OLYMPIA - A gray whale paid a visit to lower Budd Inlet Monday, milling around in the middle of the channel for much of the day. Several residents reported seeing the whale from land, including Lisa Schlender, office manager and researcher at Cascadia Research, an Olympia-based whale research group.

“It appeared to be a little skinny, but was active,” Schlender said via e-mail. “It surfaced several times, arching nice and high and allowing for ID photos.”

The gray whale is not one of the regular grays known to frequent north and central Puget Sound in the spring and summer, veering off from the main population that travels from their winter breeding grounds in Mexico to their summer feeding grounds in Alaska.

Other grays stray into Puget Sound each year, including some whales in poor physical condition.

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