Field Notes 2011
|
|
||||||
Final 2011 Summary here. May 10, 2011 Summary Highlights of the past two weeks: Daily Summaries: April 26 - May 10, 2011 May 10: Two more cow/calf pairs today. May 9: Two more cow/calf pairs! May 9: Two more cow/calf pairs! May 8: One more cow/calf pair today! May 7: Three COW/CALF PAIRS TODAY! May 6: NINE COW/CALF PAIRS TODAY!! May 5: Three cow/calf pairs. May 4: One cow/calf pair. May 3: TWO COW/CALF PAIRS TODAY! May 2: No gray whales today. May 1: Two cow/calf pairs! April 30: SEVEN COW/COW PAIRS TODAY April 29: NINE COW/CALF PAIRS!! April 28: Three cow/calf pairs! April 27: Four cow/calf pairs! April 26: The wind caused large number of white caps which made viewing difficult. Our cow/calf pair showed well at first, then went stealth after three surfacings. April 26, 2011 Summary Highlights of the past two weeks: Daily Summaries: April 13- April 25, 2011 April 25: Three cow/calf pairs today! April 24: Six more cow/calf pairs today. April 23: Six cow/calf pairs today. April 22: Five cow/calf pairs again today! April 21: Five cow/calf pairs today! April 20: Two cow/calf pairs. April 19: April 18: Three cow/calf pairs today! April 17: Wow - four cow/calf pairs! April 16: No gray whales. April 15: One gray whale. April 14: April 13: April 13, 2011 Summary Highlights of the past two weeks: Daily Summaries: March 30 - April 12 April 12: We were busy tracking our first gray whale cow/calf pair when another whale BREACHED, toward our closest buoy marker. Shortly after this, our second cow/calf pair surfaced in front of us - very close to shore. We had a long dry spell between sightings: our first whale came before 7am, but we didn't see the next sighting until nearly 4pm. Our final whale appeared at 6pm, just as we were closing our up. April 11: Our cow/calf pair came EXTREMELY close to shore. Some bubble blasts surfaced; it looked liked both mom and calf blew the bubbles. Shortly after that, both rolled. Then the calf did lifted its head high out of the water, like a lunge/breach. We saw a few low profile whales today. A boat ran right over where we had seen one whale; we never saw it again. April 10: We saw two different cow/calf pairs; one calf was low profile, blowing more often than its mother. One very low profile gray whale left behind prints for us to track it. April 9: Our cow/calf pair fluked. We tracked a very low profile snorkler by its prints; it popped its head up once, and we saw some of its back. April 8: Both northbound gray whale sightings were nearshore juveniles. One whale encountered some southbound bottlenose dolphin; the dolphin swam around the whale, who lifted its head high and then rolled. A few sea lions joined them; then the dolphin and the whale separated and continued in their original travel directions. April 7: Despite high winds and numerous white caps, we saw 15 gray whales, All sightings were within a half mile offshore; some were right in front of us. A pair of whales milled in front of us for over an hour; they rolled and did a bubble blast. While were were watching them, a single juvenile whale swam through our area; it was the only whale that fluked today. April 6: One gray whale BREACHED; after the breach this pair rolled, with one whale raising its flukes in slow motion. We found another sighting when the whale SPYHOPPED; later that whale met up with bottlenose dolphin and sea lions, and the whale rolled as the dolphin jumped all around its head. Whales were very low profile in two sightings. April 5: We found one gray whale cow/calf pair. We spotted another whale when it SPYHOPPED right in front of us! Two bottlenose dolphin were swimming right around the whale's head; the whale rolled, and then the dolphins and whale separated and moved on. April 4: Five grays today. April 3: One gray whale BREACHED, about a half mile offshore. April 2: We saw one cow/calf pair. Two very large whales came quite close to shore. Another whale traveled so stealth that only prints and part of its rostrum were visible. A trio of gray whales fluked about two miles offshore. April 1: We saw one cow/calf pair. Most gray whales passed us a half mile offshore. Two sightings were low profile. We had trouble tracking one sighting due to haze; we could not tell if it was one or two whales. March 31: March 30: March 30 Summary Personal note: I saw a HUGE pod of 11-13 (possibly