[CINC] Condor X 8/17

[in]

Just the facts...

2 Humpbacks
4 or 5 Minkes
700 Common Dolphins
Gazillion sooty shearwaters
About 80 guests
Too many friendly pelicans

So many things were wonderfully odd out there today! First, can you believe friendly Minkes? One paced the Condor just yards away for several breathing cycles. The other Minkes, later on, were part of the bird-dolphin-sea lion-whale buffet and at a distance. The next pleasant oddity was several pelicans that alighted on the boat to preen and unfortunately, to poop. I have never seen this before... I mean the alighting on the boat thing... the other pelican behaviors mentioned are quite familiar! Next... all those sooty shearwaters... thousands I suspect and sharing their space and the food with some (Caspian?) terns, cormorants and gulls. Really, more shearwaters than I have seen before!

On to the Humpbacks.... two spotted, but one disappeared immediately. The other one, familiar to Capt. Mat, allowed the Condor to pace it for quite a while. On several occasions, this whale lunge fed, sort of, but really skimmed the surface with its mouth open showing off its fine baleen. This whale provided nice fluke shots and had really short down times; a good whale.

Now the conditions... flat, gray and still. About the people... lots of folks from across the pond today; at least 3 groups from the UK, with others from Spain and France. Also, the rarest of visitors... locals!

Captains Mat and Dave on board and Tasha too serving up great lunches. Anna Hilliard and Brian Resnick as naturalist with yours truly doing PID. And.... I took only 2 photos, but one, I thought, was a good one... maybe even useful for ID purposes!!

Gary Delanoeye


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