West Seattle Whale Watch: Be on the lookout again for orcas

| Seen at sea | West Seattle news | Wildlife

(Added 3:10 pm, KING 5 video of orcas in the North Sound)
West Seattle-based whale expert Jeff Hogan from Killer Whale Tales called with a report of a large number of orcas heading south from Edmonds not too long ago – and we’ve since heard from Krista that Orca Network is reporting this too (keep an eye on their Facebook page). No way to know if they’ll make it this far south, but we’re sending out the early heads-up just in case. Let us know if you see any! 5:06 PM: Just got a call from Donna with The Whale Trail, orcas visible from Alki area. We’re off to check. 10:12 PM NOTE: By the time we got there, they’d turned from Alki Point toward the Kitsap Peninsula, where they put on quite a show for a while in the early evening, north of Blake Island (we caught a glimpse thanks to binoculars loaned by Donna and Jeff, who were both there). According to the Orca Network‘s nightly report, they were last seen heading south down Colvos Passage on the west side of Vashon Island, so keep a look out in the morning just in case they stayed in the South Sound overnight!

Larry Erickson October 14, 2010 (4:39 pm)

Back on the 6th of this month, I was riding my bike across the lower West Seattle bridge toward downtown when — to my great surprise — I looked down at the crest of the bridge and saw an orca heading up stream. This would have been about 8:oo a.m. For a guy who has never seen an orca during many, many hours of paddling my sea kayak, it never occurred to me I’d see one while cycling. I’ve seen orcas standing on shore and a porpoise while in my kayak, but never an orca overwise.