nore!) northbound gray whales during our ACS/LA all day Ultimate Whalewatch trip to Santa Catalina Island on Saturday, March 26! Incredible sight! Highlights of the past two weeks: Daily summaries: March 16-March 29 March 29: More mating gray whales today. The first two sightings joined up and were rolling around out near the PV buoy for over two hours. We saw rolling on two other sightings: one pair and one single. The single whale did a series of head lifts (angled lower than a spyhop). March 28: 19 grays today! March 27: 24 grays! March 26: One gray whale rolled onto its back and held its pectoral fin high in the air with its head facing north, then turned around with its head facing south (while still on its back). The whale also did a small lunge and fluked; Pacific white-sided dolphin interacted with this whale. Another whale started off very stealth; after it got past us, it started rolling, and a second whale appeared. March 25: This cold and and windy day created chop and whitecaps that made viewing difficult. Late afternoon whales: we saw six of the eleven gray whales after 5pm. March 24: BREACHING caught our eyes, helping us spot one gray whale long after it had passed in front of us; it breached three times. A sea lion leaped all around one pod of whales. March 23: Our viewing conditions varied widely: we started with clear skies and very flat seas, but later in the day it began to rain and we lost most of our visibility. We spotted both a southbound gray whale and a northbound cow/calf pair. One whale BREACHED within a half mile offshore. Whales in three of our ten sightings milled; one of these groups rolled. One milling pair logged on the surface. Whales on one sighting were so close that we heard them blow. March 22: Twenty-six grays today March 21: 64 NORTHBOUND GRAY WHALES TODAY! March 20: Weather conditions were VERY poor: high winds and heavy rain. Our only gray whale BREACHED near Whale Rock (just entering our viewing field). Then it milled, so we were able to observe it for over twenty minutes. March 19: A pair of gray whales rolled; one of them did something resembling a spyhop. Shortly afterward, we found a pod of three gray whales that came in very close — right in front of us — and engaged in similar behavior. We saw a very low profile whale. March 18: Although most of our gray whales came close to shore, some were low profile and hard to track. March 17: 16 gray whales! March 16: Three gray whales March
15 Summary Daily summaries: March 2-March 15 March 15: FOG! You have to see the ocean to
see whales; we had fog until about 2:30pm, and no whales all
day.
When we could
see some water, we spotted Pacific white-sided dolphin and many
common dolphin feeding. March 14: Our first gray whale showed up close to shore and then went low profile, sothat we had to track it by fluke prints. Our next gray whale showed much better; however, it turned out to be a thirteen-minute whale that moved long distances between surfacings. Our last whale was another low profile whale. March 13: Four of our seven gray whales passed about a mile and a half offshore, while the other three came within half a mile of shore. Three sightings were difficult to track (low profile). March 12: Our first gray whale BREACHED less
than a half mile offshore, and it fluked consistently. Our second
whale seemed to try to catch up with the first, with no success.
A pod of three whales fluked in unison. Our last two March 11: Our first pair of gray whales seemed to vanish after we saw them twice. The second pair came very close inshore and milled. They rolled and swam on their backs, and one whale did a slow motion dive with fully raised flukes. A small pod of common dolphin swam around them for a while. We were able to hear these whales as they stayed right in front of us for about thirty minutes. March 10: Our northbound gray whale was slow moving and came close to shore; it generally took nine breaths and fluked before its deep dive. We tracked it for an hour. While we were still watching the northbounder, we spotted a southbound gray whale which fluked and disappeared around Point Vicente. March 9: Whale spotting was tough today - hard
to keep track of so many sightings! Most of our gray whales were
3-6 miles offshore; many were in sight at the same time, scattered
throughout our viewing field and surfacing at different intervals.
