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Sunday, September 20, 2015

Sunday, September 20



What a day!! Honestly, we were a bit concerned about the wind and seas as we were leaving the dock this morning. Often, when the wind persists, it will build up the seas, making for an unpleasant ride. Although we took a little spray at the beginning of our whale watching, the wind turned off (yes, that is my official term) and the seas calmed right down, making for a lovely trip.

Our first stop was on a humpback whale mother with her calf. I was excited to see this was Spoon, my all-time favorite whale!  When I was a kid, I adopted Spoon through another organization, and you can imagine my exhilaration when I saw her for the first time, about 20 years ago! Spoon and her new calf are always a welcomed sighting!
Spoon

Spoon

We soon spotted a second pair of humpback whales- Shuffleboard and her calf!  After they dove, we looked at our fish finder, and saw two large blobs under the boat. Just as I was telling everyone about the whales being under us, the calf surfaced right next to us followed by the mom!! Amazing!  As we watched this pair, we saw even more spouts in the distance so we continued on.
Shuffleboard

Shuffleboard's calf

Mogul

A minke whale popped up, and then 2 separate male humpbacks, Hornbill and Mogul.  Hornbill was on the move, but Mogul stuck around.  He even decided to show us “evidence of feeding” by leaving a large brown cloud behind him!  Lovely, Mogul!  While watching Mogul, Captain Pete spotted a lone Atlantic white sided dolphin swimming by. Usually, dolphins are found swimming in pods but sometimes the males will wander off on their own.
dolphin

Then we saw another pair of whales coming towards us! These were 2 adults hanging out together. We later identified them as Tornado and Sigma, when they gave us some closer looks as we watched Owl and her calf (3rd calf of the day!!). Then Mogul decided he didn’t want to be left out so he came by as well and before we knew it, we had 5 humpbacks and a couple of minke whales all together!  Owl and her calf gave us an incredible sighting as they both dove in unison, one fluke right behind the other! So special!
Owl and calf
Tornado
 We saw other blows in the area but unfortunately were out of time and had to head back to Rye Harbor. Such a great day of fall whale watching!

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