Whale Watching Trips August 1, 2009

9 am and 2 pm Whale Watches - Joanne

We headed offshore with near perfect weather: light winds, relatively calm seas, clear skies, and unlimited visibility, thanks to the storm systems that came through on Friday.

On our 9 AM trip we headed to the SW corner of the bank. We had quite a few spread about, including over a dozen humpbacks, a couple of finbacks and half a dozen minkes. We had a group of three, which included Tongs, Venom and Tear. This trio became a foursome, with the fourth whale likely being Canopy's 08 calf and stayed together for some time before Tear broke off from the group and headed north while the other three headed SE.  

We followed Habanero and Peninsula, each travling solo but not

 far from one another and in the same direction. They were headed to an area where whales started to pile up and a feeding frenzy began. We had multiple whales kickfeeding, bubble cloud feeding, open mouths, and dragging, all within a few boat lengths of each other. The whales were all moving to this spot from near and far. Additional whales seen included: Alpha, Skateboard and calf, and Reflection and calf.

On our 2 PM trip, weather and sea conditions remained the same. We headed a bit farther north of the SW corner and began with a pair, includi

ng Regulus and possibly Pogo. Not far from the pair, a trio surfaced with Nile, calf and Pixar. We followed the trio which was logging upon arrival. The calf then began to roll and flipperslap.  We were then treated to huge GIANT breaches from the calf, one so close to the bow the passengers literally got some spray (see image above).  

After the breach, Nile got in on the behaviors and started flipperslapping. At one point, both Nile and her calf were belly up lobtailing together. Nile and her calf showed us every aerial display possible, with the calf initiating m

ost of the behaviors. On our way home, we got one more lo

ok at Regulus and Pogo, who were no longer side by side, but about 200 feet apart but moving in the same direction and diving at the same time.

Birds seen today included: Cory's shearwater, greater shearwater, and sooty shearwaters, Wilson's storm petrels, laughing gulls, common terns, black backed gulls and herring gulls.

On a side note: the Dolphin Fleet reported having Salt and Cardhu together today. The pair has been together for ~ a week. These two whales are known to have a long term association and spend several weeks together each 

summer. They are two of the few pairs to be known to have

 such (a long term association) from  year to year.

11 am Whale Watch - Krill

Calm seas as we headed to the southwest corner of Stellwagen Bank. In this aera, we had great numbers of Wilson's storm petrels (the most I have seen all season) as well as a number of shearwater species (including Cory's, greaters, and sootys). Many of these birds were feeding at the surface along with giant bluefin tuna. The tuna would strick at bait at the surface or jump out of the water as they chased bait. This was an amazing sight to see right next to the boat.

Our first sighting was a humpback male named Coral who did an impressive kick for us right next to the boat. Not sure what the kick was associated with, but it made a huge splash. Coral may have been subsurface feeding, but it was impossible to confirm that. 

Our second sighting was a small humpback whale that was logging (resting) at the water's surface. We were able to get great looks at this animal as it rested peacefully for minutes at a time. There were a lot of small recreation boats in the area and many of them came over to watch the whale. With so much attention on this animal, we moved off and picked up a pair of humpbacks who were traveling together.

This pair turned out to be Barb, a male humpback whale, who was traveling with Nimbus, a female whale. They appeared to have a destination in mind as they headed to the north. We were able to get good looks at the underside of their flukes allowing us to identify these individuals.

Then it was time to head home. A fun and beautiful day offshore on all accounts. 

Whale Watching Trips July 31, 2009

9 am and 2 pm Whale Watch Trips - Fred

A little northeast of the southwest corner for both trips. A fairly calm AM, but clouds and the SSW wind kept increasing all day, so that the PM trip ended up a bit sloppy. There was a lot (!!!) of rain at the dock between the two trips, but fortunately it did not bother us offshore on either trip. Hazy all day, with about a 3-mile circle of visibility all day.

On the AM trip we started sort of slowly with an area with some low-profile HB's, but we then came upon Nile and calf and Peninsula, and both adults (and a couple of other HB's in the area) did a lot of apparent deed feeding while Nile's calf did a lot of breaching and threw in a close boat approach for good measure. We had a quick look at Crown as the trip came to an end.

On the PM trip we started similarly, and Nile and Peninsula chased around some sand lance in the depths, while we babysat the calf, who was fairly active once again (without showing much of any sign of feeding alongside the adults).  A bit further to the NE we were entertained by multiple breaches by Pixar, and a bit further to the NE of Pixar we were entertained by multiple breaches by a minke (see photo above).

Pelagics included a fair number of shearwaters (a few more Cory's than greater, overall, with just a few sooties in the mix), and more Wilson's storm-petrels than I've seen in a while.

11 am Whale Watch Trip - Diane

It was a hazy, hot and humid morning with the threat of thunderstorms. Winds were from the SW at 10-15 and the seas were about 1 foot. Our destination was the southwest corner where we found Nile and her calf, along with another adult. They kept a fairly low profile but we did get some very good looks.  We stayed with them until a sport fishing boat moved in and we decided to move on to another animal in the distance.  

At this point the weather turned nasty with some wind, rain, thunder and lightening.  We saw some big splashes in the distance and tried to make it to the breaching whales but they stopped and we ran out of time.  Besides that, a heavy fog had moved in so visibility was greatly reduced.  

