If only I lived closer to the coast (I’m on the NH/VT border), then I would get out on even more whale watches! I do pretty well, all told. the trip with the Aquarium was so good for the whales, I didn’t waste any time getting back out. This time it was out of Gloucester on Capt. Bill and Sons. Hadn’t made it out this way since the Earth Day whale watch in May.

We had a spectacular day on the water with loads of great sightings. Mothers and calves were in seeming abundance. Apostrophe and her calf were out and about and “bumped into” Bilbo/Spoon with her calf. Apostrophe’s calf seemed to want to play with the other but there was no mutual interest. I know it’s easy to anthropomorphize these animals, but it was easy to compare the activity to what one might see on any playground with kids who are willing and kids who hide behind their mom’s leg. Apostrophe pulled away and took her calf along, thus ending the “playground encounter”.

Not much later we found Tornado and her calf. They wound up joining another association of 3 adults: Nile, Sundog and Tunguska. There was not a lot of overly demonstrative surface activity but we did get some nice looks at the various flukes in the group.

Another terrific day on the water! The total was 14-16 humpbacks (also seen and ID’d by dorsal was possibly Fern) and half a dozen minkes moving about the area.

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So what do I do after complaining about the crowded boats in Provincetown? I take a trip from Boston with the New England Aquarium.  What can I say? I’m a member and I try to go out on their whale watches each year.  I’m not crazy about the 3 level catamaran’s capacity for hundreds, but there I was.  One of the things that makes me nutty about these cruises is that people tend to be sort of oblivious about things like their trash blowing overboard.  And I don’t think enough is said by the naturalists to make sure people know about the problem.  But, I’m not the one with the microphone (just a wee blog).

We did have a gorgeous day on the water, and a terrific whale watch overall.  Our first treat was a display of lobtailing.  I could easily identify one of the two visible whales as Alphorn.  When I got home to look at photos and compare them to the thumbnails provided by PCCS, I saw that the other one was Hancock.  Because there was so much interest in this display by other boats and we could see more spouts elsewhere, we moved on.

Next up we found two adults and a calf.  One of the adults was Banyan, who is easy to ID even without seeing flukes because of the around of scarring around the tail stock from an entanglement.  We also found a juvenile whale who was breaching, though I was not quick enough with the camera to catch it.  Some flipper slapping was also seen, making this trip a great array of surface behaviors.

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I have been going to Provincetown, MA over Memorial Day weekend for something like 15 years now.  When I started my regular visit, it was for the LGBT scene.  Now, that scene is secondary and I go for the whales.    I’ll compress the 4 whale watches I did over this weekend into one post because, while it was a good weekend, it was not as good as some Memorial Days past.

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Yes, it happened a little while ago, May 3 to be exact, but I’ve been busily getting this site set up so have some post-catching up to do!

On to the good stuff. I went out for my first trip of the year from Gloucester, MA on an Earth Day whale watch fundraiser for the Whale Center of New England. The trip was on the Capt. Bill and Sons boat on which I went out several times last year. We wound up with an early spring New England day: overcast, chilly, and with some rain. Still, we were off to see whales! We left the dock at 9 AM and got back in around 4:30. Many of the Whale Center staff were on board, including Mason Weinrich, the exec director who did much of the narration. Mason can ID whales faster than anyone I’ve seen, so it’s always a treat to be out on one of his trips.

The day of watching started like the whales were feeling the weather, too… the first group we came upon as we reached the northern part of Stellwagen Bank were not “doing” much, i.e. not being very surface active. Still, it’s always nice to see whales!

By noon, we had found a much more active whale, identified as Springboard. She thrilled us with a show that included breaching and flipper slapping. We were in the vicinity of the BE Buoy by this time. For me, nothing is more thrilling than seeing a whale breach.

As the day went on, we did find several other clusters of whales. Among the whales ID’d was Zeppelin, most typically see in the Great South Channel. This was the first time she had been seen in the Stellwagen Bank area for several years. Later in the day, in a separate group, a calf of Zeppelin’s, Milkweed, was “cavorting” with some others.

New fact for me on the day – I love that, no matter how many whale watches I’ve been on (I think I am up to 30-40 by now), I always learn something new. Since it is early in the season and the whales are just returning to these feeding grounds, Mason commented that he can tell some of them are looking a little thin after the long fast. And how can he tell? The appearance of a shoulder blade on the side, just behind the blowholes. I managed to catch it on film when Springboard did a chin breach. You should be able to see it in this photo.

All in all, cold and wet but still and always amazing. Named humpbacks that were announced during the trip included: Hancock, Falcon, Rapier, Glo (easy to identify since she is missing much of her left fluke), Photon, Springboard, Reflection, Zeppelin, Crystal (first known calf of Stellwagen Bank’s grand dame, Salt, who I still have yet to see!), Milkweed, Glowstick, Buzzard. There was an announced sighting of a fin whale, but I did not see it.

Gallery to be posted soon. Will make a post when it is up. Plus, I’ve done more whale watches since so will be making new posts on those.

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