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I decided to include both Saturday and Sunday in this whale sightings report because the whale watches on both days were very similar. On both days were traveled to Stellwagen Bank's northwest corner (just 12 miles from the entrance to Gloucester harbor) and saw many of the same whales (the totals listed above were actually from Sunday's trip). This is not all that surprising really, given that there were HUGE swarms of "Sand Lance" (a small, pencil-sized, pencil-shaped fish that is the whale's preferred food source in this area) nearly everywhere we looked. These masses of fish have attracted a good number of both HUMPBACK and FINBACK whales to the area to feed. I hope, given the amount of fish that is present for these whales to feed on right now that these great sightings will continue... but you never can tell! The marine environment changes rapidly so if you have been thinking of going whale watching do it now!

Feeding Humpback Whales (with a courageous seagull stealing fish from the whale's mouth!)

Anyway, it really was not surprising given the amount of fish in the area that most whales were busy feeding. I'm sure many of our passengers would agree that a Humpback Whale called "Etch-a-sketch" (named for some random black lines on the underside of her tail that look like an etch-a-sketch drawing) was the highlight of this weekend's whale watches. Etch-a-sketch is a "kick feeder", meaning she slashes her tail repeatedly at the surface before beginning each feeding sequence. This is a spectacular thing to see as she lifts nearly the entire tail and tail-stock gets out of the water and then comes crashes it down onto the water's surface sending a plume of water high into the air. The whale then dives beneath the surface for a few seconds before surfacing again with it's mouth wide open... jaws full of fish and sea water. There were many other whales feeding in the area and many (especially "Rapier") are also spectacular to watch...but none were quite like Etch-a-sketch! (pictures of Etch-a-sketch are both above and below this paragraph)

Etch-a-sketch

Other than the nearly constant feeding behavior we did get to observe 4 mother and calf pairs of Humpback Whales over the weekend as well. They included "Tornado" and calf, "Cardhu" and calf, "Salt" and calf, and (a first sighting this year...) "Spoon" and calf! Spoon is a VERY well known whale and a favorite amongst those of us who have been whale watching out of Gloucester for many years. She is one of the largest whales in our population, having been measured to a length of over 60 feet!

Spoon and calf

For the birders, a few birds of note that I sighted this weekend included 4 Laughing Gulls, 10-12 Northern Gannets, 3 Wilson's Storm-petrels (my first of the year), a flock of about 30 White-winged Scoters, and a nice pair of Common Tern resting on a log that was floating near some of the feeding whales (photo below)

Common Terns

The picture below was taken by our good friend Oktay Kaya. He managed a MUCH better shot of the juvenile Herring Gull brazenly reaching into the mouth of a Humpback whale to steal a fish than I did and was nice enough to let me share it with you all!

To see many more of Oktay's photos please visit his website at: http://www.whalesandwhales.com

ALL PHOTOS TAKEN ON THIS WEEKEND'S TRIPS

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