This afternoon was a very different trip from the morning’s. The winds died down and the seas calmed. It
seemed that the wildlife was taking advantage of the nice weather. We saw
school after school of small fish (herring and/or mackerel) at the surface, and
nearly a dozen huge basking sharks!! What a treat!
We also found 3 minke whales and 2 fin
whales. The first of these fin whales was lunge feeding through the surface water
where the schools of fish were concentrated, making a huge splash and forcing
the fish to jump up in the air!
We haven’t identified this fin whale yet but
are working on it.
While the whale was away from the school of fish, gulls
swooped down to pick up some of the fish. Several were successful, others were
not. Those little fish are slippery, apparently!
We headed further offshore to find a couple of minkes and
more basking sharks. On our way home, we again found the lunge-feeding fin whale
but this time a 2nd fin whale had joined up with it. The 2nd
whale was our friend “Dingle” one of Blue Ocean Society’s adoptable
whales! So great to have Dingle back in
the neighborhood!
Our trip home
continued to find basking sharks and even a small pod of harbor porpoises! So much fun!!
Also the bird sightings are picking up! We saw lots of
Wilson’s storm petrels, a sooty shearwater, several northern gannets, a
razorbill, and of course lots of gulls and terns.
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