WSU 8-16-2009

As I so often say in these whale sightings updates… whale watching is a nature trip, and so we never know what to expect from one day to another, or even one trip to another, but that’s part of the fun. This statement has probably never been as true as it has been this past week. We have seen anywhere from 2 to 25 whales on a trip. Sometimes the number of whales differs greatly from the morning to the afternoon… but you never know which is going to better for sightings.

Breaching humpback whales

Even where we have traveled to find the whales has been changing a lot recently. Some days we find whales on the northern tip of Stellwagen Bank while on other days the whales are found on the bank’s southern end. A few times recently we have even traveled north to another whale feeding area called Jeffrey’s Ledge to find whales! That’s one good reason to go whale watching from Gloucester, we can reach either location (Stellwagen Bank to the south or Jeffrey’s ledge to the north) depending on where the most whales have been seen/reported.

Humpback whales

But while we never know how many whales we will see on any given trip, the fact remains that we have seen whales on every trip. Anytime you go out on the open ocean and see wild and endangered animals in their natural environment it is a special experience… no matter how many whales you see or what behaviors they are engaged in.

Humpback whale tail

Some highlights of the past week have no doubt been the spectacular feeding displays that we have occasionally seen. On one memorable trip a well-known female Humpback whale called “Fulcrum” put on a great show as she repeatedly blew clouds of bubbles next to the boat in order to trap and concentrate fish. Then she would rise to the surface with her mouth wide open! At times she was so close I could barely fit both jaws of the whale in the frame of my pictures!

Fulcrum feeding

Fulcrum feeding close up

Another highlight was when we were on our way out to Jeffrey’s ledge and spotted a breaching whale in the distance. It turned out to be the largest male whale in our population, a whale called “Colt”, and Colt continued to breach, flipper-slap, and tail-breach for 15-or-so minutes… long enough to get plenty of close looks.

"Colt"

Lastly I’d like to mention the group of 150-200 Atlantic White-sided Dolphins that we saw while traveling home one afternoon. We have seen far fewer pods of dolphins this summer than most, so seeing them was special. And this was by FAR the largest pod I have seen this season. We stayed with them for quite some time as they leapt and swam all around the boat. Considering we had already had a very good whale watch, seeing these dolphins made it one of the best trips of the year in my opinion.

I’m sure there were other high points to the past week of whale watching, and even as I look through my pictures to choose which ones I want to include in this sighting update I am reminded of some that I have neglected to mention (such as the Humpback whale calf that breached in the distance. While it was kind of far away, we could see that nearly the entire body of the whale, even the tail, came out of the water…. One of the highest jumps I have seen!)

WOW!

So in closing I would just like to reinforce that each trip is different. Not every trip has whales being active, sometimes their activity is low. Sometimes we see 10, 15, 20 or more whales, at other times we see just 2 or 3 (although if one of those 2 or 3 are active it can be a better trip than seeing 20 whales traveling or diving!). It can be challenging out there at times. But hard work and patience is usually rewarded with great sightings. Whether that means seeing a lot of whales, surface activity, or just getting a close look at one of the largest and most endangered animals in the world, each trip is special. So I hope you will come out and see what happens during your day on the water. You just never know….

Humpback whale "tail-lobbing"

And for the birders… Birding has been FANTASTIC recently, and the birds have been a lot more consistent than the whales. Large numbers of Cory’s and Greater shearwaters are being seen each trip. Smaller numbers (but always present) of Sooty’s are also seen. Interestingly, Manx shearwaters have, after an unusually long absence, started to appear on both Stellwagen Bank and Jeffrey’s Ledge. I don’t see them every trip, but they are definitely becoming more common.

Cory's shearwater

The best birding day of the year to date was August 16^th on Jeffrey’s Ledge (actually it was a great day whale wise too). We saw all four shearwater species, including an entirely white sooty shearwater! It looked like the Fairy prions I saw in Antarctica! See a photo of this shearwater taken by Len Medlock HERE (external link). As if that wasn’t enough I also spotted 2 Long-tailed jaegers that same trip. Very cool.

Fall must be getting close, because we are seeing more and more migrant birds. Red-necked (and occasionally Red) phalaropes are moving through, as are small flocks of shorebirds. A female Blackburnian warbler also landed on the boat this week and stayed aboard until we got ashore. Hopefully it was just the rest she needed to continue on her migration south.

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All photos on this page were taken aboard the 7 Seas Whale Watch boat "Privateer IV"

Some of the BEST photographs on this site were taken aboard our whale watching trips by our good friend Oktay Kaya. To see more of Oktay's beautiful whale photographs and other wildlife pictures he has taken please visit his site at http://www.whalesandwhales.com