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2009 whale sightings reports:

May 9, 2009

April 25-26,2009

April 18, 2009

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2008 WHALE SIGHTINGS REPORTS: View photographs and view sightings reports from the memorable 2008 whale watching season

2009 PELAGIC BIRD REPORTS : A new section of this site reserved just for ocean birds and birders

MAY 14, 2009

Total Sightings: 10 HUMPBACK WHALES, 1 FIN WHALE, 1 MINKE WHALE, ICELAND GULL, and 1 RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD

A Humpback Whale Breaching in Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary on May 11, 2009

While nearly all of our whale watch trips so far this season have been very good, this past week has UNDOUBTEDLY been the best week for whale watching to date.  First we had the outstanding “breaching in the fog”  (click here for details) trip that I wrote about a few days ago, and since then we have seen a huge increase in the amount of feeding activity amongst the whales.

A Humpback Whale Called "Etch-a-sketch" Feeding

This past week a huge number of American Sand Lance (a small schooling fish that is the main prey of whales in this area) has moved in the Stellwagen Banks National Marine Sanctuary area and the whales have been seen feeding intensely upon these fish.  This is wonderful to see for two reasons:

1)      Seeing Humpback Whales feeding at the surface is a spectacular sight to witness and makes for great whale watching.

2)      Whenever there is this amount of food in the area we are sure to have a good number of whales around.  Perhaps 2009 will be as good as 2006-2008 which were some of our best whale years on record.  With this number of Sand Lance in the area it is hard to image why this spring/summer wouldn’t be just as good as the previous years.

Just like last year, one of the most frequently observed feeding whales is an adult female HUMPBACK WHALE called “Etch-a-sketch.”  “Etch” (as we have taken to calling her) is known for her spectacular “kick feeding” where she repeatedly pounds her tail at the surface, usually tree times, before blowing a huge cloud of bubbles around a dense school of  Sand Land (or a school of dense Sand Land… just a Little humor there.) The fish are frightened by these bubbles and gather in a tight “bait ball” which normally would help them evade a predator just as birds form flocks to confuse and overwhelm a predatory bird such as a hawk of falcon.  In the case of whales like Etch-a-sketch, however, this behavior works to her advantage.  As the fish gather in a  tight ball in the center of her bubble cloud it only makes it easier for the whale to rise to the surface, mouth wide open, consuming hundreds of pounds of fish at a time (thus the school of dense Sand Lance joke.)

Birds were often gathered around the feeding whales in large numbers making clear photographs difficult.  Check out the shadow of two Herring Gulls on the side of Etch-a-sketch in the picture to the right.  Pretty cool!

While Etch-a-sketch has been the star of a few of our recent trips, numerous other whales have been observed in the area, many of them feeding at the surface as well.  What is especially satisfying to those of that have been whale watching for many years is that A LOT of the whales that we are seeing are amongst the oldest and most beloved whales in our Population.  Examples include: “Salt” “Cardhu” “Compass” “Tornado” “Rune”  “Cajun”, “Pepper” and “Pinpoint.” 

  Etch-a-sketch

In addition to these whales a few mother calf pairs have also been seen… unfortunately I am still working on identifying the mother and calf Pair we saw yesterday.  It is nice to have so many whales around that we can’t get to identifying them all!

Above is "Salt": The "grand old lady" of our population of Humpbacks

Hope you can join us soon.

Best,

    Jay

BIRD PICTURES:

First summer Iceland Gull, photograph by Jodi Sivak

Gulls cruising for fish in the same are as the feeding whales

Gulls waiting on a bubble cloud for the whale to surface

Gulls riding on the head of a feeding whale

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All photos on this page were taken aboard the 7 Seas Whale Watch boat "Privateer IV" in May 2009

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

WHALE SIGHTINGS REPORTS:

  2008

BIRD SIGHTINGS REPORTS:

2009

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