October 10th and 12th on the Granite State

The end of the whale watching season is always a busy time as we get in our last few trips of the year and get the boat ready for its winter home on solid ground. While this post may be a bit delayed it is well worth sharing with those of you who were able to join us for our last adventures or enjoy reading some of our last updates from Jeffreys Ledge for the 2010 season.

Our last public trip was Sunday the 10th and after postponing our final school trip twice due to highly unfavorable weather conditions we were able to get our last whale watching trips under our belt. While our trips were quickly dwindling down the whales, including many of the recently seen animals, were still in the area.

On Sunday we found 5 Humpback whales and 1 Fin whale. Trident and Spoon were spotted surfacing together as the two of them appeared to be "logging" or resting at the surface. Every now and then we get the opportunity to watch such massive creatures "hover" on the waterline as they take a few minutes nap. Watching two full grown adult female whales, (for baleen whales the females are typically larger than males) easily weighing well over 20-tons, remaining stationary as the ocean waves peruse pass such large masses in the water is quite the site. With such amazing looks we left these two sleeping ladies in search of other cetaceans.

Soon we found another pair of Humpback whales. This time it was Nile and Tornado. Another duo of females steadily moving through the water together. With some quality time spent with these two whales and time still left to do some exploring we headed further offshore.

Our trip ended with a zig-zagging Fin whale and another Humpback whale. We attempted to check out the Fin whale in the area but this whale was surfacing very sporadically. We managed a few good looks as this whale was surfacing in all different directions before deciding to press on. Our final whale of the day was Wizard the Humpback whale before we headed back towards towards Rye Harbor.

Wizard

We had great whale sightings and great passengers to spend our final public whale watch of the season with. Thanks to all of you who made the trip to New England, whether short or far, to catch a glimpse at some of the largest animals in the world!

Tuesday October 12th the weather was cooperating and thanks to our very patient school group we were off for one more adventure. While the ocean conditions ended up providing quite the ride, the whales provided quite the show. We first found a trio of Humpback whales. It was Trident cruising through the water with Owl and her calf.

Trident and Owl

It is a bit on the rare side, but not unusual, to encounter another whale associated with a mother and her calf. The calf remained nearby its mom the whole time we were watching it, but Owl did not seem to mind having Trident nearby.

Owl and her calf close by

Owl's unique pigmentation pattern

Our travels continued as we found another pair of Humpback whales. However, just as these animals went down on deeper dives out in the distance there was a huge splash, then another, and yet another! Turned out there were two more Humpback whales out in the distance. One was full body breaching and the other lobtailing. Well it didn't take long to decide to head over in that direction and see if these two animals were going to continue such displays. Talk about fortunate! One whale, Patches, was consistently flipper slapping, bringing its very large white flippers above the water and smacking it back down on the surface of the ocean. The other whale, later identified as Equation, was continuously lobtailing, raising the back portion of its body high into the air before smacking it back on the water too.
Equation even decided to tail breach at one point while Patches surfaced nearby.

The aftermath of a large whale crashing its body on the surface of the water!

This, and other, activity continued for some time before both animals "calmed" down by coming up for breaths of air and then diving back under the water; much more normal behaviors seen when watching whales.

The flipper of Patches and the dorsal fin of Equation

With a bit more time to explore the area we left these two Humpbacks and found a few more.

Chromosome and Scylla were our last stop on whales. It was such a treat seeing many of the same animals still in the same relative area they have been over the last few days as well as a few surprise visitors to the area.

Scylla and Chromosome

What a fantastic way to end such an incredible season of whale watching. Many thanks to everyone over the course of the year that joined us in search of such magnificent creatures as we will ever so anxiously await what the 2011 whale watching season will have in store for us!



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