A trio rolled around. Two sightings came in very close March 8: All eight gray whales came within a half mile of shore. We saw flukes on two of the five sightings. One whale was very low profile. Shortly after we spotted it, a helicopter circled the area - so we are not sure whether it was affected by the helicopter. Another gray whale might possibly have been entangled; it may have been dragging something behind it, but it did not look as if it was in distress. March 7: Very windy day today making finding and tracking whales extremely difficult. We only saw the southbound gray whale once, but were able to track the northbound whale for about twenty minutes. March 6: We saw our first northbound gray whale cow/calf pair! This is fairly early for a northbound calf; we see most of them in April and May. We watched them for over two hours. They milled right in front of us; at times the calf was riding on the mom. We even saw the calf's baleen! Although several other gray whales came close to shore, many were hard to track. One southbound whale came especially close to shore. March 5: Although sighting conditions were ideal - very calm seas and great visibility - we did not spot our solo gray whale until 5pm; it was well offshore, WAY out toward the horizon. Our spotting scopes allowed us to view its back and flukes. Pelicans and other feeding birds blanketed our nearshore waters throughout the day; continual splashes from diving pelicans mimicked whale blows. March 4: NO gray whales today. We saw thousands of common dolphin and a large nursery pod of bottlenose dolphin. March 3: All of our gray whales came within a half mile of shore. Our first three whales were very stealth. One of the northbound whales approached extremely close to shore. We found our last pod of four adult whales after five pm. They were very slow moving, but we were able to watch them (and sometimes hear them) for half an hour, because they were right below us most of the time. We tracked a pair of fin whales that were 3-4 miles offshore; one fluked consistently. We watched them for over 1.5 hours. March 2:Our first northbound gray whale was four miles offshore. The large second whale came close to shore, fluking on each longer dive. March
2 Summary: We
are below last season's northbound count, but not far below
our 10-year northbound average. Last season the northbounders
started early but never peaked, leaving us with a record
low count. This season the southbounders kept coming and the
northbounders started late; however, with reports of many grays
in Baja, I expect our counts to pick up soon, giving us a final
count higher than last season's. Daily
Summaries: February 28: We saw our only gray whale at 6:30 am today - just a print and a back. February
27: Gray whales in all of our sightings fluked. We watched
our first trio of three whales for over two hours. They approached
within a mile
and a half of shore. Another pod of six whales were just over a
mile away; several of these were quite large. At least three of
them fluked; one would throw its February 26: Lots of extremely cold wind and whitecaps made viewing quite difficult. Our southbound gray whale pair came within a mile of shore; one fluked. All three northbound sightings came between 4:30pm and 5 pm, raising our spirits on this challenging day. February 25: Our first northbound whale was difficult to see. Then we found a pair of stealthy southbound whales, that did fluke. We finished off with a pair of northbound whales. Most whales were a little less than a mile offshore. February 24: A pair of gray whales came inshore, right in front of us. They milled, accompanied by a pair of sea lions; one of the whales rolled, we heard their blows, and then we finally saw them fluke. We watched them for over an hour. We spotted a large pod of five gray whales at 5:50pm; they were about two miles offshore, and at least one of the whales fluked. February 23: Our first southbound gray whale was sighted at 6:15am. Our northbound whale came just before 8am, and fluked. We didn't see our last gray whale until after sunset. February 22: Our first gray whale was large, northbound, close enough to hear its blows, and fluked on nearly every deep dive. The second whale came very close to shore, and kept a low profile. We saw a pair of westbound fin whales about five miles offshore. February
21: Today was a day for breaches. Our first whale came
in to just above the fence and then breached twice and then did
a bubble blast. Great show! Later in the day we saw another whale
breach, but this one was over two miles away. We watched that whale
for almost two hours. The sun had set when it finally made it to
transect and then as we were getting ready to February 20: Our first pair of gray whales rolled around together; one stuck out part of its rostrum while on its back. A few common dolphin swam with these whales. Our next pair of gray whales rolled a lot more; one whale threw its fluke high up in the air. They went behind the nearby cliff and then milled back out into our viewing area. Our last whale - a northbounder - kept swimming in circles as it passed close by Whale Rock. We saw fin whales several times; once one was about a half mile offshore. February 19: We had another challenging day for viewing whales; lots of wind and some rain. Our first gray whale headed southbound, fluking on every dive. We did not see any other whales until almost 5pm. We were scanning and found two unidentified whales moving back and forth in one area, about five miles offshore. While we were watching them a gray whale showed up in our binoculars about two miles offshore. As we were watching that whale we found a pod of three gray whales further offshore and a fin whale just beyond them; their backlit blows really stood out. The gray whales fluked. February 18: Increasing wind and rain made viewing difficult. Our first gray whale was southbound; it came within a half mile of shore. Our second gray whale came by in very rough seas. We tracked a fin whale that was a mile and a half offshore. February
17: Our first pair of gray whales came nearchore and fluked.
