While we were covering Friday morning’s orca sightings between West Seattle and Vashon Island, as noted here, orca expert Jeff Hogan of Killer Whale Tales turned up at the same small shoreline park where we were on the lookout – and he had his camera in tow. These are four photos he shared afterward – two of them including ID’s, like this one, J16, with a state ferry on the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth run:
And this one is J1, the oldest male among the “southern resident” orcas, believed to be in his fifties:
Jeff even got a photo of one orca breaching:
Whenever we get a tip about a nearby sighting, we publish it here (usually with running coverage ensuing) as well as to Twitter and Facebook – this is prime season for the southern resident orcas to come further south in Puget Sound to chow down on salmon, so we’ll likely be seeing more of them in the weeks ahead. One great way to get a daily roundup of regional sightings is through the Orca Network‘s mailing list – sign up here. Its leaders are based on Whidbey Island. Back here in West Seattle, in addition to Jeff’s Killer Whale Tales, there are other great orca-related resources, like Donna Sandstrom’s The Whale Trail.
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