Lots of diversity on the Ledge today! Several minke whales,
three fin whales, a humpback whale and even some harbor porpoise were spotted
on the morning trip.
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| Minke whale |
Although the fin
whales were a bit elusive, we were surprised to see two of them together since fin
whales are often seen alone.
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| Fin whale |
Hornbill the humpback whale was awesome as he surfaced
close to the boat repeatedly! His long white flippers were clearly visible just
below the waves.
Hornbill above and below
The seas improved over
the course of the trip, and even on our way home, we passed some harbor
porpoises and a small minke whale close to shore!
This afternoon, we located the pair of fin whales again, and
yet again, they were on the aloof side, not allowing us to get any looks at
all. Whales will be whales! Hornbill the humpback was also seen and after a bit
of running around, he settled into an area where he was deep-feeding by blowing
bubble clouds to condense his prey. Although he wasn’t lifting his tail much
this afternoon, we did get to see it a couple of times!
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Hornbill |
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| Hornbill |
A harbor seal surfaced close to the boat and
it was soon joined by a great shearwater that landed right next to it! The bird
quickly realized that the seal didn’t have any snacks for it and abruptly took
off. A couple of minke whales were darting around and the pair of fin whales
reappeared, and then disappeared just as quickly. We started to head north to a
report of another whale about 10 miles away, but were soon waylaid by a pod of
Atlantic white sided dolphins!
To our
surprise, a fin whale was also hanging out with the dolphins so we finally got
a decent view of a fin whale today!
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| Fin whale |
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| Atlantic white sided dolphins |
I also want to give a shout out to our intern, Austin, who
spotted most of the whales before the captain or crew did! Way to go, Austin!
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