This morning, we found a huge pod of about 200 Atlantic
white sided dolphins! These animals have
been around the past few days but typically, we only see them on 20% of our
whale watching trips! This was a pretty active group, too. They swam right alongside
the boat, and we even saw several of them jump completely out of the
water. So much fun!
Then we spotted 3 minke whales but these guys were less than cooperative for
our purposes, so we continued on to where we found Hornbill, the humpback
whale. Hornbill has been around a bit over the past few weeks. Today, he was
his typical self, staying down for 8-13 minutes and surfacing a little ways
away from us. Some days he is great. Other days he reminds us that he is a wild
animal, capable of doing whatever he wants!
This afternoon, we had a huge surprise of seeing a minke
whale immediately after leaving the harbor! Literally, this whale was only a
couple hundred feet from the jetty. I have never seen a whale that close to
shore! We saw it for a second time,
heading offshore, and we did the same.
Our friends on the Atlantic Queen had found a pair of fin whales so we
went over to check them out. These turned out to be “Two-Scoops” and #0932.
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| Two fin whales just past the Isles of Shoals |
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| Fin whale #0932 |
Two- Scoops has been seen in the area previously this year, but #0932 was a new
visitor! Great to see old friends! We
continued offshore and found a pod of Atlantic white sided dolphins. This pod
was really spread out and apparently feeding (too busy to check us out) but we
still managed some wonderful looks.
As we were getting ready to go home,
another fin whale showed up! I’m still not sure who this whale was, but good to
know of another big whale around. Our
trip home found a small group of harbor porpoises as well! All sorts of variety
today!
The pelagic birds were fantastic as well. Northern gannets, Corys and great shearwaters, Wilson's storm petrels, common terns and even a few red-necked phalaropes were seen on both trips!
This was our 1st trip out, my daughter was amazed at how the Atlantic white sided dolphins acted. We will difinately do this again. It was awesome seeing how the whales acted today even though they played elusive. The crew was very knowledgeable and helpful. Thanks for a great day.
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