Wed Sept 11- Whale Watching- Starship

Another trifecta trip (humpback whales, minke whales, and Tamanend’s bottlenose dolphins!

On this somber day, in the back of our minds were the friends, schoolmates, neighbors, first responders, and the endless  work of volunteers clearing those hallowed grounds at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and Shanksville PA. On this day, as a way of thinking about the inter-relatedness of all life on this planet, we went out to look for whales and dolphins. We found them, as we have done now on 110 consecutive trips since July 14, 2020.  A beautiful, flat calm trip with unlimited visibility made the long trip sell worth it. We found humpback whales that breached (briefly), chin-slapped, lob-tailed, flipper slapped, and logged (slept). We had triads and tetrads of humpback whales come over to watch us watching them.  For the most part, the humpback  whales were busy feeding , and a few came to the surface with mouths open, and were filtering, dragging, and snaking. The mink whales stayed on the periphery, but often we found them in every  direction

12-15 humpback whales

7-10 minke whales

30 Tamanend’s bottlenose dolphins

2 Great shearwater

5 Cory’s  shearwater

1 Manx shearwater

1 yellow-rumped warbler that landed on a person’s shoulder, stayed around and hung out until we got closer to land

Come out with us soon!!!!!