No calls but orcas nearby Summary for 02 July 2020 A35s, A73s, A42s We listened to the A4s until 22:52pm last night, before they fell silent for a couple of hours. Just after 1am, we heard them calling again in Johnstone Strait. Their calls played in our ears until the early light of the morning. We heard both A4 and A5 calls, along with some beautiful echolocation, as the groups made their way west in the Strait. At 7.42am we received a report from Alex that a group had passed Donegal Head, traveling west. These were confirmed as the A42s. Surely they were not leaving for good, so soon? The rest of the morning was quiet, but at 12:15pm Paul and Helena saw a group of orcas heading south in Blackfish Sound, as they themselves traveled back to Alert Bay. We gathered on the deck and waited for the orcas. At 12:16pm they were with us, and we had two groups of orcas pass us at slightly staggered times. The first group we identified as all of the A42s, back from their morning jaunt out west, who cleared our view into Johnstone Strait around 12:50pm. As they reached our Parson Island hydrophone, they confirmed their identity with some lovely A5 calls. Just as they were clearing, another group came in from the north - very spread out. We tried to gather pictures of all individuals but their erratic surfacing habits made it a little tricky. We identified several members of the A35s including A77, A90, A35 and A117. We are not certain if the A52s were with them this morning, nor Springer and her two offspring. The A4 and A5 calls rang out on our Cracroft Point and Critical Point hydrophones as the afternoon drew on, and groups made their way east in Johnstone Strait. The A42s made their way into Robson Bight and at 2:21pm we saw A66 on our camera, and heard his calls and echolocation. The A35s had taken this time to continue down the Cracroft Island shore, and we received a report that they were nearing the Cliff at 2:39pm. We waited for the A42s on Rubbing Beach camera, and at 2:52pm they came into view, but they hung off shore and continued east. No rubs today! After a couple of hours with no sightings or sounds, we saw some orcas coming back to the west on Rubbing Beach camera at 5.37pm. At 18:23 we heard a burst of close A4 calls at Critical Point, so these westing whales contained at least some A4s, but we were not sure if the A42s were there also. The whales continued west, and at 7.30pm we heard their A4 calls on Cracroft Point, and located them on the camera. At 7:54pm we could still see some orcas close to Critical Point, back east in Johnstone Strait - but we did not hear obvious distinct calls from them. At 7:57pm the A4 calls from CP moved on to Parson, and shortly after we saw fins in Blackney Pass. In this passing, we identified A77, A35, A117 and A70s PLUS Springer (A73) and her two offspring! All heading north into Blackfish Sound. We noted the absence of the A52s (part of the A35 matriline) and A90. We last heard their calls at 8:22pm and they cleared into the Sound at 8:47pm. At 9:06pm we heard some more faint A4 calls on Cracroft Point - most likely the remainder of the A35s who did not come into Blackney. At 9:42pm we heard some calls very faint on Parson Island, but we could not tell who these were. No less than 5 minutes later we saw more fins Blackney Pass headed north! The fading light made IDs a little tricky but we identified at least a few members of the A42s. As far as we know, all orcas have now headed west - although we do not know which route the remainder of the A35s (A52s + A90) took. We are waiting to see what they do next.  Orcalab 02 Jul 2020 22:00:34 PDT Superb sounds!! Orcas on base cam! Some calls too. https://explore.org/livecams/orcas/orcalab-base Orcalab 02 Jul 2020 20:14:47 PDT Superb sounds!! We have beautiful A5 calls on our Parson Island hydrophone. Listen in!! Quin 02 Jul 2020 04:41:32 PDT