Wednesday July 11, 2018

2 Species of Whale and 5 species of Pelagic Birds!

2018 is starting out right where we left off in 2017, with 100% success in finding whales! A beautiful, yet cool and windy, with a large swell from a distant offshore storm, gave us a day with good visibility and really ‘tricky’ whales.  We had reports of whales to the east off Block Island, too far for us to do anything but drive out, look for 30 minutes, and drive back.  On our way to Sunday’s whales grounds, we got a report of several whales south of Block Island, only about 7 miles from where we were on Sunday.  Off we went.  Our first two whales were “stinky” Minkes, with just a few of us seeing the whales and their dive times were very long.  Luckily we saw two whales about 1.5 miles ahead of us, on with characteristic massive Fin back whale blow, the other was less prominent.  We found a large Fin whale and a Minke feeding in this area several miles south of the deep water wind farm.  The whales, pelagic birds, and coastal birds were feeding on large quantities of prey about 5 feet down.  The whale down times were long, but we did manage to get good photos of the Fin Whale.

Totals:
3 Minke Whale
1 Finback Whale
65 Wilson’s Storm-Petrels
60 Cory’s Shearwaters
Several Scopoli’s Shearwaters
30 Great Shearwaters
4 Soot Shearwaters
1 Manx Shearwater