Picus Blog: Successful Saturday Whale Watch

The weather report for today had been shaping up to be something wonderful, and after our last attempt at getting out on the ocean, I was ready to try again to get out on a nice day. Recent reports from whale watches going out of both Massachusetts and New Hampshire lately have been chock full of whales and pelagic birds. Pamela and I booked ourselves a trip on the 7-Seas Whale Watch out of Gloucester - and today did not disappoint!

Let me start by saying that, although there were some birds -the expected Wilson's Storm Petrels (hundreds), Greater Shearwaters, Cory's Shearwaters, plenty of gull's and my highlight - a Fulmar. I didn't manage many pics of the birds as it was whale watch, and they weren't stopping for birds (I think we were the only birder's aboard this outing) and although I tried as we were speeding along, the best I managed were:

And this photo shows how numerous the Wilson's Storm Petrels could be:
The the star of the show today was a Humpback Whale that has been given the nickname "Etch-a-sketch." The whales that come to the feeding grounds here at Stellwagon Bank are all given a number for scientific study as well as nicknames - usually based on visibly discernible markings often on the fluke (the proper term for what many people call the 'tail') and sometimes on fins or flippers.
The underside of Etch-a-sketch's fluke on a dive.

Once the on-board naturalists realized that this was the Humpback that was spotted, the decision was made to stay in the area, as I guess he is know to put on good show when foraging. And boy, were they right. Over the next hour or so, Etch-a-sketch delighted everyone on board with his "antics" - spending quite a bit of time at the surface. At one point, he rolled onto his back, and did some "flipper slapping" on the surface of the water first with one then the other flipper:

But the best part was what I think everybody hopes for on a whale-watch - BREACHING! It probably goes without saying, but in case you don't know, breaching is when the whale forces part or all of it's body out of the water. There are a few hypothesis why some whales do this. One hypothesis is that it is a form of non-verbal communication - sound travels faster (and further?) in water so you can imagine that the force of crashing back to the water can notify other whales quite a distance about it's whereabouts. Another hypothesis is that the force of hitting the water dislodges barnacles that attach itself to the whale. (You might be able to see some on the fluke photo.) And who is to say that they might not simply do it for fun? (Sure looks like it to me)

Etch-a-sketch first did a few "chin-breaches" bringing it's head out of the water for us.

And down

Up again!

And then one time, he did almost a full breach:

And down

Ker-sploosh!

Almost as exciting to see on the trip, we also had a Fin Whale mother and calf. Fin whales are the second largest mammal on earth (the Blue Whale is the largest) and endangered, so it is always wonderful to see them in our waters.

Fin Whales, are powerful and fast (garnering the nickname "greyhound of the sea") and rarely do you see more than the head, blow-hole, and dorsal fin for which it is named.