So, Whales are cool

So whales are cool. On Monday morning City Girl and I made our way down to Bar Harbor to go on a whale and puffin watching tour. We took a boat out to a nearby island to see where the puffins have their borrows. Tons of these little penguin looking birds swooping around, diving for fish in the water and returning to shore. Several of them flew up and over the boat too which was fun to watch. After a short stop with the puffins, we made our way out to the whale feeding grounds!

Petit Manan Island and National Wildlife Refuge

Atlantic Puffins along the coast of Petit Manan Island

Our tour guide Mandy explained to us how to locate the humpback whales. We would either see a fin out of the water, the air from their blowhole or if we were really lucky, one would jump out of the water. (That is rare apparently) Not far into the whale feeding grounds we saw two whales just hanging out on the surface. Mandy explained to us that whales are voluntary breathers. Basically, this means they have to think about each breath they take. So the two whales floating on the surface were "sleeping" but only half their brain was asleep while the other half was functioning helping them swim, breathe and stay alive. We decided to go further into the grounds and came across an active mother named Sparr and her calf. These two kept going under and showing off their tails and then resurfacing close to the ship to give a great look at how large these animals really are. At one point Mandy was explaining something about whale feeding habits when suddenly Sparr surfaced 20 or 30 feet away right along the boat! Mandy was even startled by this and we naturally snapped as many pictures as we could (I'll post these later) One of the cooler shots we were able to see was a humpback on its side, slapping its fin against the water. Unreal how large these animals are. Makes you feel sort of small actually.

Humpback Whales

One of the whales showing off its tale before diving down into the ocean

Sparr and her calf

All in all we saw about 6 whales. 5 were humpback whales and the other was a finback whale (I didn't see this one but it was spotted on the boat) Also saw some dolphins out there. By far one of the coolest things I've ever seen or done. The only thing was it was really cold out when the boat was cruising. Later, we would have loved to have felt that breeze in the hot summer heat. But more on that later.

Until next time!
Nature Boy