He's Back!

What a day! First of all, thanks to all of our enthusiastic bird and whale watchers who joined us yesterday aboard the Prince of Whales in Newburyport, and to Dr. Larson and Dr. Weaver for for their expertise with the birds! This was by far the best trip of the season!

We began our trip by learning all that is known about many pelagic species of birds that were observed. Did you know that a northern gannet can dive from a height of 100 feet without breaking its wings? Or that a parasitic jaeger makes its living by stealing food from other birds? In all, eight species of off-shore birds were seen. Dr. Larson was keeping a tally- here are his totals:
225 Northern Gannets
4580 Wilson's Storm Petrels
1 Parasitic Jaeger
900 Greater Shearwaters
650 Sooty Shearwaters
8 Cory's Shearwaters
1 Roseate Tern
1 Laughing Gull

Wow, that was a lot of birds! As you can tell by the images of the Greater Shearwater and the Gannets, the weather was absolutely beautiful off shore! Barely a ripple was on the water! The excellent sea state also helped us find some pelagic cetaceans- whales!

We began our whale adventure by finding a very relaxed finback whale. This huge critter was taking a breath every 30 seconds or so- possibly taking a nap! With the glassy seas, we had perfect conditions for looking into the water to see the whale as it slowly cruised just below the surface.

As we continued our seach, we spotted a couple of blows in the distance, still a couple of miles ahead. As we approached, we found a humpback whale who had lost its dorsal fin. Several humpbacks are knows to not have fins anymore- mostly adult males, but not all. A whale named Tigris was seen a few days ago, and he had no fin so I was thinking this must be Tigris again...or at least I did until the whale lifted its tail. This was Satula!! Satula is one of my favorite humpback whales! I have been watching him since 1996, and he has been seen every year from 2000-2007. Last year when we didn't find Satula, we expected he might be no longer with us :( But alas, he has returned!! Hooray!

Soon after we left the humpback whale, an energtic minke whale poked out- literally! Minkes have a very pointed rostrum, and often the tip of the rostrum will poke out before the whale exhales. This little whale was poking its nose out pretty far with each breath, showing us why it is also referred to as the "little piked whale".

With three species of baleen whales under our belt, we were feeling really good about the trip. We then noticed two more humpback nearby. Upon checking out these whales, we found they were Sedge and Hornbill- also adult males like Satula. Hornbill had actually breached (jumped out of the water) in the distance while we were following Sedge. We decided to see what all the fuss was about. Of course, as we moved closer to Hornbill, he ceased his breaching display, but he did show us how much he cares for us by leaving us a lovely bright red gift in his wake! Thanks buddy!

The clock was ticking and we were thinking about heading for home, but decided to take the long road home and cruised over some other areas before heading to the west. Up ahead, Captain Bill saw a blow- then another- then a third...lots more whales up here!

One humpback was spotted just to the north- it was swimming away and we chose not to follow it. I'm not sure who that whale was but it also breached about a half mile away! Some luck folks on the upper deck were treated by that awesome sight!

Instead of following that single whale, we headed for a pair. This turned out to be Valley and Tripod (not Clamp as I had originally said- oops, my bad!)- 2 adult females who were traveling together and eventually started feeding together. Both of these ladies last calved in 2007, and it is quite possible they may be pregnant again now! The cooperative bubble feeding display was quite impressive. One of the two would dive down and blow a big column of bubbles around a school of small fish. The bubbles work to trap the fish. Both of the whales then came crashing through the surface water, mouths wide open and full of food! Humpbacks eat about 1.5 tons of fish per day. Hungry moms!


Well, now we were definitely out of time...so we thought. Yet another humpback was nearby, also, blowing bubbles, and as we sadly had to ignore that whale, we saw another humpback and finback in the area to the west! Do the sightings ever end?? Our intern, Philip, was on his 5th data sheet of the day! As we were out of time, we didn't stay long, but managed to get a quick look at both of these animals, but no great identifying shots. As we picked up speed, we passed by another minke whale. Our total was 17 whales and one quick glimpse of a harbor seal! What a day!