4:30pm. Weather: bright, sunny, warm.
After a drive up the Cape, via a stop-off for lunch at Nauset Light Beach, Kim & I checked into the hotel & were soon out for a walk in P'town. Whale watching was one big thing I wanted to do so we investigated on the dock & found that the last trip of the day was due to disembark. We decided to get on board after popping back to the hotel to don some warmed clothes & to pick up optical equipment. Then we were off on what proved to be a fantastic voyage, an undoubted highlight of the holiday.
Dockside:
Falcon sp. - not sure what it was, smaller than a peregrine but was too quickly through for identification.
Common Grackle, Eider, Herring Gull, Great Black-Backed Gull, Ring-Billed Gull, Laughing Gull, Double-Crested Cormorant.
Pelagic:
Common Tern - large numbers diving into the water off-shore of Race Point beach.
Great Shearwater - the first obvious shearwater, first a few individuals then larger groups. Fairly easy to identify from its size & markings - my first shearwater.
Sooty Shearwater - also easy to identify, completely dark. In good numbers but not as numerous as the great shearwaters, though it mixed freely with them.
Red-Necked Phalarope - I spotted a raft of waders & immediately knew they were phalaropes, quickly identified as red-necked. The boat approached quite close before they took flight, but then settled quickly on the waves again. Another fantastic life tick.
Humpback Whale - I was a little skeptical about whether we'd see any whales & if we did how close we'd get but I was proved completely wrong because we saw whales almost as soon as we hit open water, though we were actually still close to the shore. Then the boat was also able to get within a few metres as the magnificent creatures gracefull crested the waves as they swam & then showed the rapt audience on the boat their flukes as they dove beneath the waves. We were even lucky enough to accompany a mother & her calf for a few minutes. An amazing experience.
Minke Whale - pointed out by out guide, I saw it's crescent dorsal fin as it swam rapidly away.
Harbour Seal - heading back as the sun set over a swarm of dogfish, a couple of heads poked above the waves.
11 species, 3 new.
No comments:
Post a Comment