(Video and photos by WSB’s Patrick Sand)
The Whale Trail drew another full house at C & P Coffee Company (WSB sponsor) Thursday night – our video above shows the hour-and-a-half “Orca Talk 2” in its entirety. Lynn Barre from NOAA was the spotlighted speaker, with an overview of how the Southern Resident Killer Whales (aka our local orcas) are doing, following the all-star lineup of TWT leader Donna Sandstrom, Seal Sitters‘ Robin Lindsey (who talked about their upcoming volunteer training – we’ll have a separate report on that later today), and “Diver Laura” James on behalf of the Tox-Ick.org anti-toxic-runoff campaign. Joining the lineup this time (but not speaking, so he’s not in our video), photographer Mike Russell:

Also on hand – bags of Whale Tails tortilla chips, which, as you’ll hear Donna mention in the video, is the first “sustaining corporate sponsor” for The Whale Trail, donating six percent of all their Oregon and Washington sales after connecting with TWT through what she described as “the power of the pod” (in this case, “pod” of human supporters):

You can buy the chips here in West Seattle at Husky Deli – the first store in our state to carry them. Donna also announced TWT has four more signs in the works – at Point Roberts along the U.S./Canada border, Lime Kiln Park on San Juan Island, Olympia, and a Kitsap County site. Meantime, watch for word of the third Orca Talk, date TBA, likely late March.

If you weren’t part of the standing-room-only crowd at The Whale Trail‘s speaker-series launch two nights ago at C & P Coffee Company (WSB sponsor) – good news – “Diver Laura” James, who also participated on behalf of toxic-runoff-fighting Tox-Ick.org, recorded video of the orca presentation by Mark Sears! (Next Whale Trail guest speaker: Lynne Barre from NOAA Fisheries on February 21st, 6:30-9 pm, again at C & P.)

Thanks to “Diver Laura” James for sharing photos from tonight’s standing-room-only event presented by The Whale Trail at C & P Coffee Company (WSB sponsor). The cozy old home-turned-coffeehouse held 66 people for the presentation by West Seattle-residing orca researcher Mark Sears:

The Whale Trail’s founder/executive director Donna Sandstrom tells WSB, “It was a great night! Even better than we’d hoped,” with “great synergy between our groups” – referring to Laura’s participation on behalf of the Tox-Ick.org runoff-education campaign, and Seal Sitters joining in too. We asked Donna what’s up for the second in this new Whale Trail speaker series; she says Lynne Barre from NOAA Fisheries will be the featured speaker on February 21st, 6:30-9 pm, again at C & P.

(Seal Sitters photos by David Hutchinson)
From Robin Lindsey @ Seal Sitters:

Every year, Seal Sitters’ hotline (206-905-7325) receives hundreds of calls. Most are local, but many others come from surrounding areas of Puget Sound. As part of NOAA’s Marine Mammal Stranding Network, Seal Sitters responds to all reports of marine mammals on the beaches of West Seattle – both live and dead. Usually, the calls concern vulnerable harbor seal pups resting and warming up on shore. However, with a 50% mortality rate their first year, Seal Sitters deals with many dead pups annually.

Saturday afternoon, we responded to our first mortality of 2013. The hotline received a report of a “sick” pup at Lowman Beach Park, being watched over by a young girl until volunteers could arrive. Responders discovered that the pup was in fact dead. As is the norm in these cases, the location was noted, photo ID taken, a brief visual examination was made, and the length was recorded (35 ½ inches).

Because the dead pup was in such good condition and a prime candidate for necropsy, a call was made to WDFW Marine Mammal Investigations. The pup was bagged and removed from the beach. Transport will be made to the WDFW lab in Lakewood, in hopes that the cause of death can be determined. Thanks to Schmitz Park Elementary student Lunabella who called the hotline.

Seal Sitters recently received an award from Seattle’s Department of Neighborhoods matching fund program to implement our project for 2013, “Year of the Seal.” To receive and expend these funds, our volunteers are required to put in an equivalent number of matching hours of work on the educational project, culminating with the installation at Alki Beach of a bronze sculpture depicting a harbor seal mom and pup. The most numerous marine mammals in Puget Sound, harbor seals are the most likely to be encountered on our beaches, as they spend about half of their lives on shore. Harbor seals do not migrate. Seals born in our area stay year-round their entire lives. For this reason, they are considered to be an “indicator species” of the health of our waters. Throughout the year, Seal Sitters will be placing an emphasis on educational outreach to inform local school children and the public about important issues regarding our fragile marine ecosystem.

In the coming months, public meetings co-sponsored by Seattle Parks & Recreation, will be held to present our Year of the Seal sculpture concept and site location and will welcome your input. Stay tuned for further details. Read more about the project on the Seal Sitters website.

If you are interested in getting a look at some of our local pinnipeds, you might visit Jack Block Park. Quite a number of harbor seals have been hauling out there since mid-December.

(That’s where the top photo was taken.)

The visibility might not be much in our foggy weather – but if you’re down at eye level with the flora and fauna, as photographer Machel Spence so often is, that’s not a problem. She reports that the freezing fog did not keep the Duwamish Greenbelt bunnies from emerging – and shared the photo as proof.

