Whale Watching Trips on July 18, 2009

9 am and 2 pm Whale Watching Trips - Fred

An interesting day on the water. Calm seas with fog and haze in the AM gave way to clearer air but choppier seas in the PM. We spent both trips watching whales on the southern end of Stellwagen Bank.

On the 9:00 trip we started with a pair of humpbacks who seemed to be searching for food, and followed that with an individual humpback seemingly doing the same. We had to battle the fog a bit to find our next whales, a mother/calf pair of humpbacks, and we watched the calf for a while as it watched us in return, as we apparently were performing "baby-sitting" duties with the calf while the mother seemed to be deep feeding nearby.  

We then came upon an area with both humpbacks (about a dozen or so, including Anvil, Lavalier, Firefly, Freefall, Alphorn, Salt, Valley's 2007 calf, and Reflection)) and finbacks (a half dozen, all in pairs) surface feeding, accompanied by gulls and shearwaters overhead, just like "ants at a picnic".

Surface feeding birds (and most birds we see feeding with whales - except for gannets, who are good divers) do not catch fish very far down in the water, so having whales driving small fish to the surface makes it easier for such birds. Therefore, it is a common sight to see many birds buzzing about over feeding whales. Although shearwaters don't seem to mind sitting in the water, gulls and terns sometimes seem as if they don't like "getting their feet wet", and it is not unusual (even if it is always quite comical) to often see gulls resting for a few seconds on the upper jaw of a humpback whale as it is forcing water through its baleen plates to concentrate the fish already in its mouth (see the photo above).

On the 2:00 trip we started by watching Isthmus and her calf demonstrating several of the very active behaviors humpbacks are capable of (breaching, tail breaching, lob tailing, and flippering).  We then resighted Alphorn and Freefall (seen on the 9:00 trip) apparently looking for food. Shortly after we found humpback Cajun heading east, frequently slapping one or the other of its flippers on the surface as it rolled over while swimming along. Not too far away a mother and calf pair of humpbacks did some tail breaching and lob tailing for us (or for themselves, but we did enjoy seeing it all, even if it may not actually have been intended for our benefit). Finally, we spent a short while watching humpbacks Nile and her calf heading west, occasionally lob tailing and tail breaching along the way.

It is often quite evident that every whale watch trip seems to be different from every other whale watch trip, and today's 9:00 and 2:00 trips illustrate this point quite well. On the 9:00 trip we saw both humpbacks and finbacks, along with some excellent surface feeding. However, on the 2:00 trip we found humpbacks only, with no surface feeding observed, but with many dramatic surface behaviors witnessed instead.

For birds today we saw quite a few shearwaters (mostly greater, but a pretty good number of Cory's and a few sooty, too), along with quite a few herring gulls and laughing gulls, and a few Wilson's storm-petrels as well.

Whale Watching Trips on July 16, 2009

9 am and 2 pm Whale Watch trips - Fred

On the AM trip we headed out to an area northeast of the SW corner of Stellwagen Bank, where we found ourselves quickly surrounded by a couple dozen humpbacks and a couple of finbacks who were feeding at and close to the surface on sand lance, accompanied by "swarms" of shearwaters.  (Sometimes our view of surface feeding was punctuated by one or more young whales, probably calves) breaching and tail breaching.)  However, after a while, the feeding slowed down considerably (whether the food scattered or whether the whales became satiated is unclear).  We moved away from the area a bit, to go look at a few other whales who may (or may not) have been deep feeding, and later came back to find many of the earlier surface feeding whales still apparently resting.

On the PM trip we headed out to approximately the same area only to find a fair number of humpbacks scattered about, with much "up and down" apparent deep feeding going on.  (It is always easier for the whales - and for the whale watchers - when the sand lance prey is located close to the surface.)  So, we tried a bit further to the east, where we found two pairs of finbacks surface feeding in dramatic lunges. Then, as we were watching four of Mother Nature's second largest creatures feed not to far from us, all of a sudden a dozen or more humpbacks showed up over the next several minutes, seemingly "coming out of the woodwork", to join in the surface feeding frenzy, accompanied by hungry shearwaters and laughing gulls (with a young humpback providing several breaches for us to witness as well).

