Week 2 with a full group from England is in the books. There is much to report, with the backdrop to all the wonders being that the water here is greener than usual, and the plankton content is far less visible to the naked eye than in our normal season. All this means some whales everyday, but less than usual, although both dolphin and bird numbers seem up.
We visited 2 gorgeous beaches, saw at least 3 enormous pods of dolphins, watched dolphins leap high into the air, watched hummingbirds feeding in wet desert canyons, saw gray whale breach above the sea and had a thrilling group snorkel with throngs of sea lions. And we saw blue whales, including the same mother and calf from last week. We had a few very close thrilling looks at easy going huge blue whales, and had one mysterious and unique encounter where a blue whale popped it’s head out of the sea and then proceeded to swim backwards for 15-20 meters while lifting it’s tail up in the air! This offered us a rare view of the top or dorsal side of it’s tail fluke. We saw no humpback whales all week but did see our first bryde’s whale of the year. We marveled at seaside osprey nests, one of which had been taken over by a pair of ravens. Montserrat Island dazzled us all this week as the images below will reflect!
Whale ID numbers are low for the first 2 weeks, and we now have 8 different blue whales identified, plus 5 humpbacks. Most of the blue whales that are in the area are staying here which is good news, but the turnover of new whales coming and the ones hear leaving is not happening at a rate we are accustomed to.
Stay tuned for our blog next week where we will begin to see whether the seas will become more productive and the whale numbers rise, which is a distinct possibility we hope comes to pass.
Michael Fishbach
