[CINC] Condor Sat. May 21, 2011

[Kevin Bailey]

Today’s trip was an 8 hour ACS trip billed as a Humpback Adventure – and
that is was!

 

Today’s naturalists were Alisa Shulman-Janiger (the Orca expert) who did a
lot of the narration and Wes Fritz (the bird expert) who pointed out the
birds. No working CINCers on board today. It was more of a whale day than a
bird day but saw good birds were seen.

 

We left harbor at 8am and immediately saw about 8-10 bottlenose dolphins

About a ½ hour out the whale adventure started with a pair of Humpbacks that
we stayed with a while. 

 

A breach was seen in the distance and we headed that way to find 2 more
Humpbacks that we enjoyed with other spouts in the area.

One of these jumped completely out of the water less than 50 feet from the
bow.

 

Then we saw larger spouts and headed over to the Blue Whales where we saw 1,
then 3 and at least 2 more in distance (6 total Blues). We watched these big
boys for a while and everyone got great looks and photos.

 

The weather was spectacular - sunny, no wind, no spitty sea spray, no waves
over the boat, calm seas all day – one of the best days in a long time (for
me at least).

 

While looking for more whale action we came upon a large Mola Mola that we
watched for a bit before moving on.

 

Then we headed over the SCI and cruised along the shore and saw a zillion
sea lions on every rock – they were everywhere including many in the water
thermoregulating the mid 50’s degree water. I think it was the most sea
lions I have seen on this side if the island in a long time. I guess they
wanted to go rock climbing today instead of hauling out on nearby beaches.
After looking into the cave we cruised east along the island some more and
slowly turned toward home. 

 

About 2+ miles out we saw a huge breach and raced over to check out the
action!

The best was yet to come. When we got there we saw lots of action with tail
slapping, tail throws, water flying everywhere. We watched this show for
quite a while and then the grand finale was less than 50 yards away with
huge breach from an adult, then a juvenile, then an adult again. It was like
the adults were teaching the young one how to show off to the tour boats!
Then after 15+ minutes of nothing we left toward home. It was like the last
curtain call. The performance was over and they swam away not to be seen
again.

 

Some of bird species seen in addition to the usual gulls, pelicans and
cormorants were:

Sooty Shearwater

Ancient Murrelet

Common Murre

Pink- footed Shearwater

Red- necked Phalarope

Pigeon Guillemot

Rhinoceros Auklet

Cassin’s Auklet

a lost Wilson’s Warbler looking for a place to land but never landed on the
boat

 

Amazing Day with Awesome weather and Incredible Wildlife! 

 

Until next time,

 

Kevin

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