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 (3^rd 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!

Saturday, September 19

Today was full of highlights: multiple whales, great looks and even a few aerial displays of whale-bodies being launched into the air! Whales being wild animals are always the ones in charge. They decide what they are going to do at any moment's notice. They are just going about their business and we catch a very small glimpse into their lives during our trips. Our visit today to their watery world was certainly an impressive one. We started the day with a single Humpback whale surrounded by a pod of 30-40 Atlantic white-sided dolphins.

Atlantic white-sided dolphins

Tight-knit grouping of our dolphins

It is always a fun experience to watch toothed-whales moving through the water with their larger baleen relatives.

A couple dolphins are seen just beyond where our Humpback whale was swimming/diving

In addition, this particular Humpback whale is a another new visitor to the area this season. Hello Canine!

Tail breach from Canine

As the fog rolled in, over, and luckily past us(!),we eased our way to some of the other whales reported in the area. Our next stop was a trio of Humpback whales. Owl, her calf and Mogul were all circling around together.

Owl's calf (left) and Mogul (right) going on a synchronized dive

The calf was being a bit squirmy, rolling at the surface a few times, as these whales move around. This group was short-lived as soon we saw Mogul now paired up with yet ANOTHER Humpback whale in the area while Owl and her calf moved slightly further away from us. This new pair was now Mogul and Hornbill traveling along.

Hornbill's flipper

Hornbill and Mogul were together for a brief moment in time

This association also did not last long for soon Mogul continued traveling along while Hornbill had stopped and was circling the area behind us.

Mogul (above) and Hornbill (below). Such similar tail patterns of these two whales and still unique enough to tell them apart from one another

We slowly made our way through some of our earlier sighting, and the 3 Minke whales popping up around us, before finding yet another pair of Humpback whales! This time we watched Canine (the whale we had started our trip with) now moving through the water with Geometry.

Canine and Geometry

What a data-filled (always important to record where we are traveling, what we are seeing and what any whale is doing while we are watching them!) day recording the comings and goings of all these whales; 6 Humpbacks in total. We ended our day with another brief look at Owl and her calf as the calf was continuing to be active with more breaching, flipper slapping and rolling at the surface!

Owl's calf launching part of its body above the surface

Owl (left) and her calf rolling on its side (right)

Another breach!

Friday, September 18

Our whale watch today started with a fish, not a whale. A blue shark was meandering at the surface so we checked it out briefly before it got spooked by our presence and both us, and the shark, ventured on. We then ended up coming into an area there were 3 Humpback whales around. We first started with a single whale; it was Hornbill.

Hornbill

This whale was continually circling around the area, creating a few bubble clouds and giving us some great looks at this marine mammal. As we spent time with Hornbill a pair of Humpback whales were never too far away and we eventually eased our way over to spend time with Owl and her calf.

Owl and her calf

It was so nice to spend time with familiar whales in such close proximity of each other. Owl and her calf were seen resting, nursing, creating some bubble clouds (Owl) and leaving many, many, brown clouds at the surface (whale poop)!

Owl and one of her dissipating brown clouds at the surface

We too enjoyed some nice looks at this pair of whales, and the 5 Minke whales scattered around the area, before we eased our way clear of this area to go check out another whale we were keeping track of out in the distance.

Owl and her calf going on a synchronized dive

This distant whale was yet another Humpback. Geometry was spending a good amount of time below the waterline but really wasn't moving much once it returned up from depths of the ocean.

Geometry

We even lucked out (after initially turning for home and maneuvering away from this whale) when Geometry decided to jump clear out of the water!

Geometry leaping above the waterline! Photo by GS crew member 489.5

After a couple of breaches this whale decided to flipper slap over and over again before righting itself and going on a deeper dive. What a way to end the trip!

