No orcas present. August 4 2020: A50s, ?A54s,A25s,A23s, HB Easy Riders! I’ll explain soon. But before this let’s begin where we left off. After midnight the A30s and the A5s were some distance away off the eastern end of the Reserve. By 1:30am their calls had finally faded away as the whales went out of range of our hydrophone network. Two and a half hours later they started coming back into range. They were still probably beyond the eastern boundary of the Reserve but now coming west. The two groups, the A30s and the A5s were still together. By 6:30am calls were getting louder and echolocation was a hint that the whales were pointed toward the Main Rubbing Beach. A short while later, at 6:40am, we saw a single orca on the remote camera passing the Main Beach. In a hurry too! Seven minutes later several orcas were approaching Strider Beach which is just west of the Main Beach. There they paused, having a rub from 6:49 to 6:55am before continuing west toward Robson Bight. By 7:12am we were hearing lovely close A30 calls as those whales moved into the Bight. They were finding food as they ventured deep into the Bight. Their blows were pretty in the morning light and the Bight was clear enough to follow them. Fog threatened our views in other locations, especially Blackney Pass. We got a report from the Sophias kayak camp that two small groups passed fairly close on their way to Cracroft Point. At the same time across the Strait we were listening to other whales close in on Kaizumi Rubbing Beach almost directly opposite on the Vancouver Island shore. he calls were close and at 8:26am there was some rubbing activity at the beach. By this time Blackney Pass was down to zero visibility. A humpback, at 8:44am could be heard blowing not far off the Lab but there was no chance of seeing. Around this time the orca groups who had passed the Sophia Island camp were just past Cracroft Point. By luck they were caught on the remote camera heading into Blackney Pass. They made a few calls but it was all business, they were determined, travelling fast on the now ebbing tide. Easy riders, going with the flow. Before long we were hearing blows passing north and soon the first calls in Blackfish Sound. The calls disappeared by 9:45am as soon as the whales headed into Queen Charlotte Strait. Time passed, the tide changed and at I:24pm we started to hear their distant calls once again in Blackfish Sound. They were coming back. Quin had a look and found them using the Sea Lion remote camera which can see into Blackfish Sound. Just a moment of two later they came into view. The afternoon sun had done its job of clearing away the fog. We could clearly see the groups file through. Most were mid channel and swimming in a leisurely fashion, clearly relaxed. A60s tall fin stood out. The groups were mixed but we figured we had the A50s and A23s. We struggled a bit whether there were enough whales for the A54s to be there as well and just as we began to wonder where the A25s were they entered Blackney Pass together closer to the Hanson Island side. Cordero (A85) and her baby, Twilight, were in close with Surge (A61). The others had already cleared our view and were headed to Johnstone Strait. A quick change in time to the Cracroft Point remote camera showed the whales emerging into the Strait. A humpback, also headed that direction, was not too far behind. From Cracroft Point at 3pm the groups headed eastward once again encouraged by the tiden. Just over an hour later they were passing Critical Point once again (4:23pm). Twenty minutes later they were at the Strider Rubbing Beach. They would stay there for the better part of an hour. We still cannot get over the images from this camera. Everyone ends up in the Lab, shift or no shift, watching transfixed. If the whales only knew! A few even went “down” to Main for a quick 5 minute rub at 5pm but they headed back quickly to join the fun with the others back at Strider. You get the picture. Around 5:49pm a restlessness set in and some of the whales started to leave to the west. One last turn did it and by 5:55pm all the whales were heading away. A60 trailed behind. On a curious note we did not see A61’s little group. However, at 6:23pm, we had a report that they were mid strait off Boat Bay (opposite the rubbing beaches), rather out of step but going west too. By the time the other groups made it to the Bight again A60 had caught up. From 6:12pm to 6:17pm the calls were excited, the whales were breaching and travelling fairly fast as they crossed the Bight. From there it was back to Kaizumi for another rub at 7:14pm which interrupted their general movement to the west only momentarily. Our last treat of the day was to see A61’s group heading west at 7:27pm opposite Cracroft Point. The ride was over for the time being. It is now 10pm and we have not had any calls for the longest time. The tide ebbing so perhaps they are still going with it, fitting with the theme for the day, easy riding.  OrcaLab 04 Aug 2020 22:35:46 PDT Superb sounds!! Great calls on Kaizumi Rubbing Beach right now! OrcaLab 04 Aug 2020 19:16:27 PDT Superb sounds!! Some lovely excited calls right now from the A30's and A5's at Kazumi rubbing beach as the whales head back to the west!  Orcalab  04 Aug 2020 19:09:52 PDT Superb sounds!! Beautiful calls from the A30's and A23's and A25's in the bight right now.  Orcalab  04 Aug 2020 16:27:13 PDT