(August 2011 photo by Craig Savey, taken from Harbor Island)
We love to watch orcas – now go beyond orca-watching, and take advantage of a chance for orca learning! Donna Sandstrom from The Whale Trail just sent word TWT is starting a winter series of speakers/meetings, with local orca researcher Mark Sears speaking at C & P Coffee Company (WSB sponsor; 5612 California SW) one week from tonight, 7 pm Thursday, January 24th (doors open at 6:30).

Mark has been studying and documenting whales in this area for over 30 years. He’ll present highlights from and history of his research, including updates on recent orca sightings. Join us for this fun and informal evening – learn about orcas and support The Whale Trail, too!

When you see a small research boat out close to the orcas, he’s usually on board; he’s also a West Seattleite. Advance tickets are available, since C&P space is finite; $5 suggested donation for adults, kids free, go to brownpapertickets.com. Donna adds that as a bonus, Seal Sitters and “Diver Laura” James (on behalf of tox-ick.org) will be there too.

Thanks to Gary Jones for sharing today’s marine-mammal sighting: Harbor porpoises! Not rare, experts say, but certainly not reported as open as their larger cousins (orcas, etc.) Last harbor-porpoise report we published was the sad saga of one found dead on Alki last March. According to this 2011 research, they were common in the area back in the 1940s, then dwindled, then started making a comeback.

In sharing this photo today, Jon Anderson described the big beautiful bird he photographed at Don Armeni Boat Ramp this morning as “our resident brown pelican.” Beginning to look that way, since it’s going on a month since the first sightings. (Not long after we received Jon’s photo, we spotted the pelican ourselves, and we’ll add some of our photos later to the WSB Flickr gallery – *added* here’s one of them:)

P.S. After a previous mention of the pelican, we heard from International Bird Rescue, which asks that if you see one with a blue band – which this one does NOT appear to have – please report it to them, as they are tracking hundreds of pelicans they’ve rehabilitated and released since the species came off the endangered list in 2009, and IBR says some have been spotted even further north, in British Columbia.

(Seal Sitters photo by David Hutchinson)
Their barking can often be heard, especially from the Seacrest/Jack Block Park vicinity, but sea lions don’t often come to busy West Seattle shores to rest. This week, they did, reports Robin Lindsey of Seal Sitters:

We responded to a report of a sea lion on the dock at Don Armeni on Thursday afternoon. The adult males rested there until 8 am the following morning.

Some folks we spoke to thought Seal Sitters responded only to seal pups. However, as our name Seal Sitters Marine Mammal Stranding Network suggests, we respond to ALL dead or alive marine mammals from gray whales (such as the Arroyos gray whale) to small seal pups.

The California sea lion was an older adult, as evidenced by a lighter colored face. We consulted with WDFW’s marine mammal biologist, who thinks that perhaps the sea lion has some swollen lymph nodes or neck abscess. We have not seen him since he returned to Elliott Bay early Friday morning.

Seal Sitters’ number is easy to remember – 206-905-SEAL. More details of the sea lion’s sojourn are on Seal Sitters’ Blubberblog.

The photo of a seal pup in the Alki vicinity today is courtesy of Stani – who’s not with Seal Sitters, but inspired us to check in on that group, since we hadn’t in a while. A look at the Seal Sitters website revealed it’s been a very busy week before Christmas, partly because of the record-high water levels, and this time the pups are looking healthy (read about it here, and see video too).

Just out of the WSB inbox – thanks to Alec for sharing a photo of an unusual sight in this area: A brown pelican. We’ve had scattered reports of one in the area for some days now, but this is the first photo we’ve seen/received, and now that we’re seeing it, it’s definitely a juvenile (mature brown pelicans take on more of a gray tinge, with a dingy-white head). On the open seacoast, they’re not rare – we’ve seen them from Ocean Shores to San Diego – but inland Puget Sound is rather out of the way.

Love is not only in the air – it’s in the water. Just received that photo from Seaview resident and diver/underwater photographer Jim Bodoia, who says, “You’ve had some great photos of local nature and I couldn’t resist these two newlyweds that were hanging out about 50 feet under where the Christmas Ships sailed near the Alki Statue of Liberty. They are Saddleback Gunnels (Pholis Ornata) all paired up and nested for the holidays.”

This reminds us of two other wildlife sightings mentioned to us – no photos yet, but you should know so you can keep an eye out in case they come back around:

First – Marcia e-mailed this morning to report a snowy-owl sighting:

Big surprise this morning to look out the window and see a Snowy Owl in a fir tree nearby! It’s in the stand of tall firs in the middle of the small “greenbelt” between Juneau/Raymond and 36th/37th. Not sure how long it has been since one has been spotted in West Seattle. The crows are working hard to displace it, but it’s standing its ground.

She tried to photograph it but it just didn’t work out; here’s a community-contributed snowy-owl photo published here a year ago.

And WSB Forums member Mtrancourt reports a brown pelican off Alki Point, confirming it via e-mail: “… I thought it was an eagle at first, the seagulls were chasing it like an eagle. We live on the beach at Alki and it flew out a ways and then came in about 100 yards from the house before going around the corner toward (downtown).”