Geometry rolled over on its back and began lifting both flippers high into the air

White Humpback whale flipper

Wednesday, September 16

Every moment you have the opportunity to see wild animals in their natural habitat it can be a special memory. When wildlife and weather end up working hand in hand, it can be even that much more memorable. Today was one of those days. We had some fantastic sightings made only even more incredible by the super calm ocean conditions today. Calm seas allow us to see the potential for more disturbances on the water (potential wildlife sightings) and when we do come upon those sightings you can truly appreciate the size and shape of the creatures you are looking at. Today was of no exception. There was no shortage of marine life as we saw 2 Minke whales, lots of Harbor seals, an Ocean sunfish, 10 Humpback whales and a pod of at least 200 Atlantic white-sided dolphins!

One of the many Harbor seals seen today

We first started with a pair of Humpback whales. It was Spoon and her calf. We got some phenomenal looks at this pair that spent most of their time napping at the surface.

Spoon and her calf

Spoon's calf's tail

At one point Spoon's calf rolled over on its side showcasing its white flipper above the water

Not far from this pair was another pair; another mother/calf pair! This second pair in the area was Owl and her calf.

Owl

Our whales were not far from each other and at one point we had Spoon, Owl and their respective calves cross paths with one another.

Owl and her calf in the foreground while Spoon and her calf are visible in the background!

After these great looks we went in search of more activity and ended up coming across another pair of Humpback whales. This time it was two adults traveling. Crook, a new visitor to the Jeffreys Ledge region this season, was swimming along with Churn.

Crook

Churn and Crook

With some nice looks at these whales we were off again to enjoy the pristine conditions and look for more whale activity. We briefly stopped on an Ocean sunfish before seeing a spout out in the distance.

Ocean sunfish

Soon there was another and another spout. There were 4 more Humpback whales moving around together! We kept our distance as a research vessel from Provincetown, MA was currently working these whales and we definitely never want to interfere with active research being done on these wild whales.

3 of the 4 Humpback whales at the surface

Even from a distance we got some nice looks which included Geometry, Nine, Sigma and Tornado. What a great way to finish up our trip on. However, on our way home we had another surprise waiting for us. A large pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins were using their speed as they were zipping through the water.

Dolphins cruising through the water

Atlantic white-sided dolphins!

Again, the beautiful ocean conditions allowed for some fantastic looks at these toothed-whales on the move. Definitely a treat to end our trip with, on top of the already wonderful day on the water.

Atlantic white-sided dolphin

Tuesday, September 15

Today we took kids from Vermont out on a whale watch and not only were the whales great but the kids enthusiasm for each and every one of our sightings was impressive! We can only hope these future generations continue to possess so much joy and awe for wildlife for years to come. There was so much marine life to look at as we saw 7 Humpback whales, including two trios(!), a Fin whale, a Minke whale, an Ocean sunfish and a pod of 250 Atlantic white-sided dolphins! We started with what we thought was a pair of whales but after our pair took a few breaths at the surface there was suddenly a third whale that appeared out of the depths of the ocean. We had 3 Humpback whales on the move together!

Large Humpback whale tail

These whales even swam towards us and kept us hostage for a few minutes as they situated themselves literally just behind the boat. Everyone got some really up close and personal looks at these mammals! This trio included Spoon, her calf and Churn.

Spoon and her calf

This is the first time we have seen any of these whales in our small section of the Gulf of Maine this season so it was an extremely pleasant surprise and a great group to start our trip on today!

Churn and Spoon

We eventually moved on and went to investigate some of the other spouts we were seeing. We saw a passing Fin whale before getting a quick look at Mogul the Humpback whale. A little more exploring and we stopped on ANOTHER trio of Humpback whales. This time it was Vulture, Nine and Highlighter.

Humpback whale spouts

Nine and Highlighter

During our travels back to the mainland we saw a Minke whale, Ocean sunfish and then only a few miles from home a large pod of toothed-whales.

Ocean sunfish

A nursery pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins were busy feeding before moving on. What a super exciting surprise to end our trip with today with our eagerly excited passengers from start to finish!

Dolphins spotted inshore of the Isles of Shoals!

Dolphins on the move

Atlantic white-sided dolphins