For birds today, we saw many shearwaters (mostly greater, with a few Cory's and sooty), especially when sand lance was closer to the surface, and a few Wilson's storm-petrels, and some laughing gulls. 

Whale Watching Trips on July 15, 2009

9 am Whale Watch Trip- Krill

As we headed offshore, we found a small group of humpbacks close to the Southwest corner of Stellwagen Bank. Most of the whales were traveling slowly and possibly feeding deep. We were able to identify quite a few individuals including Fulcrum and her calf of this year, Hancock who was traveling with Alphorn, Pipette who was traveling with Venom, Reflection and her calf of this year who were traveling with Tracer, Coral and Banyon.  

We had a number of whales come over to the boat for a close approach and at the end of our trip, were treated to some surface feeding (see image above).

2 pm Whale Watch Trip - Krill 

For the afternoon trip, we headed back to the Southwest corner of the bank and found a humpback whale named Seal who was logging at the surface. Seal has a beautiful black and white ventral tail pattern and was named for a seal shape on the right side of the fluke (tail). One of the fast ferries from Boston passed close to Seal's position and this seemed to disturb him. Seal immediately started to flipperslap, lobtail and breach as the ferry passed by. Seal continued to be active as we slowly moved away and headed more to the east. 

We picked up a few more humpback whales who were in pairs or were traveling alone. We had a brief but very special close approach from a young pair of humpbacks and then we moved into an area with hundreds of seabirds. In this area, we also found a number of finback and humpback whales who were feeding at the surface. The finbacks were charging through the area at a tremendous speed. Then they would lunge on their sides with their mouth's wide open in an attempt to get as much water and bait into the mouth as possible. The humpback whales were moving more slowly, but were just as successful as they started to kick feed using bubble nets to coral the bait. 

At one point, we had a humpback whale surface feed right off the bow of the boat. This whale continued to stain the water out of its mouth as it slowly swam toward the boat. What a wonderful look at the baleen hanging down from the upper jaw of the animal. And the seabirds were close by ready to snatch any injured or unwary sand lance that were being pushed up to the water's surface by the bubble or were jumping out of the whale's mouth. 

At the end of our trip, we watched a mother and calf pair feeding next to the boat. The mother was kick feeding while the calf was close by and seemed to be carefully watching the mother. As we slowly moved away from this pair and started to head back to Plymouth Harbor, both mother and calf fluked out together (see image above). A wonderful way to end the trip. 

11 am Whale Watch Trip - Leah

Wow!  What a tremendously beautiful day. We had a perfect blue sky with sparse puffy white clouds, a calm 5 knot wind, and 1-2 foot seas. We started our trip with one very low profile humpback whale, that very briefly came to the surface, but then disappeared so we moved on to another group of three humpback whales. 

The three humpback whales that we came across were Fulcrum and her calf of this year accompanied by Pipette. These three were the highlight  our trip! Fulcrum's calf was continually rolling over and flipper-slapping, then would slap its tail on the water. Fulcrum would surface, take a deep breath and then descend back into the water. Pipette, on the other hand, I think was rather curious of us since she repeatedly did a behavior called spy hopping. She would force just the front of her head out of the water and then would back down into the water disappearing from view (see image above). 

Also during the trip, Fulcrum and calf gave us a beautiful view of how a fluke print, or calm circular patch of water, is created.  We could just make out the tip of the whales fluke in the water and seeing the way the whale beats its tail to create that calm circle of water was an amazing sight. As we started to turn around to head back into port, mother and calf parted ways with Pipette and headed off in separate directions. Today was the perfect day to be out on the water.  

