While San Juan Capistrano has its swallows to announce the arrival of spring, Whidbey Island has its whales.

The weather was a wintry wet and gray when spring arrrived Tuesday, but gray whales frolicking in Puget Sound were evidence enough for islanders that spring had indeed arrived.

The big grays are making their annual visit to the area and enthusiasts can see them frolicking throughout Saratoga Passage for the next couple of months.

Many of those whales visit the area year after year.

“Every year it’s the same whales that come back here,” said Monte Hughes, owner of the Mystic Sea, which charters whale watching excursions four days a week from the Coupeville Wharf. He will offer trips through May 20.

Even though most of the whales are return guests to the area, he said there are several new tails in this year’s group.

He estimated there will be 15 to 20 whales spending the next several months in Saratoga Passage. They spend their days near Whidbey Island’s shores feeding on mud shrimp before continuing on their migration to Alaska.

The gray whales head back to Mexico in the fall; however, they don’t seem to visit Saratoga Passage during their return trip south, Hughes said.

He said the whales are part of 20,000 that swim north from Mexico every year. When they get to Washington, approximately 200 head into the Strait of Juan de Fuca and a small number continue on into Saratoga Passage.

The whales can typically be found on the south half of Whidbey Island. Hughes sees them around Baby Island, the Clinton ferry dock and Possession Point, although gray whales come into Penn Cove and the Oak Harbor area as well.

The first gray whales of the year were spotted in mid February. Deborah Houseworth and Sal Barba spotted them in Saratoga Passage near Langley.

On a voyage Sunday, spectators saw seven gray whales between Possession Point and the ferry dock. The day before, tourists saw more than a dozen transient orcas near the south end of the island during the four-hour tour, Hughes said.

In recent days residents have spotted whales off East Point, and residents spotted porpoises near their home north of Greenbank, according to information provided by the Orca Network in Greenbank.

This spring marks the second year the Mystic Sea has been moored at the Coupeville Wharf, which is close enough to allow easy access to the gray whales.

Hughes said those tours have been well received. The tours cost $49 for adults, $45 for seniors and $39 for youth age 17 and under.