[CINC] Condor 5/17/13

[Sophie Busch]

Great day today!  Nice weather and water, despite some windy forecasts.
Not too far out some lob tailing caught our eye and we visited *2 humbacks*-
"rope" with a large rope entanglement scar across its back, and a companion
also with a very distinctive propeller scar across its back.  But both
animals were fine and came over to say hello.  We had *4 or 5 Dall's
Porpoise* bow riding and escorting us a bit, and came upon about* 6 more
humpbacks* out by the west end of Santa Cruz.  They were a little ways off
and we saw some action so headed towards *2 more humpbacks*, a cow-calf
(young but not this year's) pair.  The calf just could NOT stop breaching,
rolling, pec slapping and came quite close, actually spraying us a bit with
his breach!  We had a smooth ride back and met up with *a few hundred
Common Dolphin* outside the harbor who were as playful as always.

The 18 passengers were happy, and so were Capt.s Dave and Scott.  Rob fired
up some mean quesadillas, while Rae and I "naturalist-ed" and Marilyn photo
ID-ed.  What more can you ask for?

Sophie Busch
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.rain.org/pipermail/channel_islands_naturalist_corps/attachments/20130517/663eea9a/attachment.html>