[CINC] Condor Express 6/14/09

[Toni Bailey]

Greetings Everyone!

 

Onboard the Condor Express today was Captain Fred, Dennis and Jacque.   Also
fellow naturalist Carol Celic and Kevin Bailey on Photo ID.  We also had
approximately 50 very happy passengers!

 

Today was heaven for whale watchers.   There was so much going on that I may
have lost count, so here is my estimate:

 

22 Blues

9 Humpbacks

2 groups of several hundred common dolphins

2 smaller groups of common dolphins

A plethora of Sea Lions

2 Harbor Seals

 

For the Birds:

Black Skimmers

Royal Terns

Sooty Shearwaters

Western Gulls

Black Oystercatchers

A ton of Pigeon Guillemots

 

Did I miss anything?

 

Today was a beautiful, sunny day on the channel.  About mid channel, we came
across the first group of over 500 common dolphins.  This was a very active
pod with many calf & mom pairs.  This started out the day just right and the
passengers were very happy.  We headed towards the gap between Santa Rosa
and Santa Cruz and immediately encountered two pairs of Blue Whales.  These
blue whales came to the surface a few times and immediately made deep dives.
Captain Fred announced that he saw more activity up ahead and we left the
two elusive pairs of Blues.   Almost immediately, we came across several
humpback whales.  These whales came close to the boat and gave us all a
strong whiff of their stinky whale breath.  (Do Whales have Certs?)  These
humpies stayed near the boat for awhile, but Captain Fred was ready to check
out more blows that he saw ahead.   We travelled west for a short distance
and came across more Blue Whales than we could accurately count.  There were
at least 18 whales near the boat, surfacing all around the boat.   There
were many more blows in the distance, but we could not count them all.
These whales gave us a treat with several tail flukes and very nice views of
their blow holes up close.  During this encounter with the Blues, several
Humpback whales also showed up.  Blues & Humpies together?    I wasn't sure
how to write the sighting report.   We stayed around these whales for awhile
and then it was time to head over to the Santa Cruz Island portion of the
trip.  On the way to the Island, we encountered four more humpback whales.
These humpbacks surfaced near the boat and showed off some nice tail flukes.

 

The cruise along Santa Cruz was beautiful with lots of juvenile sea lions
along the side of the island and a variety of sea birds flying around.   In
one cove, there were two harbor seals hanging around.   The view of painted
cave was spectacular!

 

On the way back home we saw breaching humpbacks in the distance, but could
not catch up with them.  Once we turned back towards home, we came across
another large group of common dolphins.  These dolphins put on a show for us
with some spectacular leaps and a lot of mating behavior.   Later we
encountered a smaller group of common dolphins who were travelling at a high
rate of speed.

 

This was a great day and all passengers were very happy and grateful to be
aboard the CX today!

 

Thank you!

 

Toni Bailey

 

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