So much to report.... Whales, Dolphins, Birds, Photographer, and so much more....

Feel free to click on each image to see a larger version of it.....



Well, the Gray Whale season has come to an end, which means the Blues are on their way... Like the Humpbacks this year, the Blue Whales have already been sighted in the Santa Barbara Channel... The Blues bring another "strange" occurrence to the channel this year. The first sighting this year was on May 1st by a whale watching company. Last year it was June 1st, and the year before that was July 1st. Hmmmm.....

The Humpbacks were amazing here in the eastern end of the Santa Barbara Channel. Lots of activity; bubble netting, lunging, breaching, peck fin slapping, tail fluke dancing, dolphins over, under, all around them, birds after their food....... One day the winds were up and these two Humpbacks were very active breaching everywhere. I got a couple of breaches on film back lit by the sun. You never know when they are going to breach and where, so you have to be ready at all times. A lot of the “good lighting” breaches I missed. It was almost time to leave and after a deep dive, the one Humpback surfaced and did a “tail dance”. I was focused on the slow, turning tail as it fluked when just 30 feet away from the tail dance, the second one decided to do a single breach and all I got of it was the large splash after it hit the water and of course, it was under beautiful lighting conditions. That was the last of the breaches for the day as it was time to return to the harbor. Other days there were blows all around us... It was amazing to see so many whales out in the channel at once with the question arising: which whale do we check out first??? Then of course, we had days that we didn't see a single whale, a single dolphin nor Ca Seal Lion.

Tail Dance

Bubble Net Feeding

A few times, the Humpbacks would do a surprise visit close to the boat. I know a couple of times it was so overwhelming, unbelievable that it was hard to snap a photo, even when they were in action in the distance. Such amazing animals, that it was just so enjoyable to watch and not through a viewfinder.

On another day when we were heading towards a couple of Humpbacks, off in the distance, in front of Anacapa starting on the east end near Arch Rock a breaching whale appeared out of the water. The Gray Whale breached about 7 times all the way across Anacapa Island. The photos are not the greatest due to being so far away, but here is the series of what I was able to photograph. This was the first time I have ever seen “action” from a Gray Whale. Usually it was always just slow moving, barely appeared out of the water and a tail fluke here and there of a Gray.

click to enlarge:

Due to the fire (traveling from Ventura to Santa Barbara), and other responsibilities, I wasn't able to attend the Gray Whale Count for a few weeks, which led up to the last day; yesterday. My interpretation of reports from the count, there was a lower number than usual of Gray Whale Calves this year. The reason is unknown, but will probably be assessed. The days I did attend, the count was zero during my shift... Quite frustrating for me, but still enjoyed the Otters, Dolphins, Pelicans and just the beautiful coastal scenery of the area. I missed not attending the last few weeks.

Sea Otter just outside of Ventura Harbor

Unfortunately, this year, I didn't get to see any Gray Whale calves, which means no photos of them for my project. So, now the question arises, do I finish my project without the calves or do I wait another year to see what 2010 bring me??? I don't necessarily need a calf photo to complete my project, but they are a big part of the Santa Barbara Channel, so I think it's important to have one.. I guess I just answered my own question. :) However, on one occasion out in the channel, we saw 3 Gray Whales mating; an unusual occurrence during their migration, but I had the opportunity to photograph one of the Gray Whales eyes when it surfaced to check out the surrounding area, maybe to just check us out. It is not the sharpest photo unfortunately, but good enough to still share. :)

So many different types of Dolphins in our channel as well, but so far I have only encountered 3, but hope with months still left this year, I will have encountered several more. Common Dolphins, Bottlenose Dolphins both offshore and near shore, and the beautiful Pacific White Sided Dolphins, I have photographed this year. Risso's and Dall's Porpoises have been sighted in the channel several times already this year, but not in my view site.

Bottlenose Dolphin

Pacific White Sided Dolphins

I was out one day viewing some Common Dolphins milling around a feeding Humpback when suddenly the dolphins took off north in a sprint. Sprint doesn't even begin to describe what I saw, but that is the closest I could come to in describing it. It was fascinating and unbelievable. They just took off porpoising out of the water at a fast speed. Lots of splashing, chaos going on. The captain thought the dolphins might of received a "call" from another group of dolphins letting them know they found food.

A rare sighting occured on another day; a Fin Whale out in the Santa Barbara Channel heading northwest. We got a couple of good close looks at it when it came quite close to the boat, but like the Humpback whales, they are very unpredicatable on where and when they will appear. Being so big and having longer down times, they can come up ANYWHERE.

I have finally learned some more about Sea Lions & Seals since we have them here in the Santa Barbara Channel. I knew there were different types of Seals, but didn't realize that Sea Lions were not seals and I have had a hard time distinguishing which were Sea Lions and which were Seals. Now I can. :) YEA!

