Pelagic birding trip upstaged by whales

One humpback whale preparing to swim under the boat. ©Teresa Shumaker. 

I went on a beginners pelagic bird trip Sunday with the local Audubon Society. It was my first trip, and I am told it wasn't a good trip for birds, although I saw many species for the first time.

However, the pursuit of birds was quickly dropped when there was a sighting of the rare Blue Whale. So we headed out in the direction of the spouts in hopes of getting a little bit closer. Soon we were seeing humpback whales breeching to the left of the boat, blue whale spots to the right, another pod of humpbacks behind us and then a humpback whale beneath the bow of the boat. Then two. Then three!

One interesting behavior is they hovered just below the water, seemingly taking in the view of the boat and the passengers on it. ©Teresa Shumaker. 

As they surfaced and covered us in whale-spray, we scrambled around the boat to get a better glimpse of these magnificent creatures. Not that we needed to, with three humpbacks curious to check us out anywhere one stood they would eventually have an up close encounter with them.

As we were occupied marveling at the whales marveling at us, we almost missed two blue whales that were steadily approaching. They got as close as 50 yards (extremely close!!) and then a humpback got behind them in what looked like an attempt to chase them off. The theory was supported by the blue whales picking up speed and leaving us at a pretty quick pace.

But even at the quick pace, the time between the spout spraying into the air, then the back rolling into view ending with the tail slipping just under the surface and out of sight, was drastically longer than it takes a grey or humpback whale.
And for the largest animal on the planet, I guess it should.

It was so humbling to see the back of the gentle giant and I had to fight the urge to jump overboard into the 58 degree water so I could see the rest of the animal just beneath the surface.
Our guide and local biologist Ron LeValley said that was the best whale activity he has ever seen, and the boat captain, who also leads regular whale spotting tours, said he had never seen anything like it before, especially the three curious humpback whales that spent an hour and a half checking us out.

I was so close and didn't take my wide angle lens, at times I could only take pictures of a part of the whale. ©Teresa Shumaker.

Biologist Ron LeValley on the left and other passengers taking photos of the humpback sticking its rostrum out of the water. ©Teresa Shumaker.

Blue whale. ©Teresa Shumaker.

Rainbow in the whale spray. Humpback whale. ©Teresa Shumaker.

Humpback whale fin. ©Teresa Shumaker.

Humpback whale fin, again. ©Teresa Shumaker.

Goodbye. ©Teresa Shumaker.