On Monday we took a chance and headed to a completely different, and distant, part of Jeffreys Ledge. We had yet to venture to this region of Jeffreys Ledge all season, but recent reports were coming in of whale activity. What we found was so much more than what we expected! In total, we saw 17 different humpback whales for the day. During the morning trip 13 individuals were photographed along with our first ocean sunfish for the season and a small pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins.
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| Pair of humpback whales |
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| Diving whales (above and below) |
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| Dolphins! |
In the afternoon, eight humpback whales surrounded us. Note, some overlap of individuals occurred between the two trips.
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| Two whales surface side-by-side each other |
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| Humpback whale diving |
Individuals for the day included Chromosome, Bungee, Ditto, Mocha, Slingshot, Valley, Spoon, Tusk, Sigma, Decimal, Squiggle, Lagoon, Fan, Clipper, Littlespot, Downsweep and Solas. Sometimes our 'adventurous' spirit pays off and sometimes it does not. But today, the weather and the whales were on our side.
We only had one trip on Tuesday and were fortunate to once again make the journey far offshore. Fourteen humpback whales were documented as pairs and trios came together and broke apart throughout our time in the area.
Individuals included Decimal, Grommet, Downsweep, Slingshot, Solas, Nine, Chromosome, Bungee, Picket, Quote, Nuke, Patches, Clipper and Littespot.
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| Patches |
We even saw a pod of 40-50 Atlantic white-sided dolphins on our travels home.
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| Such a small dolphin! |
So many factors play into where we head to on any given day. On Wednesday, we traveled to a similar area and found plenty of life. Heading offshore in the morning we had a trifecta of shearwaters: cory's (1st of the season!), greats and sooty shearwaters. On both our morning and afternoon trips we saw 11 humpback whales. During the morning individuals included Solas, Tripod, Decimal, Yurt, Littlespot, Badge, Clipper, Patches, Equation, Churn and Tusk.
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| Pair of whales during our morning trip |
Our afternoon whales were Slingshot, Badge, Solas, Sedge, Palmer-Crary, Clipper, Littlespot, Quote, Yurt, Valley and Tusk.
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| Fog rolled through in varying levels this afternoon as we spent time with so many wild animals |
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| Humpback whale diving in the foreground while two more surface in the background |
The day wrapped up with a quick sighting of a grey seal.
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| Grey seal |
Each trip, each day, we are finding different whales. While many whales are being seen, and the food plentiful, one day the food will be eaten and these animals will scatter to find other bountiful amounts of fish. Who knows when that time will come but we will continue to see as much as we can see on all of our trips just as we always do.
We had an amazing trip! Our naturalists counted 10-12 whales. When asked the average sightings, she said 4-5. Although the seas were a it choppy when we started, the captain did a great job. It was an incredible day!! Thank you, Granite State Whale Watch!
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed your trip. Thank you!
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