On Friday we had our annual
all-day NH Audubon Pelagic trip. While we spent the majority of the
day in search of birds we also got a chance to sneak in a few whales
sightings too! Foggy conditions made finding any life out on the water
challenging but at the end of the day we saw quite the variety of marine life including an Ocean
sunfish, Minke whales, at least 4 Fin whales, 2 Humpback whales, and 7 large (and sometimes a little crazy)
Basking sharks. Think it is challenging finding whales in the fog, try the task of finding birds in it! As always our friends with NH Audubon were hardy folks as we ended up with some good pelagic species of the feathery variety. Feel free to check out http://groups.google.com/group/nhbirds?hl=en&pli=1 for the full listing of birds! As for the whales, we got to spend some time with them while we were "searching" for birds nearby (to keep the birders happy so we could enjoy the whales for a moment!). As it seems to be the case both the crew and the passengers have fun with all the birds and whales we encounter. Even in the fog, and thanks to the R/V Gulf Challenger, we spent a bit of time with a familiar friend to Jeffreys Ledge. The exciting part was that she had a calf with her. Welcome back to the Ledge Pinball and her calf!
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Pinball and her calf |
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Pinball |
With the internet being such a hub for
people everywhere, we learned that Pinball herself had been seen off the
Dominican Republic this winter with a calf and were thrilled to see that
both whales made the long journey back to the feeding grounds of
the Gulf of Maine safe and sound!
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Pinball's flipper |
Even with all the fog we had a great day with all our
friends from NH Audubon; thanks again!
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