<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Hi Naturalists<div><br></div><div>Sightings:</div><div>Whales:</div><div> one Humpback</div><div> 2 Blue</div><div><br></div><div>Others:</div><div> Common dolphins (one large, one small pod)</div><div> Sea lions</div><div> Harbor seal</div><div> Birds galore</div><div><br></div><div>We left a calm/sunny harbor with Captain Dave and crew at the helm. Thirty passengers, some from Germany, Turkey, Holland Colorado, Goleta, fellow naturalist Tara Brown, photo ID? and myself. We encountered the Humpback 25 minutes later, as we were headed for SCI. An adult female, according to Dave. She seemed to be enjoying the sun, spending quite a bit of time on the surface. She was about 50 feet from the boat, we could hear her exhalation, and everyone was delighted, taking pictures, especially when she dove, showing-off her lovely fluke (3 times), we watched her for almost half hour. At 11:15, NW of SCI, we came upon a feeding frenzy of Common Dolphins, sea lions, and birds galore. The largest flock of pelicans I had ever seen. There were many Western and Heermann's Gulls. There was also a large flock of small, black birds, similar to Black Oystercatchers but without the orange beak. We encountered o larger pod of Commons as we continued our search for Blue whales. At 11:45 we spotted our first one. We enjoyed her company for a few minutes until it dove, delighting us with its beautiful, massive fluke. This whale resurfaced 15 minutes later, stayed on the surface of the water for 9 minutes, and dove again, showing its fluke again. We left and headed towards SCI. We did not go far, again, another Blue whale entertained us for a few minutes until it dove, fluke and all. </div><div><br></div><div>Finally, Captain Dave took the happy passengers along SCI to Painted Cave, where the excitement continued. The water was teeming with what Tara said may be anchovies. As we were leaving, we saw a pelican close by, feasting on this food source. What a perfect Monday it turned out to be out in our beautiful SB channel.</div><div><br></div><div><div apple-content-edited="true"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>Maria G. Ornelas</div><div><a href="mailto:maria@rasnowpeak.com">maria@rasnowpeak.com</a></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#00117B" face="Courier New" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; "> \ / \ /</span></font><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#00117B" face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; "> </span></font><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#00117B" face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; "><br style="color: rgb(0, 17, 123); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; "></span></font><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#00117B" face="Courier New" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; ">´¯'·.¸¸..><((((º>.·´¯'·.¸¸.·´¯'·.¸><((({º>¸.·´¯'·.¸. ,.</span></font><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#00117B" face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; "> </span></font><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#00117B" face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; "><br style="color: rgb(0, 17, 123); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; "></span></font><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#00117B" face="Courier New" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; "> / \ / \</span></font></p><div><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></div></div><div><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></div></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"> </div><br></div></body></html>