October 19 and October 20 Orcas: A34s Humpbacks: October 19 - Inukshuk, Cutter, Stitch,Tangent: October 20 - Moonstart, Cutter, Tangent, Slash and her baby When we left off on October 18 the A34s were headed east in Johnstone Strait. This was further confirmed when their calls were heard off Strider Rubbing Beach at 12:26am. Until heavy boat noise at 12:40am drowned out their calls the A34s seemed still excited to be back in the Strait. We did not hear them go in for a rub as they had done back at Kaizumi earlier. Rather they continued east. All the humpback activity in these early hours was concentrated closer to the area between Cracroft Point and Kaizumi, shifting somewhat to the west and nearer the entrance of Blackney Pass after 3am. There was more than one humpback involved as one possibly headed east just before 4am. His calls were heard on both Strider and Kaizumi. By 6am, the humpback activity subsided. Just in time for us to be aware of the A34s again at 6:19am as they started to head back west, retracing their earlier movements. The mid range calls lasted until 6:25am. Probably two humpbacks then picked up the slack at 6:56am and began vocalizing separately on Kaizumi and Cracroft Point. While all these distant events were happening,for the second time, a humpback passed very close to the Lab at 7:45am. Quin was up watching as the dawn broke into many rich, deep hues of red. The humpback turned out to be Inukshuk. He was engaged with a group of sea lions and stalled just in front. Quin managed to get pictures of Inukshuk waving his fins and raising his head while catching the glow of the morning light. Inukshuk dove once past the Lab, shaking off the persistent sea lions, and moved around Burnt Point and into Blackfish Sound. Distant and then louder humpback calls in Blackfish Sound followed. Meanwhile, after this brief interlude, the A34s continued to call, still registering on Strider. This changed as they moved west and Cracroft Point picked up calls at 9:14am after a long break. The lead whales were approaching Cracroft Point and the entrance to Blackney Pass. They never came close to Cracroft Point. The calls remained clear and frequent but not close. They were obviously continuing slowly westward and would do so until they reached Weynton Pass. We wouldnÕt know for sure what their intentions were until we heard their calls in Blackfish Sound at 2:18pm. Their last calls we had heard in the Strait had been at 12:40pm so it had taken them the better part of 11/2 hours to negotiate their way through the rest of the Strait & Weynton before their arrival in Blackfish Sound. Once there, they milled and foraged for quite a while before leaving for Queen Charlotte Strait by 4pm. The rest of the day was uneventful and evening likewise. The early hours of October 20 were filled with humpback calls both in Blackfish Sound and Johnstone Strait. Again there seemed to be more than one humpback in play in the Strait, one nearer Parson Island and one ÒdeeperÓ in the Strait. Their calls continued to approximately 6am when a humpback in Blackfish Sound produced some nice calls of his own. Then came the A34s. They had not gone away! At 6:52am they were close enough for the Flower Island hydrophone in Blackfish Sound to hear their calls. The nice humpback continued to call at the same time. An hour later two things happened. Tangent, like Inukshuk and Ace before him, came in close to the Lab heading north as he did so. This time it was Megan who took the pictures. It was the third day in a row that a humpback had chosen this path and after we had offered a casual comment about how we would probably have close humpbacks AND the A34s back on the day the A34s had first arrived. We had been feeling very capricious about our great good fortune to have Northern Residents back, why not go for broke? We had been kidding, of course, and not trying to tempt fate but here they were, three different humpbacks, doing exactly as wished for. Sigh, the A34s were not quite so cooperative. They stayed vocal in Blackfish Sound until 8:38am, never ventured into Blackney and then disappeared. The rest of the day and evening was peppered lightly with humpback calls in Blackfish Sound and also on Kaizumi to just before midnight. By then we were bracing for the promised storm which by 10pm had started to arrive. During an unexpected lull in the afternoon, Megan, Mattis and Emily made a quick service trip to Kaizumi. They decided not to risk going to Strider so that they could get the boat back on the beach. They did just that and then all of us went around and secured everything that looked like it might fly off in the expected wind. By midnight, the storm had set in. By then we were all tucked away in bed with the night time recording running.  OrcaLab 21 Oct 2021 13:18:47 PST