Seward, Alaska
It’s always a treat to hear humpback
whales breathe, see the explosive misty plume, watch
them majestically cruise along, then wave their powerful before sounding.
Today, I watched what appeared to be a
mom and a juvenile do all of the above from shore. White clouds of kittiwakes
and other gulls shrieked above them, diving on the bait ball below. Suddenly,
the show escalated into a first class act as the mom opened her monstrous
jaws and lunged through the water, scooping up a bazillion gallons of water and
fish. Her throat pleats bulged with the volume before she slammed her narrow
upper jaw shut, letting the water stream out through the baleen strainers. The
gulls went nuts with all this action, diving frantically to snatch escaping
fish. The juvie did the same nearby, but did not surge as far out of the
water like mom.
The two whales repeated this action
again and again, moving slowly up the bay, followed by the white feathered
cloud, until at last I had to leave.
Watch for this pair feeding in the
bay, following the shoreline from one side of the bay to the other, even
along the First Mile of the Iditarod National Historic Trail (aka Bike
Path.) The frenzied cloud of gulls is a great way to find hungry whales below.
Check out this link to a newly
discovered feeding behavior called “trap-feeding.” https://mersociety.wordpress.com/2017/06/17/trap-feeding-a-new-humpback-feeding-behaviour/
Happy Whale Watching!
Carol Griswold
Seward Sporadic
Bird Report Reporter
Very cool pics!
ReplyDelete