JULY 24, 2010
LATEST SIGHTINGS :
DATE July 25, 2010 (Totals for Both Trips)
location 7 miles southeast of Gloucester Harbor
WHALES 4 Humpback Whales (including 1 mother and calf pair), 1 Finback Whales, and 2 Minke Whales. Also seen this week were 6 pods of Atlantic White-sided Dolphins, and 1 Northern Right Whale!
BIRDS 2 Northern Gannets, many Greater and Sooty shearwaters, 4 Cory’s Shearwaters, abundant Wilson’s Storm-Petrels, 2 Laughing Gulls, 1 Bonaparte’s Gull, and a flock of 14 Red-necked Phalaropes
WHALE SIGHTINGS JULY 25, 2010
A Humpback Whale CALLED “COSMOS” CHIN-breaching
(photo taken on july 25, 2010)
Atlantic White-sided Dolphin
(Photo taken July 22, 2010)
Humpback Whale Surfacing
A Humpback Whale Kick-feeding
“Kickstand” has been one of the most frequently sighted Humpback whales during this past week
Humpback Whale
This Greater Shearwater (the bird seen at top right) nearly got caught by Leukos while she was lunge-feeding!
We have seen A LOT of Blue-fin Tuna leaping at the surface recently, but only Oktay was quick enough to get a photo of one!
Humpback Whale Mother and Calf Diving Together
Humpback Whale Feeding
One highlight of this afternoon’s whale watch was when “Cosmos” did a full spinning head-breach!
“Leukos”
Numerous Pods of Atlantic White-sided Dolphins Have Been Spotted Recently
Humpback Whale (”Cosmos”) Flipper-slapping
(Photo taken July 25, 2010)
A gorgeous shot of a Greater Shearwater taken by Rob Galbraith. Notice the un-even wear on the feathers which create a mosaic of different colors. This feather-wear is a result of the long migration from the southern hemisphere that this bird has undertaken. Each spring Greater shearwaters like this one depart their breeding islands off the southern tip of South America and fly all the way to New England to feed on the same food as the whales!!!!
If you thought that Greater shearwaters had a long migration, this Wilson’s Storm-petrel migrated here all the way from Antarctica! When fall come to the northern hemisphere, this bird will travel all the way back south to meet up with it’s mate, who most likely spent the summer feeding thousands of miles away... perhaps even in another ocean! After reconvening at the nest site on the Antarctic peninsula the female will t lay a single egg, then the two petrel will take turns incubating the egg and going to sea to find food. They depart/return to the nest only at night, however, because too much coming and going during the day would attract the attention of predators such as Jaegers, Giant Petrels, and (these days) Rats.
simply the ocean
The Schooner Thomas E. Lannon under sail in Gloucester Harbor
