Today was a clear sunny day so i decided to go up to the bird banding station in the morning and then out whale watching in the afternoon with my husband. At the banding station it was slow but it was good to catch up with everyone before they leave. Tomorrow is the last day they are banding at Northern Light. I then went to the 1:30 boat and by the bouys i sighted the first spout of the day. As we got closer we could see it was Sunburst although the tail didn't come up to ID it at first we looked at the white around the dorsal area. Then finally before we left we got a glimpse of the tail and we were indeed correct. As we steamed down below and off Western Light about 4 miles we got to another humpback who we later found out was Jigger. He joined up with 4 other humpbacks that were in a group. The four were foggy, crystal, magpie, and patchwork. Also two more spouts further out was sighted and a Breach way off on the horizon! We got some great close approaches from these whales especially patchwork and Magpie. Patchwork was tail lobbing and we had one humpback go under the boat blowing bubbles! We got some great shots and everyone had a fabulous time. Out time soon ended and we had to go in so we went around Gull Rock. I always love going around this way because you get a chance to see all the rock formations and ledges where harbor and grey seal haul out to sun bath at low tide. You also get a great view of greenhead a 120 ft rock formation. Peter's Island you can see and i sighted 3 Great Blue Heron on the beach. Lots of harbor porpoises delighted us today along with a few seabirds. We sighted a hummingbird buzzing by, Red and Red-necked phalaropes, Lots of Gannets, Greater and Sooty Shearwaters and a Bald Eagle close to Olivers cove. All in all we had a fantastic day on the water.
