July 5th, Granite State

What a spectacular day to be on board the boat! The weather was ideal and the whales were in multiple numbers! This tern, photographed below, decided to perch itself on the railing of the boat, prior to our departure.

The whales were in multpile numbers this morning and as we approached Jeffrey's Ledge, no matter where you looked, you could see spouts in all directions. We started with a single, unknown humpback whale and a fin whale that had a very low profile. We then moved on to an area where we found two additional humpback whales travelling together. The two humpbacks turned out to be a mother, calf pair. We had found Sabot and her calf and are always delighted to see new life brought to Jefffrey's Ledge.

We found several other whales throughout the morning, including Satula (one of our adopt-a-whales), a presumed male first seen in 1988, Mudskipper and her calf, Nile, Hornbill, Diablo, and a couple unknowns. We also had several minke whales, a harbor porpoise and a few harbor seals that we saw on out return trip to Rye harbor. What a great morning it was and with so many whales around, we didn't know what the afternoon would have in store...

As we left Rye harbor for our afternoon trip, we were hoping that at least a few of the whales that we saw in the morning would still be around, but one never knows when working with wild animals. Afterall, this is the whales feeding season and they are constantly travelling to different areas throughout the Gulf of Maine to feed all summer long. We headed back to the areas that we had whales in the morning and had several minke whale sightings along the way. As we approached the Ledge, we were lucky enough to find Sabot and calf once again and they were very relaxed along the surface. I even caught a quick glimpse of the calf's tail pattern, but was only able to photograph half of it as it went on a deeper dive. The calves are starting to gain lots of weight where they are still nursing and also learning feeding behaviors from mom. We spent some time with Sabot and her calf before moving onto a different area not to far away. As we travelled, we started to see a lot of birds in one area and realized that there were whales feeding right under all the birds! As we approached, two fin whales lunged sideways along the surface catching krill and plankton and filling their mouths to capacity.

Before we knew it, we had 2 separate groups of fin whales and a few humpback whales all feeding within about a mile of each other. It became clear that this was the place to be! We had fin whales and humpback whales simultaneously lunge feeding, and the birds were trying to get all the remnants that the whales left behind. It was a spectacular feeding frenzy and we witnessed nature at its best! Nothing really compares to watching whales in their natural habitat!
A special thanks to Emma, for adopting Satula today and thank you to everyone for joining us for an unforgettable day!
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