Finishing up a Great Weekend

Juvenile Laughing Gull

On Sunday, September 7, I celebrated my birthday by going on the New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance Seabird and Whale's Tales Excursion.  This excursion occurs twice a year in June and September, and is the fundraiser for the organization to help their conservation efforts.  The spring trip was fantastic and that we saw between 40 and 45 humpback whales.  There are fantastic naturalists aboard, including Wayne Peterson gave running commentary on the birds that we saw and how to identify them, plus a commentary on the changing global climate.

This year's trip carried us to the northeast corner of Stellwagon Bank National Marine Sanctuary, after we cruised along the shore of Cape Cod from Races Point down to Truro.  There were greats sightings of birds, including a rare Sabine's gull.  We sighted all four species of shearwaters, along with three parasitic jaeger's.

Parasitic Jaeger

Parasitic Jaeger

Great and Cory's Shearwaters

Sabine's Gull

Great, Cory's, and Sooty Shearwaters

I also saw this very strange bird with strange wingtips that I could not identify :)

Cruising along Stellwagon, we came across the "Grand Dame of Stellwagon" Salt.  Salt was named by Captain Al Avellar who pioneered whale watching in New England.  This whale had a unique white pattern on her dorsal fin that reminded him of a sprinkle of salt- and that became her name. Salt is the first whale to be given a name. She has returned to the northwest Atlantic and the coast of New England every year since 1975, except one.  This year Salt has returned with her 13th calf.  Salt is also a grandmother.

Salt

Another whale that we saw named Bayou, who lost a portion of its fluke due to a strike by a ship's propeller.  In fact, because a major shipping lane crosses a portion of Stellwagon in the area where the right whales congregate, the shipping lanes have been moved 12 miles distant from where they originally were to help prevent strikes.  There is also a series of buoys that they are to sense the presence of whales, which the information is sent to ships in the area so that they can avoid them.

Bayou

One of the last whales that we observed was a very playful calf, who did rolls and all sorts of activities with its fluke and fins.

To be informed of when these trips occur, you can sign up at NECWA



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"Seabird and Whale Tales" June 2014

People fishing and observing a humpback whale

On Sunday, June 8, I again went on my favorite New England pelagic trip.  This trip is sponsored twice a year by the New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance.  It is called the   What makes it so great is that it is an eight hour trip rather than the usual four hour trips that the normal whale watching boats go out.  Therefore, we can travel to where the whales are and spend more time observing and photographing them, plus hopefully to see different pelagic bird species.

The day was bright and sunny until later afternoon when some clouds that come in.  The temperature on the ocean was in the 60s, without hardly any wind and the seas were smooth.  I met a lot of old friends and found some new friends.

Like last year, most of the whales were congregated off of Chatham Massachusetts.  The trip from Plymouth to the waters off of Chatham took around three hours, with stops to photograph a Parasitic Jaeger, Basking Shark and a large herd of gray seals swimming .

Parasitic Jaeger

Gray Seals

While will were traveling, I was able to help some new photographers with understanding the camera and the exposure triangle, plus the histogram to help them obtain decent photographs on this trip.

Arriving off the coast of Chatham, we did find whales, at least 33 named humpback whales, four new calfs and the Great Dame Of Stellwagon Bank "SALT".  Salt was the first humpback whale named back in 1975 by Capt. Al Aveller, who was the pioneer of whale watching in New England.  Salt has given birth to at least 13 calves, including one this year, plus she is a grandmother, and probably a great grandmother.  This makes the 39th year of Salt's appearance to the coast of New England.

Salt the Grand Am of Stellwagon Bank

Humpback whale head and blow

The power of a humpback whale

Humpback whale feeding with gulls coming in to catch any fish on the surface

Group feeding of humpback whales

One of the more interesting findings was the low number of pelagic birds.  Although we did see all four species of shearwaters, including over 170 sooty shearwaters, we only identified one great shearwater.  Usually great shearwaters are in the abundance around our area.  The reason for the lack of numbers pelagic birds could be food (although there were a lot of sand lances around which would be in fed on by the whales, dolphins, the gulls and bluefish) changes in the climate and the water.  We may have to wait for next year to see what the trend is.

Speaking of gulls, a glaucous gull showed up in the large group of gulls and was immediately identified because of its brilliant white color.

Glaucous Gull

As we were making our way back to Plymouth, we ran across a pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins, who size was estimated at around 200 and traveling with them was the second largest baleen whale the fin whale.

Atlantic White-Sided Dolphin and Fin Whale

Atlantic White-Sided Dolphin

As we are approaching Provincetown and Races Point, we sighted another basking shark.  Basking sharks spend a lot of time on the surface, where they eat zooplankton , small fish, and invertebrates.  Because of our time that they spend on the surface, their dorsal fin is sighted by people who think that they may be a great white shark.  Basking sharks are the second largest fish in the world, next to the whales shark.

Basking Shark Fin

The next trip will be September 7, 2014 and you can find out more information at http://www.necwa.org/trips.html

Pictures of the Month.

This month, I decided to choose my pictures early in the month instead of waiting to almost the end of the month to pick them.

July, 2012 photo is of an Osprey hovering over us as the crew from Allens Pond were banding the chicks.

June, 2013 photo was a hard pick.  Either it was of the piping plover chicks or the humpback whales.  I  chose the humpback whale looking down its throat.  Of all the years that I've been photographing whales, this is the first one, looking down its throat.

Older Interesting Photographs

I have been slowly reviewing pictures that I took earlier in my career and what I have seen is how vastly that I have improved.  I was taking pictures with a high ISO of around 1600 in bright sun and a very high shutter speed.  As I been reprocessing these pictures, I had to removed a lot of noise.  Here is just a selection of some of my older interesting pictures.

Green Heron at Daniel Webster Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuary

"Who Is Watching Who" a whale watching trip Out to Stellwagon Bank and they humpback whale right next to the boat

Black-billed Magpie In Rocky Mount National Park

California Condor along the Big Sur

Cook's Chasm on the Oregon coast, where, when the tide comes in the waves, spray through a blowhole

Least Auklet on St. Paul, in the Pribilof's Located in the Bering Sea

Light-footed Clapper Rail, and endangered species located in the Tijuana Estuar y near San Diego, California

Mola Mola or Ocean Sunfish

Mute Swan and Cygnet

Whimbril in flight South Beach Chatham Massachusetts