Whale Watching Trips on July 13, 2009

11 am Whale Watch - Lauren

We had a beautiful day offshore with mild winds at about 5 knots and only 1-2 ft seas. The whales were a little further out today, so they took a little longer to get to but worth the wait. Most of our sightings today were on the southwest side of Stellwagen bank, just above the corner. 

We first came across 3 humpback whales traveling and feeding together. At one point, one of the 3 whales began rolling on it's side and flipper slapping. Our next sighting was of a minke whale who surfaced fairly close to the boat. Looking into the water, we were able to see this little guy traveling just beneath the water's surface.

Next we saw 2 humpback whales that surface fairly close to the boat and that were charging right through the water. It seemed that these whales were on a mission for they kept traveling right on through. We then came came across two groups of 2 humpback whales traveling and doing some subsurface feeding. We identified this individual as Fulcrum who was feeding with her calf of this year (see image above). Fulcrum is very easy to identify, for she has propeller scars on the back in the location of where her dorsal fin should be located. 

We got another close look at a finback charging through the area and possibly feeding deep. We ended our day with a second mother calf pair. There were quite a few other blows in the distance. But what a day we had offshore for we were able to see the full spectrum of whales today with about 11 humpbacks, two finbacks, and a minke. 

Whale Watching Trips on July 11, 2009

9 am and 2 pm Whale Watch Trips - Fred

On both trips we headed out to the southwest corner of Stellwagen Bank, and on both trips we saw 15 to 20 humpbacks in an area just a bit east-northeast of the southwest corner.  Visibility was excellent, and, with the increasing winds and sea, shifting from southwest to south-southwest, the whales were, not surprisingly - very active.

We saw little surface feeding but evidence of deeper feeding from some pairs and trios of humpbacks.  However, probably 75% of the whales in the general area either breached, tail-breached, lob-tailed, or flipper-slapped, or some combination of these behaviors, often repeatedly, on both trips.  The surface of the water was subjected to "intense humpback aerial bombardment" in one direction or another almost continuously, sometimes at a distance from us, and sometimes close.  It was a spectacular show.

ID's included Milkweed, Freefall, Tracer, and Reflection with calf.

Pelagics included all three large shearwaters (hundreds of greater shearwaters, and s

ome Cory's and sooty shearwaters), northern gannets (mostly juvenile, but a few adults also seen), and Wilson storm-petrels.  (The South Shore Bird Club attended the 9:00 trip and members were not disappointed in the birds or the whales.)

11 am Whale Watch Trip - Krill 

As we headed offshore, we passed a few whales on the Southwest corner of Stellwagen Bank. We decided to continue east since these whales were being watched by a number of Gloucester and Boston whale watching boats.

On the backside of the Cape, we picked up a humpback whale that was quite active. In fact, this whale was breaching straight up and out of the water (see image above), something I have never seen in all of my years offshore! After a few breaches, this whale would start flipper slapping by lifting the left pectoral fin out of the water and slapping it down against the water's surface. At one point as we held our position for this animal, it did a spinning head breach less than 20 feet off the bow (front) of the boat.  What an impressive aerial display!

After leaving this humpback whale, we thought we could never top what we had just seen. But as we headed north, we saw large splashes 5 miles to our north. As we approached this area, we realized that we had a very active mother and calf humpback pair. 

We were able to photo-identify the mother as a whale names Follicle. Both mother and calf were spinning-head breaching and flippering. It almost seemed as if Follicle was teaching her calf how to breach and flipper-slap sometimes right next to the boat. First Mom would do a spinning head breach and then the calf would follow. Then Mom would change over to flippering and the calf would follow suit. The calf mixed it up a bit by including a few chin breaches (see image above). We couldn't b

elieve our luck offshore for our trip offshore was full of active humpback whales.

We are still seeing large concentrations of Cory's shearwaters, greater shearwaters and Wilson's storm petrels. The number of sooty shearwaters has decreased over the past week.