After yesterday's Long-finned Pilot Whales off East Lothian, I thought I would post some pictures of the biggest animal that I have seen to date - an incredibly impressive Fin Whale seen at near touching distance on a whale watching trip from P-town, Cape Cod. This animal literally brought tears to my eyes such was the excitement of this unexpected close encounter. One of those real highlight moments that occur occasionally in many years of wildlife watching.
The first twitch I have been on this autumn was for mammals rather than birds. The remnants of the pod of Pilot Whales that had made the news recently by beaching in Fife last weekend had spent the week in the Forth - swimming so far West that it seemed likely that none of the group would survive. Luckily they had turned East and managed to get out past the bridges again.
This morning news broke that they were off Cockenzie harbour, so with little delay mum and I headed down to find several others already watching them. We enjoyed prolonged distant views, and managed to count at least 15, although apparently there are 20 in the group. Clearly a variety of different sizes in the pod, it was not clear whether the animals were feeding but at one point they appeared to be circling a buoy for a while. Not a new species for me after seeing a large group off Porthgwara in Cornwall about 20 years ago, this is the first time I have seen them and known what I was looking at at the time...
The round head and very low blow are visible on the animal on the right. The dorsal fins show quite a lot of variation, some clearly longer and more stepped at the front than this individual.
It was nice to bump into Stephen as well - his local patch is having a really god run at the moment.
Thought I'd post this pic from our summer holiday in New York and Cape Cod. This shot was obviously taken on a whale watching trip from the latter location. A magnificent close encounter with a breaching Humpback was certainly a wildlife highlight to remember - and experienced by all the family as well, which was a real bonus.
Like the whale I am surfacing briefly for air after quite some time submerged... I hope to start posting more regularly again. Probably a drip feed of a few shots from the US to get started again...
