On today’s whale watch aboard the Asteria, we headed to the SW corner of Stellwagen in search of whales. On the way out, we spotted many birds including common eiders, white-winged scoters, northern gannets, cory’s shearwaters, a manx shearwater, and even a great blue heron!

Canine's fluke among the feathered

When we arrived at the bank, we first found two scattered humpbacks – both of which were elusive and not fluking much, so we decided to head a little further east where we found the scattered blows of 4-5 other humpbacks, and also a fin whale.

Porky great shearwaters

Amongst the whales were TONS of great shearwaters today, many of which seemed pretty plump from a summer of good feeding. It was great to see these birds fluttering around the whales today! When we first approached, we found a foraging fin whale (do a behavior called “circling” – where the whale circles in an arc around its prey below the surface) and also humpback whale Canine subsurface feeding near the fin whale.

Canine

Canine is one of my favorite whales from my former whale watching time up in Bar Harbor – the 2004 calf of Siphon. I always enjoy seeing this whale when it passes through Stellwagen. Our intern Jessica also spotted a minke whale in the mix, making it a three species day!

Canine's right dorsal

We wrapped up the trip with some great looks of Canine, who began to bubble feeding right near our boat! It was a great end to this windy but enjoyable late October day on the water.

— Laura