Saturday's weather was just manageable enough to squeak a trip in before the ocean really began to get angry! We spent time with five humpback whales offshore. We first came upon a pair, Shuffleboard and Churn, doing what whales do. They would surface for a handful of breaths of air then dive for a few minutes at a time. This is standard whale behavior and what we expect to see once we find whales. In the area, a third humpback whale could be seen occasionally spouting in the distance. It wasn't long before we saw other activity making BIG splashes on the horizon. We headed that way and found Chromosome and Grommet being very active individuals! Both were breaching and flipper-slapping displaying very impressive, and unexpected, sights consistently.
 |
| One whale breaching while the other begins to raise its flipper in the air |
 |
| Chromosome breaching |
 |
| Flipper-slapping |
Whales have a mind of their own (obviously, remember they are wild animals) so being in the right place at the right time is definitely a special treat.
 |
| More breaching |
 |
| Another flipper in the air |
On our trip home we spotted the same whales from earlier but now that third whale had joined up with our original pair. We got a quick glance as Shuffleboard, Churn and Spell all went on dives.
 |
| Churn and Shuffleboard |
 |
| Diving whale |
Before returning to the harbor we even got a chance to check out an ocean sunfish.
 |
| Ocean sunfish |
The weather is far from ideal now so we will patiently wait for the next opportunity to see what wildlife has in store for us.
No comments:
Post a Comment