September 28 Granite State

Whales were very much present as we saw 1 Minke whale and 7 Humpback whales during our trip today. Our first Humpback whale of the day was being extremely elusive. This animal was spending well over 10 minutes under the water and moving in completely random directions making it quite tricky to get a look at it. The few looks we did manage to get revealed that this whale most certainly had a rough go recently. Many linear indentations were seen on either side of this whale, a very real reminder of how susceptible all whales are to fishing gear. This whale had become entangled in gear at one point in its past (as the scars indicate) and is a lucky one to have survived the ordeal. 

Our first whale of the trip (above and below). Those linear marks are due to previous line chaffing along the whale's body

Since this whale was being difficult to keep track of and we did not visually seeing a definite reason to stay longer (if we saw or strongly believed it to still be entangled we would have stayed) we ventured off towards some of the other spouts we were seeing not too far away.

We ended up first spending some time with Valley and her calf. Turns out this pair had a few extra "friends" traveling around with them today. A small group of Atlantic white-sided dolphins were mixed in with this mother and her calf! 

Valley and some tiny dolphin dorsal fins in front of her!

Valley

It was great to see such the spread of marine life size from the 6-8ft dolphins, to the ~20ft calf, to the 40-50ft adult Humpback whale! 

Big mamma Valley and a few Atlantic white-sided dolphins

Valley's calf

Valley's calf current pigmentation pattern

We spent some great time with all these creatures before the dolphins moved on in their own direction and the pair moseyed out of the area in their own direction. So we too head off in yet another direction to check out another pair of Humpback whales!

This second pair of whales was Nile and Trowel. The two ended up moving right towards Valley and her calf and at one point we had a pair of whales on one side of the boat and another pair of whales on the other side. Awesome!  

Nile and Trowel

Trowel

With some nice looks at everything we decided to move on out of the area and do a little exploring before we needed to head for home. Weren't we excited to end our trip on yet another pair of whales. Touchdown and Ditto are still in the area! 

Ditto

Touchdown

These whales were on the move together as we were all very excited to see both of these whales still in our area (check out September 25 for the full story of these whales!). It was a great end to a very nice day full of whales.

Ditto and Touchdown

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September 27 Granite State

Our trip today once again brought us to areas inshore of Jeffreys Ledge. It has certainly been a nice change of pace having so much whale life so close to home. Hopefully the trend continues! Today we saw 2 Minke whales, 2 Humpback whales and a Fin whale. Our two Humpback whales from the day were swimming around on their own and were Trowel and Nile. 

Trowel

Both Trowel and Nile were slowly moving through the area, neither one of them seemingly going in any particular direction. Each of these sightings provided some very nice looks at these mammals. 

Nile coming in towards the boat!

Nile

Along with these whales we also had a couple of Minke whales swim past us before ending our trip on a Fin whale circling around the area. 

Dorsal fin from one of our Minke whales. We know this whale has been seen a handful of times this year due to its extremely uniquely shaped fin!

We were even lucky enough to see a massive cloud at the surface left behind our Fin whale today. Quite a large bit of cetacean defecation! 

That colored cloud is Fin whale poop!

Whale defecation still dissipating at the surface

These clouds are a great sign that this whale had recently been feeding and was just getting rid of lots of excess waste. Definitely not something you expect to see but a fun sighting regardless!

Fin whale (above and below)

Conditions are forecasted to be quite nice this weekend so hopefully that holds. Just make sure to bring some extra layers if you come on out. The fresh fall air certainly gets nice and cool when you find yourself miles and miles offshore!

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September 25 Granite State

The cooler temperatures today certainly reminded us that Fall has officially arrived. While the air was cool and crisp the seas were calm and the area was once again filled with life. Among the 5 Minke whales spotted throughout our travels today we also spent some quality time with three different pairs of Humpback whales. Each pair of whales provided its own excitement for the day for if you continue you will soon see why...

