12 noon Whale Watch - Krill
 |
| Tree swallows with humpback whale off Race Point. |
We headed to Race Point once again and found quite a large number of pelagic birds and gulls including hundreds of Northern gannets. We also saw hundreds of tree swallows off Race Point and they appeared to be feeding in the area where the whales were feeding. In all my years of watching whales offshore, I don't ever remember seeing so many tree swallows offshore.
Volunteers with the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, Amy O'Neill and her son Liam, joined us offshore to conduct a bird count or census. Here are the species or types of birds they saw today and boy were they busy for much of the trip.
 |
| Cory's Shearwater. |
Common Eider - 19
White-winged Scoter - 2
Unidentified Sea Duck - 9
Corey's Shearwater - 25
Great Shearwater - 11
Manx Shearwater - 2
Unidentified Shearwater - 3
Northern Gannet - 82
Laughing Gull - 3
Herring Gull - 25
Great Black-backed Gull - 45
Unidentified Gull - 15
Common Tern - 351
Unidentified Tern - 2
Parasitic Jaeger - 3
Tree Swallow - 524
Unidentified Swallow - 45
We haven't been able to identify this humpback whale, but we will be working on this ID in the near future.
Our next sighting was a distant look at a finback whale, the second largest of all the baleen whales in our area. Finbacks are called the "greyhounds of the ocean" for they are one of the fastest whales offshore. This individual appeared to be feeding deep just like the other baleen whales seen in this area.
As we held position for the finback whale, a minke whale surfaced off the bow. Minke whales are the smallest of all the baleen whales and a common visitor to our cold, New England waters.
All in all a very successful day offshore even if the weather did not cooperate with us.
