[CINC] condor x 8/13

[garydel at aol.com]

For August 13, the Condor was chartered by the American Cetacean Society for an  8 hour whale watch. Even though a civilian for this trip, naturalist habits stay in tact it seems, so I am writing this report.  I was pleased that fellow CINCer Laura Shelton, was also there for what turned out to be a real fine day! Here’s the scoop …
Coastal Bottlenose …………………..................……… about 12 
Small Mola Molas ........................................................... about 20
Constant Commons, one monster pod ..........................  3000
Rissos .............................................................................  30
Humps ............................................................................. 25 (conservatively, with distant spouts and flukes)
Blues ................................................................................  8 (ditto... more in the distance)
Egg yolk jelly (scrambled) ............................................... "scrambled" because it wasn't as yellow as others
Weather/conditions..........................................................  total cloud cover all day; light wind and swell.
Sea lions .........................................................................  with the whales and on their own always

My crude chronology of the day shows that for most of the time we were seeing humps and commons. Blues, very mature ones, "popped up", were spotted in the distance and pursued. Hump pods split up and reconvened, and there were some familiar individuals. 
Behavior included several close passes, lots of flukes and one peck slap. Maybe some subsurface feeding by the Blues.
These ACS trips are very informative. I am awful remembering names, but the whale researcher on board (Elise?) was just fantastic ! I learned lots! Also the bird guy helped everyone spot and appreciate the birds you just don't see every day... Sabine's gull, pink footed shearwaters, northern fulmars, white faced fulmar, ashy storm petrels... for example.
Check out Bob Perry's pictures and of course... great to be on board with Cpt. Mat, Dennis, Matt... Thank You!

Gary Delanoeye
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