Our first pair of the day were Cacophony and a new visitor to Jeffreys Ledge this season: Nile! Nile spent a lot (and I mean a lot!) of time further south of us this summer before she disappeared from every one's eyesight for a while. Low and behold she has turned up near us! 

Nile and Cacophony

Nile spent some time on Jeffreys Ledge last year but had yet to come visit the area until now. What a great surprise!

Nile

Looks like she also decided to follow suit with many of the other whales we have been seeing recently for she, as well as Cacophony too, spent most of their time napping at the surface. 

Nile and Cacophony's tail

With the whales barely moving through the area we were able to get some great looks before allowing them to continue on with their day as we headed on to investigate another spout we saw in the distance.

Turns out there was another pair of Humpback whales in the area. Only instead of them being two adults like we spent time with earlier, it was Valley and her calf! 

Valley

Valley's large body while her calf's "tiny" body is visible close by Mom

These two whales were mostly nursing but also took some time to nap along the water's edge. Valley even left a red cloud on the surface (whale poop!) for us to watch dissipate as this mother and her 1+ ton calf swam through the area. 

Valley and her calf (Mom's body and the calf's head)

Valley's "big wings." Her large flippers (light patches seen extending out from her body) are flared out as she gets ready to go on a deeper dive

With a bit more time on the water we decided to leave our current pair and check out a few more spouts our eagle-eyed crew had spotted out in the distance. Little did we know what we were about to find out.

Two more Humpback whales were nearby but their dorsal fins weren't recognizable with some of our recent visitors to the area. It wasn't until we saw their flukes (and did some searching through our catalog) did we discover just who these two whales were. Ditto and Touchdown were around Jeffreys Ledge!!! For most people these two whales are exciting enough as it is; aka. two more new visitors to the area this season. However it goes much, much, further than that. We on the Granite State love what we do (as our nerdy ocean-loving-selves typically portray on any given day) and these particular whales are true testaments to just that. Amazing moment #1 for the day: Touchdown was just seen by one of our crews members on September 6 off of Grand Manan Island in New Brunswick, Canada! Who can say they have seen the EXACT same whale...in two different countries...all in one month?!?!? 

Touchdown is certainly utilizing many of the productive feeding grounds in the Gulf of Maine this season!

What an amazing sighting! (And yes, I apologize for the complete nerd-factor coming to the forefront right now.) But seriously, a whale that hasn't been seen in our area for quite some time to suddenly make its presence known to the same set of eyes that had seen it all the way up in the Bay of Fundy just earlier this month? Incredible. And yet the incredibleness only continues. 

Ditto, the companion seen with Touchdown, shares its own amazing bit of information. This particular whale hasn't been seen on Jeffreys Ledge since 1994!! That's 19 YEARS!!!!! And how do we know this?? Because one of our crew members has such a sponge of a memory for whale information that once a positive identity was determined for this whale, it was a complete flashback to years ago!

Welcome back to the area (just shy of 20 years!) Ditto!!!!

Can you imagine after so many years of watching whales out of the blue (literally!) a whale from years, and years, and years ago is once again swimming through the area?!?!? Incredible moment #2 of the day.

We like to try and show our passengers all that we can while out whale watching and while we try to pass along our excitement and awe of any whale we see sometimes even we are taken aback unexpectedly. Each trip holds its own moments and memories for all on board but it was an extra "hats off" kind of day to the hard-working crew with their unbelievable and unimaginable moments the whales provided them today.

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September 22 Captain's Lady III

Happy Autumnal Equinox! This morning's rain didn't scare everyone away so we headed out in search of whales amongst the seas and swells. Our first whale sighting was a fin whale- possibly #9619- although it was being a bit aloof and and not making it easy for us to get good looks. In the same area were a couple other fin whales and some minke whales! So we took a few looks at them as well. One of the fin whale was a bit more cooperative and stayed up for a dozen breaths giving us great views of its pretty chevron pattern behind the blowholes!

