More Whale

And here are more photos of Glowstick, the incredible Humpback whale on our last Thursday's Granite State Whale Watch trip out of Rye, NH to Jeffrey's Ledge area of the ocean. Glowstick is a young whale, first seen in 1997. They're not sure if it's a male or female. If a whale shows up with a calf, that's how they tell it's a female. Just about all the Humpack whales are named and kept track of. In the above photo Glowstick is doing another spinning breach. Note the tiny dot in the water to the left of the whale, most likely a Wilson's Storm Petrel. What a size comparison!

Here's flipper slapping.

Here's what they called Chin breaching.

And going backwards.

And double fipper slapping.

And again on its back.

And Glowstick did lots and lots of tail-lobbing. Like the guide said, it did just about every rare behavior known to Humpacks. They were not sure exactly why this whale was doing all of this, whether related to feeding, or digestion, or just teenage showing off. We were just spellbound and thrilled. While this was going on I said the heck with looking for seabirds, this is tooo good. I did, however, get great seabirds photos which I'll post tomorrow.
My favorite quote from the whale watch was from a little boy with Harry Potter-like glasses who exited the boat and said, "That was the best Humback whale in the history of whales!"

Here's the boat.

And here's us. Best of all, it was our wedding anniversary!! What a way to celebrate.

If you want to learn more about and help whales go to the Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation website.