Whale Watching Trips July 30, 2009

9 am Seabird Report - Ian

It was a lovely day out on the water today, the perfect place to be on such a hot and muggy day. The sea air takes the heat right off, it's hard to beat. It was a great day for nature as well, with almost 1,000 birds, as many as I've had in the past week or so, in addition to over a dozen whales feeding around us at once. 

The highlight of the day was the arrival of the first phalaropes, a real harbinger of fall, and very nice to see. Phalaropes are two species of shorebird that breed on the arctic tundra, and both of them, Red and Red-necked Phalaropes, migrate down both sides of the US, but in the ocean! They spent their time offshore, as do all the shearwaters and storm-petrels that we see out here. Although I only had quick looks at the ones that I saw, they were good enough to pick out one Red Phalarope, but the others went unidentified. Hopefully this signals more to come!

Shearwater numbers were pretty good as well, with nice upturn in Sooties, and an upturn in storm-petrels as well. Full list from today below!

Stellwagen Bank -- SW Corner (10:00-11:40)

Cory's Shearwater - 82

Greater Shearwater - 261

Sooty Shearwater - 46

Wilson's Storm-Petrel - 220

Northern Gannet - 9 Including one adult.

Sanderling - 1     Unusual out here.

Red Phalarope - 1   This individual was molting out of breeding plumage, the main field mark I noticed was reddish on the uppertail coverts, eliminating everything else. As I brought my camera up to photo it I lost it in the glare of the sun, despite it being less than 10m away, and never saw it again.

phalarope sp. - 6     *Unusual. I believe these were a group of all Red-necked Phalaropes, but like the Red, they were all in the glare of the sun, and distant views of these precluded any identification.

Laughing Gull - 47

Herring Gull (American) - 35

Great Black-backed Gull  - 5

Whale Watching Trips July 27, 2009

9 am and 2 pm Whale Watch Trips - Krill 

On the 9 am trip, we headed towards the southwest corner of Stellwagen Bank. Our first sighting were two humpback whales traveling side-by-side and who turned out to be Perseid and Crown. Crown is a female humpback who shows signs of being previously entangled in fishing gear. Looking at her tail (fluke) you can see white lines and other scars that show evidence of where ropes had wrapped around and cut into her flukes. In this same area, we also observed a few finback and minke whales who appeared to be traveling at the surface or perhaps subsurface feeding.

As we slowly moved through this area, we noticed that many of the seabirds were starting to dive into the water after small schooling fish. Before long, we were treated to surface feeding including side-lunge feeding by 3 finback whales. These animals were feeding on their own, but all were charging in a circular manner as they corralled the bait. 

As we drifted with our engines in neutral, we were surprised by a finback whale who was slowly rising to the surface directly next to our boat (see image above). This whale had just completed a lunge for we could see that its mouth and throat area were distended with water and bait. As the whale continued to rise to the surface, you could see the water getting pushed back out of the mouth through the baleen plates. 

More whales starting moving into the area as almost on cue. We were able to ID Mars and her calf, Tulip and her calf and Pipette. We had at least 20 humpbacks in this general area with a handful of finbacks and minkes. 

For the 2 pm trip, we headed to the backside of Cape Cod just off of Race Point and Truro MA. We had a wonderful close approach by a mother and calf humpback pair. The calf rolled on its side as it tried to get a better look at our passengers on the walkout bow sprint of the boat. And it blew bubbles to the delight of our youngest passengers. 

The young of any species are the most playful and this humpback calf was not exception. The calf rolled over on its side and started flippering next to the boat (see image below). The calf appeared to be having lots of fun and perhaps was even showing off for our benefit.

We then moved on and found a pair of humpback whales traveling together. We identified these animals as Ampersand and Rotary. As we moved away, we picked up a trio of humpback whales that included Ursa, a female humpback whale who had a calf last year. Ursa was traveling with our second mother and calf of the trip. As we watched  this pair, we saw that Ursa soon moved off on her own which is a good reminder of how temporary baleen whale relationships are, except for that of the mother and calf (they stay together for a year). 

As we moved through this area, we had at least 20 humpback whales scattered throughout the area and a few minke whales as well. However, the only other humpbacks that we were able to identify were Thread and Alpha. 

Seabirds offshore continue to thrill our passengers. We are seeing Wilson's storm petrels, Cory's shearwaters, sooty shearwaters, greater shearwaters and jaegers. 

11 am Whale Watch Trip - Lauren

We had a nice day offshore on the Son II. We spent the day mostly just off race point. Visibility was only 3-4 miles with heavy cloud cover and winds were about 10 kts. We started the day off with a bang, with a whale breaching several times as we approached, and then once we were on the whale he began flipper slapping and rolling. He was then joined by a second humpback whale, at which time they started traveling together, keeping a low profile. Finally, one of the whales fluke out and we realized that this whale was Mostaza, the 2000 of Salt, the most famous humpback whale in the world. The name "Mostaza" is the spanish word for mustard and the Avellar family of Cape Cod named this whale in honor of Aaron Avellar who named Salt.  

Our next sighting was of a mother calf pair. The calf was repeatedly breaching, but again once we got close to this pair, the calf started rolling over and flipper slapping. Shortly after that, the pair began logging so I guess it was time for a rest for both mom and her calf. But as they logged, they gave us some nice real close looks at who humpbacks resting just at the surface. Several blows could be observed around the boat and there were few seabirds observed offshore.