Recent Sightings

After several days of various, but persistent, levels of fogginess, we finally had decent visibility today at Gerstle Cove at Salt Point State Park.

Here we observed:

🔷 2 humpback whales: one about four miles offshore, breaching; the second was six miles offshore also breaching

🔷 at high tide with the haul out sites covered, the were only two harbor seals swimming near the rocks

🔷 2 great blue herons

🔷 1 red-tailed hawk

🔷 1 white-tailed kite

🔷 1 American kestrel

🔷 approximately 75 brown pelicans flying north; 35 flying south; many floating in the ocean for short periods of time

The ocean was calm today but there was offshore haziness that reduced our visibility.

At the Point Arena Lighthouse peninsula, we observed:

✳️ 15 humpbacks – many were breaching multiple times, flipper slapping;
flukes and backs visible

✳️ 57 harbor seals

✳️ estimate of 55 brown pelicans

We had excellent visibility today at the Point Arena Lighthouse peninsula. The ocean was calm and there was no wind.

We observed:

🔆 11 humpback whales – two pairs with a single close by and five singles,
two of the singles breached 6 times

🔆 67 harbor seals at low tide

🔆 1 great blue heron

🔆 8 brown pelicans

We thank Mel Smith for his report of a breaching humpback whale seen from his home in Point Arena. This whale was also tail slapping and flipper slapping.

The day at Gerstle Cove began cloudy and gray but by mid morning, we had abundant sunshine and excellent distinction between sea and sky. We had unlimited visibility all the way to the horizon.

We observed:

💠 18-22 humpbacks, many breaching and lunge feeding between 2 and 5 miles offshore
2 humpbacks, approximately 100 yards apart, breached 6 times simultaneously

💠 18 harbor seals

💠 1 sea lion

💠 2 great blue herons

💠 dozens of brown pelicans flying south as well as north and many diving into the ocean to feed

🔶🔶 Later in the day, we received a report from Richard Charter in Bodega Bay
that he was seeing large numbers of humpback whales from
Duncan’s Landing / Wrights Beach. The whales there were also breaching and
lunge feeding

Quite an amazing day for seeing whales!!

Today we had intermittent fog that greatly reduced our visibility.  However, we did observe three feeding humpback whales less than one mile from shore at the Point Arena Lighthouse peninsula.

We also counted 18 harbor seals.