More Watching Whales and Seabirds

 

Long Point Light and Provincetown Harbor, with Pilgrim's Monument

5-11 September 2017

After dropping daughter Cary off at college in Maine, I dropped my wife, Carol, at Boston’s Logan Airport early on a Tuesday morning (through horrific morning rush-hour traffic). Carol had to head back to work in DC, whereas I was headed out on another natural history field trip.

 blowing Humpback Whale

In September 2016 I had experienced a single very memorable whale-watch boat trip from Provincetown, and I wanted to see more cetaceans and seabirds in the waters of Stellwagen Bank just north of Race Point Beach, at the very top of Cape Cod.

diving Humpback Whale showing tail fluke

The drive from Logan to P’town took a bit over three hours, what with stops for breakfast and shopping for a week’s food in Plymouth. I would be tenting at the Dune’s Edge campground just a short bike-ride from downtown P’town, and I planned to do nine boat trips over six days. I had set this all up with the Dolphin Fleet Whale Watch, whose several vessels are moored in the glorious Provincetown harbor.

feeding frenzy on Race Point Beach

I set up my tent and a big tarp covering my picnic table in the low piney woods of Dune’s Edge, owned by the Trustees of Reservations, a nonprofit that purchases and preserves special places across the commonwealth of Massachusetts. Dune’s Edge lay adjacent to Cape Cod National Seashore. From my campsite, I could bike north to Race Point Beach or in a few short minutes be locking my bicycle at the pier down in P’town harbor. This was the perfect campsite for my program.

gulls and Great Shearwaters feeding on tiny Menhaden on shoreline of Race Point Beach

My first morning I visited Race Point Beach at dawn. What I found was a shoreline feeding frenzy of several thousand Great Shearwaters, foraging on the shoals of bunker (tiny Menhaden fry).

Great Shearwaters on shoreline chowing down on "bunker" -- young Menhaden

The Great Shearwaters were in large feeding flocks with various gull species as well as Gray Seals. I had never seen shearwaters on a beach, feeding in the swash zone of the low surf. This was indeed a surprise. Apparently they had been doing this since August.

Sooty Shearwater

Great Shearwaters dominated, but three other shearwaters were in the mix here as well: Cory’s, Sooty, and Manx Shearwaters. The gulls were mainly Great Black-backed and Herring, but also including Laughing, Ring-billed, and Bonaparte’s.

Cory's Shearwater

The Gray Seals cruised the shoreline, staying right in the wave zone. Apparently, they stick close to shore to avoid encounters with their blood enemy—the Great White Shark. Great Whites were now here in numbers, though seeing one is difficult. There are two iPhone apps that allowed me to see recent sightings as well as satellite-tagged individuals. When I first visited the Cape in the 1960s there were no Gray Seals and no Great Whites. How things have changed. Now some 50,000 Gray Seals inhabit the Cape—shark food!

Manx Shearwater

Each boat trip is three hours long and seeks to show the paying passengers at least one whale at close range. I had high expectations because of my experience in 2016—when our single trip encountered  dozens of foraging Humpbacked Whales in the fog. It so happened that 2016 was an exceptional year for foraging whales because of the presence of an abundance of prey species in the water. By contrast, 2017 was entirely different, with limited whale food and few whales and no whale concentrations. Lesson learned—each year is different. The ocean ecosystem is complicated and changing.

Feeding Humpback Whale

The featured whale whatever the year is the Humpback. Each boat trip depended on seeing at least one Humpback. All nine of my boat trips managed this.

white-patterned tail fluke of Humpback Whale

Getting close to a whale is pretty easy for these big fast boats, which can carry as many as 150 passengers. But there is can be a big difference between simply seeing a whale, versus seeing it do something cool. For Humpback, here is the list, from boring to very cool: (1) surface and blow, (2) show its fluke on a dive, (3) simple surface feeding, (4) group bubble-net feeding, and (5) breaching. In 2017 I saw 1-3, but none of 4-5, which was, of course, a disappointment. Here are some images of Humpbacks:

whale boat close encounter with a Humpback

Just like some people, some whales, based on what they have been eating, have very bad breath. If this whale “blows” next to the boat, the passengers will be treated to a truly foul stink that will fill the whole boat. Not nice, but interesting to note...Perhaps one reason baleen whales are not truly sociable creatures.  

