Breaching minke in Head Harbour Passage!

Good evening everyone!

We have been spending time with minke whales on our last four trips of the past 2 days in and around Head Harbour Passage.  This afternoon we had some fog to deal with but we got word of some minkes in a clear spot in Head Harbour Passage off Wilsons Beach, Campobello Island.  Well, to the delight and awe of our passengers one of the minke whales decided to breach a number of times, once quite close to the boat!  It is always a special sight to see any whale breach but to see a minke whale jump out of the water is a very rare sight!

We have been seeing a number of harbour seals hauling out again around Splitting Knife.

Thanks again for checking in and for everyone who joined us aboard the Quoddy Link,

Cheers,
Danielle

Bird Cruise...Fin Whales...Minkes....Still lots to see

Good evening everyone,

I have 2 days to tell you about....yesterday we had 2 trips and it did take some patience, I'm not going to lie but in the end on both trips we found both minke and finbacks and got some amazing looks at both.

This morning we had our second coastal and pelagic bird cruise of the 2013 season and it was a wonderful morning on the water.  Even though we didn't see as many species as we saw last season we still had some highlights....we had some great looks at a bald eagle fishing (a first for many passengers on board), we saw a pair a red-necked grebes and we also saw plenty of surf and white-winged scoters in Passamaquoddy Bay.

This afternoon we headed offshore, we knew there were some minke whales being sighted inshore but the boat traffic was a little too heavy for our liking so off we went.  We ended up off Long Eddy. Grand Manan with 3 minke whales and lots of feeding harbour porpoise.

Thanks to everyone who has joined us over the past 2 days,

Cheers,
Danielle

Flood tide finners

Good evening everyone,

We had an incredible afternoon on the water with 5-6 feeding fin whales on the flood tide!  We got some amazing looks as the whales fed and traveled all around us.

Thanks to everyone who joined, we had a great group of guests with us today,

Cheers,
Danielle

Another FINtastic day

Good evening everyone,

We had 2 great trips today, this morning we spent most of our time off Blacks on the flood tide with 6 feeding fin whales.  We were in the area for about an hour and a half and we stayed closest to a pair that were feeding together.  They would come up so high after being under and their eye would almost be out of the water!  Amazing sightings.

This whale is lunge feeding on it's side

That is seaweed (Fucus sp.) hanging out of the whales mouth

That is the upper railing on the Quoddy Link in the bottom left

This afternoon started off a little slow but we got some great looks at 3 minkes and a familiar finback.  Then on our way home we stopped for a minke whale a pair of fins surfaced right beside the boat, they must have gone right underneath us much to the delight of everyone on board.

Thank You to everyone who joined us today aboard the Quoddy Link.

Cheers,
Danielle

Fins, minkes...EAGLES...wonderful day

Good evening everyone, we had a great day on the water with three trips...

This morning we spent time with three fin whales feeding in a small area on the flood tide.  We got some amazing looks at the whales, their colouring is so beautiful...you can clearing see the blaze and chevrons on the whales, and their lower, white right jaw.

We also saw lots of eagles along the Campobello shoreline. this morning.

This afternoon we spent time with Slice and three other minke whales.  And we stopped with a large group of feeding gulls and cormorants that also included about 10 bald eagles all fishing and eating on the wing.  Amazing to see.  There were also a lot of harbour porpoise feeding as well.

This evening we had a short trip with some students from NBCC St. Andrews and we saw three finback whales as well as an amazing sunset and full moon.

Cheers,
Danielle