You would think that a blog titled "Alarms, Orcas, and Auroras" in three parts would flow like
- alarms
- orcas
- auroras
Right? Wrong!
No one knows when or why the order got mixed up, but here we are with part three of my excuses for slow blog releases! And true to form, it's a full two three months behind schedule!
Orca Orcinus
Not too long ago I was informed by an overly pedantic biologist that calling a killer whale "orca" is equivalent to calling humans "homo" (from homo sapiens), and the correct title is orcinus orca.
Or you can just call them the Big Dolphins. That's what they are, the biggest, teethiest dolphins.
The Big Dolphins are found almost everywhere that there are oceans, but there are distinct sub-types and behaviours. Nomadic pods primarily hunt fish, and settled pods hunt marine mammals. Our family is around most of the year, and are most often seen cruising up and down the east coast. Occasionally they'll stop to pick on a smaller marine mammal, which always gets the birds very excited.
Frankly, I know less about our local killers than I would like to, but I always get very excited when they stroll by. Station observations range from 2-8 animals in a pod, with one obvious large male, a few mid-sized females, and 1-2 calves. Through the winter they have mostly been far off shore (the following photos were all taken with a full frame camera at 500mm focal length!), travelling along the coast. But I have been promised that in November the "Macca drive-through" will open and, as the unsuspecting elephant seal weaners learn to swim, the orcas will come in close to feast.
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| Sea birds tend to flock to orca pods in the hopes of scavenging scraps. |
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| This is out happy little family. |
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| Here we have a wandering albatross that has been picking at the orcas kill. |
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| And a cape petrel, a species that I haven't seen since I was at Mawson. |
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| A demonstration of the difference between males (front) and females (rear). |
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| A pretty picture on a foggy day. |
