Distant calls audible. August 13 2020 Orcas: A50s, A54s, A23s, A25s After parting ways for the night, the A23s and 25s headed further west into Queen Charlotte Strait and out of our range, while the A30s made their way fairly silently down Johnstone Strait to the east in the earliest hours of the morning. We clocked their calls at 3:20am all the way down at the Main Rubbing Beach, as they started to move west once again. By 3:52am the very excited A30s (A50s and A54s) had opened up into the most beautiful calls as they foraged and travelled through Robson Bight. We were gifted a rare few hours without any large vessels coming through the Strait, and we could hear each lilt and intonation of the orcas’ very excited calls. They took their time, producing lots of echolocation which reverberated round the Bight; the characteristic “tak”, “tak, “tak” signifying their many foraging efforts as they honed in on tasty fish. By 5:07am the calls were clearer further west at Kaizumi Rubbing Beach. They continued to forage and call excitedly, but alas they did not come in to rub on this early morn. As their sounds dwindled, Suzie (on shift at the time) surmised that they had likely headed west - a good enough guess given what we know about our hydrophone ranges and the orcas’ behaviour. She was wrong! They had silently crossed Johnstone Strait, and Megan at Cracroft Point saw 3 fins, including A50 and her baby, heading in to Blackney Pass at 6:45am. Welcome back to CP, Megan! We saw our first fins cutting through the silky morning waters at 7am in Blackney. At first it didn’t seem like there were many orcas, but by the time they were closer to us we could identify the A50s and 54s in their entirety, passing totally silently as they cruised by in a beautiful dawn. Around the same time, we received a report of more orcas out in Blackfish Sound heading our way, one of which looked like A60. Ah! The A23s and A25s had returned. What would happen when the two groups met, which way would they go? We monitored the calls of the two groups as they met in the Sound, and it seems that the A30s had come in to fetch the A5 groups, just as they had dropped them off the night before, as they came back into Blackney Pass at 9:20am! Interestingly, we did not confirm the A54s coming back through. They had perhaps continued to do what can only be described as “doing their own thing”, as they have for much of the summer, and kept heading out. Let’s see where they turn up next! The A23s came through first, followed by the A50s and A25s. This passing was much shorter, lasting only 20 minutes before their cleared our view and zoomed to Johnstone Strait at 9:40am. They made a clear pass for Kaizumi, and by 10:32am at least some of them had made it across the Strait to the rubbing beach there, and had a brief rub along the stoney shore, before continuing east. We monitored their calls and echolocation as they made their way into Robson Bight for a bite to eat, and continued east close to shore towards Strider Rubbing Beach at 11:36am. The orcas were spread out, but we believe the A23s and then 25s, followed by the A50s all came in to rub and mingled together. We caught some beautiful footage but sadly the power has been down all day in Alert Bay, so we were not streaming live! We will have to make a little highlights reel to share with you all. After a good long rub at Strider, almost two hours later, the last orcas were finally seen heading west again down the Vancouver Island shore at 1:17pm. They called faintly as they travelled and crossed over Johnstone Strait, where they eventually arrived at Cracroft Point around 3:30pm. They foraged just a little while, before continuing west. We lost their calls for a couple of hours, but Quin on his way to Telegraph Cove caught sight of the groups between Blinkhorn and Telegraph Cove around 4.30pm. At some point, they decided to turn round and head back to the east - what had they been doing down there? Listening to see if other groups were coming in, or just stretching their fins a little further? We monitored their move back east, as at 7pm we could hear them around Cracroft Point again. Megan identified A60, A61 and some other smaller fins closer to CP, whilst a larger group remained on the other side of the Strait towards Vancouver Island - all were heading east in synchrony. Yet another foraging frenzy and excited bout of calls in Robson Bight (their third today!) as the A50s, A23s and A25s approached Critical Point around 9pm onwards. We are currently listening to dwindling A5 calls and even more distant A30 calls on our Main Rubbing Beach hydrophone (10:15pm), which usually means that they have continued east or are travelling further offshore. Back and forth, back and forth - so go the lives of these Northern Resident orcas in summertime!  Suzie 13 Aug 2020 22:44:39 PDT No orcas present. We are back! Paul 13 Aug 2020 19:48:04 PDT Performing maintenance Good morning! There will be a power outage in Alert Bay from 8am to 6pm today. It means that our internet connection will go down, and we will not be able to stream any of our cameras. Our audio stream will also go down. We should be able to resume streaming after 6pm PST. Wee will let you know when we're back. Apologies for the inconvenience, and hope your day/night goes well in thee meantime, wherever you are. Stay safe, please! Paul Paul 13 Aug 2020 07:15:12 PDT Superb sounds!! We are listening to lovely A30 calls in Robson Bight right now! Listen in: http://www.orca-live.net/community/ Orcalab 13 Aug 2020 04:24:14 PDT