Fin whale chevron

Fin whale dorsal fin

Another fin whale!

Fin whale tall spout

 We spotted another spout in the distance so we headed over to check it out. This was a humpback whale named Cacophony! Cacophony was only staying up for a few breaths before diving but the underwater times were short so we got several great looks!

Cacophony's "noisy" flukes

Humpback dorsal fin

Going for a deep dive

Amongst the whales we also found a few harbor seals for a fun added bonus! Certainly a great way to spend the first day of fall!


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September 21 Atlantic Queen

Another great day on the water!  Well, it was a little bumpy, but sunny, and there was plenty to look at!

We got to see 4 humpbacks today. Especially exciting was spending time with Valley and her calf!  At first, the calf did some lobtailing and even a tail breach!

 

Valley

We then moved on to see Patches and Cacophony (sorry, I misidentified this pair on the first go-around!). They spent a fair amount of time at the surface, with Cacaphony doing lots of tail rises and a couple lower flukes.  Interestingly, Cacophony was seen with Valley around this time last year (see the post here: http://whalesightings.blogspot.com/2012/09/september-9-prince-of-whales.html).

Cacophony

Patches

We then went back to get some great looks at Valley and her calf - at one point, they fluked simultaneously. Sometimes calves never fluke, and to see one fluke at the same time as its mom was very special!

We then decided to check out one more area before we headed back to Rye, and were surrounded by 3 marine mammal species!  We first spotted a fin whale - Fjord! Fjord is one of our
adoptable whales and a frequent visitor to the area. It was difficult to get a good look at him, but we saw him a few times, along with blows from another fin whale in the area.

Fjord

Once while we were waiting for Fjord to resurface, a harbor seal popped up! As we were watching the seal, a minke whale cruised by!  We ended up seeing another minke and 2 more seals in that area.

Eventually, it was time to head home after another fun day on the water. Thanks to all who joined us!

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September 21 Granite State

The wind certainly did a good job making some wave action this afternoon. The extra rocking and rolling (and occasional spray; sorry to those of you who got a bit of salt water coming your way!) made for some extra excitement as we headed offshore today. Luckily whales, no matter what the conditions, still need to come to the surface to breath air and with plenty of whales around we had no problem getting some great looks at multiple species.

Our first whale of the day was a Fin whale. As this whale swam on through the area it wasn't until this animal went on a deeper dive were we excited to see who it was. Fjord was close by! This whale has such a distinctive dorsal fin and has been seen so many times over the years on Jeffreys Ledge it was another wonderful chance to capture this whale still swimming around the area. 

Fjord!

We ventured further offshore, stopped to check out a couple more Fin whales that were being a little more unpredictable in their movements, before coming across a pair of Humpback whales.

Humpback whale calf (left) and mom (right)

It was Valley and her calf. These whales are also still spending time around Jeffreys Ledge! Today we got the chance to watch the calf change its behaviors from nursing, to napping, and back again to more nursing. Basically pretty much what all young critters like to do!

Valley (foreground) and her calf swimming just past the boat!

Watching a mother and calf pair never gets old, and today was no exception, as seeing any young creature stay tight to and even try to catch up to mom is incredible even when it all happens in the water.

Valley's calf  holding its tail above the waterline as it awkwardly "wobbled" in the air for a few moments

Valley's tail

Trying to be just like Mom. Valley and her calf in the process of going on a deeper dive

During our time watching this Humpback whale pair we even saw a Minke whale pass on through the area. It was crashing through the waves as it was swimming against the wind making it much easier to keep track of this whale as it travelled on by us.

Minke whale

Before heading for home we went and checked out one other pair of whales not too far away. It was Patches and Cacophony the Humpback whales.

Patches

Looks like the associations have changed within the past 24hrs (as is very typical for baleen whales) as these two adult whales were now synchronizing their movements through the water together. What a nice way to end a nice day of whale watching.

Patches and Cacophony swimming side by side

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