Harbor Seals

California Sea Lions

2009 has brought a new interest to me in my photography..... Birds... I wouldn't necessarily say all birds, but definitely marine birds.. Cormorants, Pelicans, Sandpipers, and still learning names of others that I have crossed paths with in the last few months. They are not easy to identify even using a bird guide book. Therefore, if any of you see a photo that I have identified wrong or has not yet been identified, and you know the name of it, please let me know. Thank you... :)

Pelicans, Cormorants, Gulls

Sandpiper

Cormorant

Feeding Frenzee:

Pelican taking off:

Here is a photo of Anacapa Island (Ranger Station, Water House, Visitors Center), Santa Cruz Island of Prisoners Harbor, and a look at a part of Ventura, California.

Before I end this post, I want to share with you of an opportunity I had in the midst of all this... I had the fine pleasure of meeting Tim Hauf who is a real down to earth nice gentleman. He is a wonderful photographer and has many beautiful books out on the market. You can see some of his photos and a list of his books.

Go here for a list and links to the galleries I added photos too yesterday on my website.

So until next time.... Take care ...

My finest regards,

Michele

God's Creations..... Tuesday, March 3rd..

Please note that these images are not 100% processed yet. I wanted to share with you my day, so I decided to fully process these later, but get a couple of them up now to share. :)

Yesterday was an amazing day out in the Santa Barbara Channel just off of Ventura.

Just off of Santa Cruz Island, we came upon two Humpbacks. They were feeding in the area and we watched a few cycles of blow with a couple of lazy tail flukes. After about 20-30 minutes, the crew decided to head over towards Anacapa Island to check out the very large group of Common Dolphins heading our way. They love the boats. Well, as we were turning around to head the opposite way of the Humpbacks, someone yelled, "Wow, look at that breach". They Humpbacks breached three times in a row and a spy hop. They have been known to do that when you start leaving them. Its almost like they are saying, "don't leave".

We waited to see if anything else was going to happen, but just a couple of breathing cycles and a tail fluke (wave good-bye) as they went on their deeper dive, so we headed off to the dolphins.

Dolphins were EVERYWHERE. Thousands of them. Yes, thousands. Even little babies tagging along beside their mother. In some areas, the water was like glass, shiny blue... Just beautiful!

Dave; the captain took us around to Arch Rock (east end of Anacapa Island) to view the Harbor Seals on the rocks. They were sunbathing as the sun peaked through the clouds as the Pelicans were flying everywhere.

As we headed back to the harbor, we kept our eyes out for a northern migrating gray whale, but we didn't see one. Its a hit and miss right now as we are in-between the southern and northern migrations, but it was still a fabulous day.

Hope everyone is doing good. Have a wonderful week... :)

What's Up With Mondays????

Hmmm... As I sat there today at the point keeping an eye out for a whale, I was wondering what was up with Mondays... Why Mondays seem to be low number days where the other days, ya know the days I am not there, having much higher count of whales passing by the point or milling around out near the islands in the far distance? My partner quickly agreed as we laughed.

Yesterday started the fifth week, and due to a lot of time not being able to count because of the bad weather, the count team has reached a total number of 97 northern migrating gray whales. Only about 10 of those have occurred on a Monday and definitely no Humpbacks in the distance, on a Monday.

Today we did see one gray whale surface twice before it disappeared into thin air. Yes, another day of a shy whale. However, later in the day, after my shift, they spotted two gray whales and could track them a short distance.

We had two otters in the area surviving the high surf from the weather. A couple of beautiful white Egrets, some Pelicans faking us out with splashes making us think possible blows out towards the islands and a dozen Bottlenose Dolphins passing by heading east (south).

Have a great week....

P.S.
BTW... Another mammal appearing in the Santa Barbara Channel extremely early this year; the largest mammal in the world; a Blue Whale was sighted off of Santa Rosa today by a whale watch company. When a Blue Whale is sighted in mid May, that is considered early, but for some reason, the whales are appearing early in the channel this year.

Monday - Gray Whale Count

As I left Ventura yesterday, I was still a tad concern about the weather. It was overcast and lightly raining when I left and still so driving through Carpenteria before I saw white clouds, blue sky and some sun peaking out in Santa Barbara.

It was semi sunny, cloudy, and overcast at Coal Oil Point in Goleta, but high hopes that it was only going to get better, and it did. :)

There were 3 Sea Otters just east (south) of the point in the kelp off of Isla Vista. Mostly relaxing and enjoying the warm sunshine. As the day went on, one bathed itself and then went on a sea urchin feeding with an obnoxious bird hanging around.

The first Gray Whale sighting via blow was made by the researcher himself; Michael Smith just west of us and just on the other side of the kelp which is fairly close to shore. However, that was the only time he saw the whale.

About 40 minutes later, the other volunteer saw 3 Gray Whale blows in the distance just east of us. Michael and I both saw some blows and an arched back as it took its deep dive and that was that. Quite bizarre and frustrating, but we are assuming they were feeding which makes it very difficult to track.

That pretty much covered my 2-hour shift... Look forward to next Monday to see what it will bring as we are getting into the northern migration season, and its very unusual and early, but Humpbacks have already been appearing in the Santa Barbara Channel.

Have a great week! :)