With some nice looks at this animal still maneuvering the water of Jeffreys Ledge we continued further offshore and it wasn't long before we started to see multiple blows up ahead of us. We ended up in an area where we suddenly had 4 of the 2nd largest animals in the world surface just alongside our boat! Four Fin whales had joined together and were swimming just off our port side allowing for some absolutely impressive looks at these incredibly large creatures. Wow.
Above: One of the unique dorsal fins of one of the Fin whalesBelow: The swirly chevron pattern of one of our Fin whales
With such fantastic looks and these whales on the move offshore we decided to check out a couple other exhalations we were seeing just a short distance away. Turns out those spouts were from another pair of whales, this time two Humpback whales. It was Chickadee (first recorded in existence on Jeffreys Ledge in 2008!) and a whale we just matched up as being the 2010 calf of a Humpback whale named Shuttle! Both whales were spending a few minutes under the water before returning to the surface filtering out ocean water. These whales were doing some deeper feeding in the area!
Chickadee with a mouthful of salt water and food!
Chickadee's tail and the 2010 calf of Shuttle's dorsal fin
A new whale for Jeffreys Ledge this season. Welcome to the area the 2010 calf of Shuttle!
We were enjoying our time with these two animals when suddenly out of nowhere Chickadee tail breached! The best part was in case any of our passengers missed it, this animal continued to showcase this behavior over and over again! Here is one of the sequences of this amazing display!
Pretty incredible when you think about how much effort, and energy, is involved with lifting half of your body out of the water over and over again, let alone an animal the size of a whale! We ended our morning trip with another single Fin whale and its very interesting skin coloration/scarring on this whale's back.
Our afternoon trip also gave us some great looks at more Fin whales and Humpback whales. Our passengers were fabulous spotters as they continued to point out Minke whales and our first Fin whale of the trip! Check out this very contrasted chevron pattern from our Fin whale
The silver/gray shading pattern on the left side of this Fin whale's body
Our travels continued further offshore and we ended up spending time with the 2010 calf of Shuttle and another Humpback whale. In just a matter of hours our 1 year old was not still associated with Chickadee (as we did not even see this whale during our afternoon trip!), instead we saw another familiar Humpback, the 2008 calf of Quote. Who knows where this whale swam in from, or where it was this morning, or where Chickadee ventured off too, but it was a nice surprise to see this whale again this season. We actually saw this animal as a calf in 2008 and has returned to Jeffreys Ledge each year since 2008. Our last sighting of this whale was June 30th, just over 2 weeks ago! Again, who knows where this whale went, if it left Jeffreys Ledge or just swam to areas of the Ledge we cannot get to on a half-day trip, but thanks for the sighting again to this 3 year old!
The dorsal fin of Quote's 2008 calfAs is always the case we never know what any of these whales we get the chance to spend time with are going to do at any given moment but boy is it impressive to see what they are capable of. Try your luck and hope to see you this weekend!
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2 comments:
Great tail breach shots!
Thanks Jen! Definitely a great sequence of events as Chickadee tail breached almost a half dozen times while we were in the area!
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