previous whale sightings reports:
May 15, 2008 (photographs as promised...)
WEDNESDAY, May 7, 2008
total sightings from today's whale watch:
7 HUMPBACK WHALES, 3 FIN WHALES and 4 MINKE WHALES
This afternoon we found that the whales that had been on the middle and
southern end of Stellwagen Bank have moved north to the bank's northwest
corner. We w
ere
only 9 miles from Gloucester when we began seeing blows (the "spouts" of
the whales). At our farthest point today we were still only 12.2
miles outside of Gloucester harbor! This means that we were able to
spend A LOT of time with A LOT of whales!
When we first arrived in the area nearly all of the whales were feeding. We stopped on a single HUMPBACK WHALE and while we were waiting for it to surface a FINBACK WHALE cruised past the stern of our whale watch boat and afforded everyone great looks at this normally elusive species (we would get another close look at a FIN WHALE on the way home as well). After watching this single animal for a few minutes we moved on to a group of 4 HUMPBACK WHALES that were all feeding at the surface. The whale that was most actively feeding was a HUMPBACK called "Etch-a-sketch" whom we saw many times last whale watching season. I was able to get a few good photos of Etch-a-sketch feeding (below). Note the one picture of a "seagull" (an immature Herring Gull to be more accurate) that actually plucked a fish directly from the open jaws of the whale!
Another new
arrival for this year was another of my favorite whales in the Gulf of
Maine population: a female
whale called "Nile". She was seen traveling in the group of 4 whales
that Etch-a-sketch
was part of although Nile was not actively feeding. One of the most
exciting parts of whale watching in the early spring is that
we get to see many of "our" whales as they return from their
breeding grounds in the Caribbean. Some (such as Tornado...see the
May 3rd sighting report) return with calves which is always exciting, but
even for those
that don't it is nice to see them safely back from their wintering grounds
and feeding again on Stellwagen Bank.
Other than the returning whales we had another interesting spring sighting: a BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER! These little land-birds are, like the whales, migrating north, but unlike the whales which breed during the winter these birds are returning to the forests of New England to breed during our summer. Sometimes when the wind is out of the west these birds get blown out to sea and, being land birds, cannot rest on the water. Thus they must stay aloft for days and often get very tired. Then when the spot a boat (such as a whale watch boat) they will stop and rest. These birds are often so tired that they barely take notice of the people all around them. While we must be careful not to put any additional stress on these birds, it does offer us an opportunity to see the beautiful details of these birds plumage (which are hard to see when they are flitting amongst the tree tops!).
So it was a great day on the water. Lots of whales, just 12 miles from Gloucester, and lots of feeding behavior which is always nice to see because it means that Stellwagen Bank is still producing the resources (fish) that the whales need to replenish the weight that they have lost during their long migration north from the Caribbean. Hopefully these sightings can continue.....
ALL PHOTOS TAKEN ON TODAY'S TRIP