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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 16h

Sea otters are powerful swimmers thanks to their large, webbed hind flippers. Unlike our feet, where the bigger toes are on the inside, their longest digits are on the outside. This design makes it easy for them to swim on their backs!

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 21h

And down the hatch it goes! Sea lions usually consume their catch in the water, but this California sea lion decided to bring his prize to the top of a rock, perhaps to avoid interference from larger Steller sea lions.

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Neilson (T049C) is one of the lone wolves of the Bigg’s killer whale population. He’s travelled on his own since his mother died years ago although he occasionally travels with other wandering males.

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Eagle Wing! 🍂 We're grateful to call the Salish Sea home and to share these remarkable waters with you this season. Here's to protecting them for generations to come. #Wild4Whales

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

It’s been a busy migration season for turkey vultures in the Victoria area, with thousands gathering in “kettles” west of Victoria to cross Juan de Fuca Strait. #Wild4Whales

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

The T060 brothers—Onca (T060D, left, and Lynx (T060E)—have been cruising in and out of the southern Salish Sea over the last several weeks.#Wild4Whales

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Gulls take flight as a humpback does a sideways feeding lunge near Race Rocks. You can see the brush-like baleen plates on the upper jaw and the expanded throat pleats on the lower jaw! #Wild4Whales

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Pink-footed Shearwater at ƛ ̓ušiiʔaaʔaq / Swiftsure Bank. Photo by Liam Ragan / RPBO, taken with a telephoto lens and cropped.

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Adult Brown Pelican near Tatoosh Island, off Cape Flattery. Photo by Liam Singh, taken with a telephoto lens and cropped.

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Bigg's killer whales on the way home from Swiftsure Bank. Breach by Bigg’s killer whale T046C3. #Wild4Whales

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Parasitic Jaeger at ƛ ̓ušiiʔaaʔaq / Swiftsure Bank. Photo by Liam Singh / RPBO, taken with a telephoto lens and cropped.

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Humpback whales lunge feeding at ƛ ̓ušiiʔaaʔaq / Swiftsure Bank. Photo by Molly Hackett, taken with a telephoto lens and cropped.

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Red-necked Phalarope at ƛ ̓ušiiʔaaʔaq / Swiftsure Bank. Photo by Ryleigh Whitfield, taken with a telephoto lens and cropped.

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Brown Pelicans on a baitball near Tatoosh Island, off Cape Flattery.

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

A birding adventure to remember! Our longest birding tour yet with RPBO took us ~140 km west into the Juan de Fuca Eddy: 50 species, nearly 300 Brown Pelicans, thousands of shearwaters and Sabine's Gulls, plus humpbacks and Bigg's killer whales. 5% of tour revenue supports RPBO.

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

When you’ve gotta go, you’ve gotta go, even if you’re a cartwheeling humpback! That pinky red stuff in the spray is whale poop. The red colour suggests that this whale has been eating tiny shrimp-like crustaceans known as euphausids, commonly known as krill.

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Little Pi (T046B8), first seen in March, pops up beside her mom, Raksha (T046B). Raksha is one of the more prolific mothers in the Bigg’s population. Pi is her eighth calf and at age 38 she may have time for a ninth! #Wild4Whales

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

This is often all we see of speedy Dall’s porpoises—a distinctive triangular dorsal that looks like it’s been dipped in white paint. That white frosting indicates a mature animal.

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Stanley (T123A) bursts through the waves as his family and the T046Bs travel east. The two families are closely related.

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

This young Sabine’s gull was one of many species spotted on our most recent specialty birdwatching tour, co-hosted with experts from the Rocky Point Bird Observatory. Sabine’s gulls breed in the Arctic and migrate to tropical waters, using BC waters as a stop-over to refuel.

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Sept. 20, sunset tour, 4 Ever Wild: Male killer whale dorsal fins are about twice the height of female fins. This is Yelnats (T060C) and his mother, Panthera (T060).

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Some humpbacks are spending their time lunge-feeding near Race Rocks—and doing occasional random breaches like this one. Humpback surfacings can be very unpredictable. If you’re a local boater, we recommend you take extra care in this area.

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

This scratched up young whale is nine-year-old T059A4, who has spent the summer travelling with auntie Panthera (T060) and cousins. The scratches most likely come from roughhousing with other killer whales.

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Awwww, a Steller sea lion cuddle puddle! They’re probably all tuckered out from arguing over rock space, which seems to be their main form of recreation when hauled out!

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

We watched Pinnacle the humpback floating at the surface like this for about a minute. The whale opens its huge mouth and small fish, lured by the apparently protective darkness, swim in there to hide from seabirds. Then wham, the humpback closes its mouth!