A pair of northbound whales took their time - milling and logging
- closely followed February 16: When our trio of southbound gray whales passed our transect they split into three singles and came close to shore; one milled for a bit. Our northbound whale was nearly a mile offshore when we found it, and continued to move further offshore. We saw tall blows offshore that were probably produced by fin whales. February
15: As
of February 15, the ACS/LA Gray Whale Census and Behavior
Project trained volunteer spotters at Point Vicente have
counted Highights of
the past two weeks: breaching gray whales, milling and
rolling grays that might have been courting, a calf lifting
its head out of the water many times and resting on its mom's
back, sea lions and bottlenose dolphin seming to play with the
gray whales, and two gray whales that dove for 23 minutes - extremely
long dives for grays! February 14: Lots of excitement today! About 1/2 mile offshore, a dozen bottlenose dolphin accompanied one gray whale, leaping around and over the whale as it rolled and swam on its side for a while. One pair of whales milled and rolled for two hours before they began moving on again; we watched them swim in circles and roll for three hours. Many sea lions traveled with one sighting, and we heard blows on two of our sightings. Our last gray whale breached three times, although it was over five miles offshore - difficult to see! February 13: Our first gray whale was very stealth; we tracked it by its prints. Next was a northbound whale that came very close to shore. Our third sighting came while we were still watching the northbound whale; we tracked it for nearly an hour. February 12: Great day for southbound grays! First we saw five whales: three adults, one calf, and one juvenile. They milled in circles and fluked sideways, coming so close that we heard their blows. Another whale was low profile until it passed us. We found one pair just before they went beyond our viewing area. February 11: Our first gray whale was very near shore - headed north. Then we saw a pair of southbound gray whales. A whale watch boat spotted our last gray whale, which was a low profile snorkler. February 10: Both gray whales milled in front of us; at one point they were dove for 23 minutes (VERY long dives for gray whales). February
9: A sea lion joined our first two whales when they were
right down in front of us. One of the whales turned over and
was swimming on its back as the sea lion jumped all around them.
Our second sighting was right
down in front of us before we found it; we had been distracted
by three fin whales that were splashing and lunge feeding. Our last two sightings
were very interesting. One was a very low profile whale that we saw only
a weak blow and a little of its head; we found it by its print. The second
one we found over whale rock and it was headed north when we first found it.
Then the two of them met at the transect, swam in a circle and then both
headed February 8: Our gray whale showed just twice: first a blow and back, and later a blow and lots of prints to track. February 7: Our first two gray whales came within a half mile of shore; one rolled as it fluked. While watching some dolphin in a spotting scope, we found our third gray whale in the haze; we saw blows, back and flukes. Thirty minutes later we finally re-spotted this whale and saw it blow once and disappear. February 6: Our large gray whale cow had strong blows and emitted a bubble blast. Her calf rode on her pectoral fin a few times; the calf raised its head out of the water. A single small gray whale joined the cow and calf. Another pair of gray whales kept a low profile; one whale dragged its flukes on the surface of the water. A different pair rolled, showing sides of flukes. The pod of three northbound gray whales included a smaller whale leading two large whales. February 5:Our pair of southbound gray whales came together and rolled around, showing pectoral fins and half flukes. They appeared to be spooked by several boats that were came very close to them. February 4: Our small northbound gray whale passed very close to shore; we only saw it twice before it disappeared. (There was a report of some other southbound gray whales, but we never found them). February
3: The gray whale cow/calf pair milled about a half mile
offshore; the calf lifted its head high out of the water many
times. The calf appeared to be on its mom's back as she raised
it out of the water. A sea lion jumped February 2: We only saw five whales today, but we watched three of the whales for over two and a half hours. One whale ended up going into the kelp and milling there for a long time. It was a juvenile that frequently fluked. While we were tracking that gray whale a pair showed up and we watched them for two hours. They were still swimming in circles and logging on the surface; and were still not to the transect when we left them after sunset. It was late in the day and you could see a rainbow when they blew (rainblows). February 1: Five gray whales passed us around noon, about a mile offshore: a pair, and a trio (which rolled and frequently fluked). Our gray whale calf was very small. February 1: As we start the Journey North season, Director Alisa Schulman-Janiger reminds us: "We should continue to see mostly southbound gray whales until mid-February." Here's a summary from Dec. 1 to January 31 at the Gray Whale Census and Behavior Project:
|
|
||||||
