In case you didn't hear already - and that's unlikely given how fast this news spread - a whale made its way to Purdy on Wednesday.
It was first spotted and reported around 9 a.m. It eventually made its way out of Purdy around noon.
It wasn't beached, but the low tide did corner it in the shallow waters of Burley Lagoon.
For hours, the juvenile gray whale swam in the shallow waters near the Purdy Bridge.
"People noticed him thrashing around," according to Rachel Easton, program coordinator for Harbor WildWatch.
All that thrashing drew a steady stream of onlookers of all ages. For awhile, the marine mammal's presence turned the scene into Whale-Watch Fest 2013, with cars lined all along the eastbound side of the road leading up to the bridge.
Onlookers snapped photos. Those immediately under the bridge "oohed and aahed" every time the big guy produced a spout. At one point, the whale swam out of the lagoon and under the bridge, then, almost inexplicably, swam back to the lagoon.
Easton suspected that the mammal could have been carrying pesky freeloaders, such as barnacles, that it wanted off.
Easton said it isn't typical for gray whales to come through this part of Puget Sound this time of year, especially near Purdy. She suspected that somehow the whale found its way into the lagoon, and hopefully "his internal compass" would get him back out into Puget Sound, out into the Pacific Ocean and up to Alaska, which is where his kind go this time of year.
Click on the video to watch Easton describe Wednesday's events.
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