It's crazy that bubble-feeding has become commonplace on Jeffreys Ledge this season. This is a behavior that we haven't witnessed with this intensity in a long time. Today on the Atlantic Queen we saw Chromosome and Tripod, who have been together for weeks now, delighting us with their antics. Today they were bubble feeding, coming up with mouths wide open at the same time! They were headed toward us just about every time, so we got to see the throat pleats distinctive in rorquals, which is the group of baleen whales that humpback fall into.
Rorquals have pleats in their throats that run down to the whale's navel (yes, whales have belly buttons too!), allowing them to expand their throat to hold tons of salt water and fish. Some baleen whales, like the North Atlantic right whale, don't have these pleats, but instead have huge heads that are tall enough to contain their long baleen plates.
The feeding of Chromosome and Tripod was spectacular, but they weren't the only great sighting. We also had multiple fin whales on the trip, and one was doing some feeding at a distance. As we turned for home, we were surprised to come upon a very active pod of about Atlantic white-sided dolphins, who were zig-zagging as they fed, with some terns hovering above, inspecting the leftovers. And then we saw some minke whales on the way home, making for 4 species during the trip!
Bird life was plentiful, with a very surprising sighting of an Atlantic puffin as we approached the humpbacks! This is only the second puffin I've seen in 15 years, so that was pretty amazing. One had already been sighted by the Granite State earlier in the season. Wonder what's bringing them down here?
Thanks to our passengers for coming out and enjoying the day with us. Hope to see you again soon! If you have any photos you'd like to share, we'd love to see them - you can even upload them to our Facebook group!
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