that the network of observers continues to provide details about the lives of the whales on this coast.  OrcaLab 16 Oct 2019 08:53:03 PST