Today was a truly amazing day. Even our 10-year-old intern Willy and his mom Pam who come out with us regularly said that this was the best trip they have been on! Our intern Brian got a workout collecting our behavioral data as he had to test his knowledge of the many pages of behavioral codes!
We left the Merrimack River with our birding naturalist David Larson pointing out all of the shore birds along the way- common terns, egrets, ospreys, cormorants and gulls to name a few.
As we were half way between the ledge and the mainland, near an underwater feature aptly named "Halfway", we spotted our first whale. A fin whale appeared, and though it was a bit wily, I was able to get a shot of its dorsal fin and knew it was #0520.
Fin whale #0520We continued on, and David was discussing the lives of the pelagic birds we were seeing- gannets, shearwaters (all 4 species!), Wilson's storm petrels, and roseate terns.
Soon, another blow appeared. A humpback surfaced and as we were waiting anxiously to see its flukes, it surprised us with a full breach! This was the first breach our crew has seen this season. Needless to say, we were all excited, and even more so to learn that this was Pixar, the 10-year-old humpback whale we saw yesterday (the same age as intern Willy!).
A report from a nearby boat came in of some more whales in the area. After a bit of searching, we found another humpback whale who was very hungry and doing a good job catching its lunch. Although we still have not identified this young whale, we did get some amazing looks at it. More than once, it surfaced under or next to the boat, giving everyone fabulous looks.
Juvenile humpback
Humpback surfacing on its side- ventral pleats extended and white flipper showing!The behavior of choice was to surface close to us with its mouth completely full of water and fish- somewhat resembling a balloon. We also witnessed a tail breach and a few lob tails!
Tail breach
Tail lob
After spending some quality time with our engines turned off and simply observing this whale doing what comes naturally, we looked at the clock and realized we had to start our trip back to Newburyport. Willy and Taylor were showing folks our baleen and barnacle artifacts when the boat slowed down again!
This time a pod of Atlantic white sided dolphins appeared! The pod consisted of at least 30 dolphins, and they were quite active! Getting photos of these little speed demons can be difficult but they always make folks smile.
Trip Summary:3 fin whales
2 humpback whales
30+ dolphins
510 Wilson's storm petrels
433 greater shearwaters
125 sooty shearwaters
7 Corey's shearwaters
2 Manx shearwaters
10 northern gannets
3 roseate terns
(plus all the shorebirds in and around the river)
Thanks to David for providing these excellent images of a Corey's and greater shearwaters!
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1 comment:
Very cool! Welcome back, Willy!
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