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2008 Whale Sightings Reports:
May 15, 2008 (photographs as promised...)
AUGUST 9, 2008
total sightings from today's whale watches:
23 HUMPBACK WHALES, 1 FIN WHALES, 3 MINKE WHALES, and 25-30 ATLANTIC WHITE-SIDED DOLPHINS
A Humpback Whale "breaching" before a thunderstorm
The near-daily rain and thunderstorms of the past week may have kept many people from going whale watching, but the rain certainly didn’t keep the whales away! Those people who braved the weather to come whale watching this week were treated to wonderful whale sightings with lots of feeding and other surface activity.
The majority of the surface activity we have seen
recently has been feeding. This is not surprising given that the main
reason whales gather in such large number off the New England coast each
summer is to feed upon the abundance
of
schooling fish that are found in these productive waters. This summer the
waters of Stellwagen Bank have been especially productive and this has
brought more whales than usual to our area. On yesterday’s whale watch,
for example, we found groups of four, five, and six Humpback Whales all
feeding together.
While the adult whales are busy feeding on the abundance of fish, the calves (which are still exclusively nursing from their mothers) are often left alone at the surface and these little whales often become active. Young whales are just like young puppies, kittens, or even people…. when the adults are occupied with doing “grown-up” stuff, the calves get a little restless and start to play. Play is actually an important behavior for all young mammals. It exercises growing bones and muscles, it builds body awareness and coordination, and it help the youngsters learn about their environment.
Some of my favorite calves of the year are “Cajun’s”
calf, “Tornado’s” calf, and “Firefly’s” calf. Cajun’s calf is probably
the
most prone to surface activity and we have seen this calf breaching and
flipper-slapping many times this past week and throughout the summer.
On today’s whale watch (August 9th) we saw Firefly and Tornado’s
calf playing together with seaweed that was floating at the surface.
Firefly’s calf is also a very curious whale and is developing a reputation
for “close-to-boat” behavior. This is when whales take an interest in the
boat and the people onboard. In fact, as we were approaching the whales
on the afternoon whale watch I could see many groups of adult Humpbacks
but I specifically sought out the group with Firefly in it (you can
recognize Firefly by her nearly all black tail with a small white marking
on the right tip that looks like a firefly in the night sky) just because
I was hoping her calf would approach the boat….and it did (pictured at
right)! Close-to-boat behavior is a lot of fun and I described a close to
boat encounter in my previous “whale sightings update” that you can find
here (really great
photographs!).
While Firefly’s calf was swimming from one side of the boat to the other, Tornado’s calf approached the boat as well and did a series of full breaches (leapt out of the water) just a few feet from the boat. So I guess that has been the theme of the past week: a lot of whales, a lot of rain and thunder, and a lot of great trips thanks especially to the Humpback whale calves that are growing more independent each day. I hope the weather improves, but I hope the whales stay just the same!
Tornado's calf breaching (To view another great shot of this calf breaching click here)
Here’s my list of individual Humpback Whales I was able to identify today. There were many other whales in the area that we either did not have time to visit with or were unfamiliar to me:
Nile, Pepper, Infinity, Tornado and calf, Cajun and calf, Persied, Apex, Slugger, Firefly and calf, Trident’s 2006 calf (un-named), Glow-stick, Alphorn, Pele, Crown and calf, Pinpoint, Percussion, Venom, Jabaru, and Valley.
That’s 23 Humpback whales…if you include all of the whales that I could see in the area that were either not whales that I recognized or in the distance the total number of whales on the northern end of Stellwagen Bank could easily be well over 30.
More recent photographs:
Bird sightings:
While whales are, of course, the main focus of our whale watches, I always take note of the birds and happily point them out for the birders onboard. The most significant sighting of the past week have included a number of Jaegers, including 2 LONG-TAILED JAEGERS (!!!!) on August 5th. These are very rare Arctic visitors that I have only seen once before….off the coast of Argentina! So this was my first North American sighting of this species which made me very happy. Other birds seen this week were numerous Cory’s and Greater shearwaters, smaller (but always present) Sooty and Manx Shearwaters, 1 dark-phase Pomarine Jaeger, 5-6 Parasitic Jaegers (both dark and light phases) and numerous Bonaparte’s Gulls in the harbor.
ALL PHOTOS TAKEN FROM THE 7 SEAS WHALE WATCHING BOAT PRIVATEER IV
Some of the above photos were taken 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