Today on the noon whale watch we headed out to the southwest corner. It was beautiful clear visibility but windy with some white caps. As we got down to the area where we’ve been seeing whales there wasn’t any evidence of animals, which as a naturalist always makes me a little nervous.

Cajun and Glo-Stick's frisky calf

But the more we looked, the more groups of blows we started to see. We noticed a splash that looked like some kick feeding and went to investigate. It was a group that we’ve been a lot lately: Cajun, Jabiru, Glo-stick and calf. The three adults weren’t doing any surface feeding but they would go down for long dives when they were probably searching for fish or feeding below the surface.



The calf however, left at the surface, was in a very playful mood. We got numerous breaches very close to the boat and would spin just below the surface slapping its pectoral fins on the water every time. The calf breached so often that it actually almost breached on top of Jabiru as he was going down for a dive!

Talk about front row seats!

There were a number of other feeding groups in the area and we got to get a few quick looks at these animals as we left. We got to see Measles and Yoo-hoo doing some bubble feeding, another group that’s been together for some time. We also caught looks at Tornado kick feeding with her calf nearby and had ort last group with Grackle and an unknown whale. We passed many more feeding groups that we never got a chance to look at. If only we had all the time to see every whale!

It was a wonderful day on the water with lots of different whales and great time spent with a curious, playful calf. I think this one is going to be a future Stellwagen favorite!

— Tegan