Fin Whale

Fin Whales where in our waters along with the Humpbacks. Growing to 80 feet and more than a quarter million pounds, the Fin Whale is the second largest animal after the Blue Whale. Note that the Fin Whale is considerably larger than any of the known dinosaurs. Only problem is that Fin Whales, at least in these waters, do not do much. One see the creature surface, blow, show its small curving fin, and then dive back in the water without flipping its fluke. A bit boring, but still very large! I saw two Fin Whales, and had one remarkably close encounter, when the individual surfaced within a dozen yards of the boat. Most interesting thing about the Fin Whale is that it’s right side is white-patterned whereas its left side is all-dark.

Gray Seal at shoreline, lollygagging on its back...

The third species in the area is the Minke Whale. It is one of the smallest baleen whales, and tops out at about 30 feet. I saw Minkes twice, but never at close hand. They behave much like Fin Whales. Minke Whales are still harvested in the North Atlantic by the Norwegians, in spite of the general moratorium on whaling by the International Whaling Commission. There is also some ongoing “scientific whaling” of this species by other nations.

hen Common Eiders offshore

Remarkably, the small cetaceans, such as porpoises and dolphins, are quite uncommon in September—I saw a small pod only once.

Ocean Sunfish

The largest bony fish is the Ocean Sunfish, which can occasionally grow to 11 feet in length and weigh more than a two tons. We encounter three Ocean Sunfish and one allowed us to spend more than ten minutes in close quarters. This is truly the most bizarre of fish and one wonders how it survives and reproduces. It spends much of its live near the sea surface—these individuals must be at risk from motor boats in places like Cape Cod.

Loggerhead Sea Turtle

Loggerhead Turtle. In the late summer, Loggerhead turtles wander northward in the Atlantic, after nesting in Florida. We encountered a single small individual.

Is this the fin of a Basking Shark?

On my second boat trip I saw a fin projecting from the water. It was apparently a Basking Shark. More than 12 feet long, this big surface feeder came right up to the back of the boat, where I could sea its huge body just under the water. At first I thought it might be a Great White, but after some research determined it was a Basking Shark. Here is a poor image of the shark’s fin from a distance... When the shark came up the boat, I only had my long lens so could not shoot the creature at close range. Oh well...

Seabirds... The main reason I wanted to take these whale trips was a chance to see a lot of seabirds. There were tens of thousands of Great Shearwaters, but also other types of pelagic seabirds, as per below.

Great Shearwater

Sooty, Manx, and Cory’s Shearwaters were in the big mix with the Greats. Corey’s in the largest and Manx the smallest of this group.

Red-necked Phalarope

The least of the seabirds was the Red-necked Phalarope, a small sandpiper that breeds in the Arctic and winters in the ocean distant from the shore. I encounter 4-5 flocks of these starling-sized shorebirds. They never came close to the boat.

Wilson's Storm-Petrel

Another small seabird that I encountered daily in small numbers was the Wilson’s Storm-Petrel. This small black and white sea-lover skitters over the surface of the sea, with its feet often pattering on the water’s surface.

Parasitic Jaeger, immature plumage

I have a fascination with the predator jaegers—gull-like seabirds that chase terns to steal their food. Out here I encounter the Parasitic Jaeger, seeing it 4-5 times from the boats, and another ten times from Race Point Beach. These are wonderful flyers, and I am always thrilled when one swoops by at high speed. Seeing one chase down a tern is the biggest thrill of all....

Parasitic Jaeger adult chasing down a Common Tern

Terns were a disappointment on this trip. Many were in fall plumage and I did not see many at close range. The most exciting tern relative was Sabine’s Gull. On my first boat trip I encountered a single juvenile bird, but did not get to photograph it. I waited in vain for another of this rare pelagic gull. It was not to be.

Common Tern

 Sunset downtown P'town