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

This is the sea otter version of lying on the couch; on your back, front paws tucked in, hind flippers in the air. This is Sea Otter Awareness Week, a time to celebrate the important ecological role that sea otters play in keeping their kelp forest habitats healthy!

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

With one lunge, Zillion the humpback polishes off most of a baitball near Race Rocks. You can see some of the small fish spilling from her mouth!

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

With thousands of common murres on the water these days—normal for this time of year—young killer whales are having a blast chasing them, as T109E is doing here. It’s great fun for the whales. For the birds, not so much.

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Sept. 15, afternoon tour: Gotta envy this harbour seal—he or she knows how to relax. TGIF!

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Elvin (T109D) here is doing a behaviour we call moonwalking—swimming backwards! We typically see Bigg’s killer whales do this maneuver when prey-sharing. In this case, Elvin had just chased and possibly caught a common murre.

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

When families of Bigg’s meet, the teenage males often goof off together, as 14-year-old Garrett (T109A4) and 16-year-old Kin (T069F) are doing here.

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Gulls take flight as a humpback known as BCY1454 engulfs a ball of small schooling fish. We expect sights like this to become more frequent in the next few weeks as the humpback feeding season intensifies.

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

The wandering T060 brothers—Lynx (T060E) and Onca (T060D)—cruise through the kelp beds looking for an easy seal meal. #Wild4Whales

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Harbour seals routinely share the rocks with their much larger Steller sea lion cousins, although the seals wisely keep their distance. This seal may look close, but it’s actually separated by a rock gully.

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

These two siblings were up to mischief on this morning as they chased birds around. That’s eight-year-old T109D1 spyhopping, with his or her accomplice, five-year-old T109D2.

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

A humpback breaches as we make our way to a large gathering of humpbacks to the west of Victoria—a gathering we call Humpback Land. The humpbacks are attracted by large concentrations of krill or schooling fish.

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Jude (T049A2) tail-lobs during a big T-party in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. On this gorgeous sunny afternoon, almost 40 Bigg’s killer whales were spread out across the strait.

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

This common murre hit the fishy jackpot. This is the time of year when we see—and hear—thousands of murres on the water, as the fathers teach survival skills to their young of the year.

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

A Bigg’s killer whale rides the crest of a swell in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The strait has been a hot zone lately for large groups of Bigg’s.

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

The juvenile red-footed booby discovered on one of our birdwatching tours earlier this month continues to attract birders from far and wide. This is only the third documented sighting in Canada of this species, which normally lives in the tropics.

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

The late afternoon sun lights up the exhalation of Yoda (T109E) as he and his family cruise along the shoreline just west of Victoria. Yoda is 13 and his dorsal fin is just starting to “sprout,” or grow tall.

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Calm seas + golden sunset light + one frisky humpback whale = magic! #Wild4Whales

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Killer whales, flat seas and a rosy Salish Sea sunset—what a perfect combination! #Wild4Whales

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

It’s quite a sight when two humpbacks fluke up together, let alone three. And one of them a calf! The whale in the middle is Zillion (BCX1876) and the calf is her 2026 baby.

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

This tight cluster of whales is very much a family affair. The second fin belongs to Reef (T101). She’s the mother of the fourth fin, male Lagoon (T101B) and is believed to be the mother of the first fin, Hutchins (T100) and the grandmother of the third fin, male Laurel (T100C)!

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Pinnacle (BCX2046) was in a very frisky mood on this afternoon as he or she breached, pec slapped and chin slapped (like this) around Race Rocks. Pinnacle is one of the “regulars” around Race Rocks at this time of year.

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

The distinctive fin of Chainsaw (T063) is festooned with strands of bull kelp after he swept through a patch of floating kelp. He was probably looking to see if a seal was hiding there!

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

This sea otter is doing its “job,” chowing down on a big sea urchin and helping to keep this kelp forest healthy. Left unchecked, sea urchins can ravage kelp beds, which are vital for healthy rocky reef ecosystems. Sea otters are all too happy to do their part!

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

The majesty of BC’s wild west coast is on display at the Sombrio sea lion caves, far to the west of Victoria. The shoreline here is pocked with cave-like depressions—and scattered groupings of sea lions, as seen in the lower section of this photo.

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Eagle Wing Tours @eaglewingtours.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

It’s always fun to watch humpbacks interacting with kelp—a behaviour we call “kelping.” They’ll slide the kelp strands all over their body, occasionally wear it as a hat, or as in this case, blow it in the air. We don’t know whether this was accidental or intentional, but it was funny to watch!

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