Humpback whales at St Vincent's beach

An overview of the whale-watching beach area

Somebody wanted some whale pictures, so here are just a few of today's shots, hopefully will give you a flavour for the viewing here. Of course I missed the best shots. Like a fish story eh, "you shoulda seen the one that got away!".

We weren't alone on the beach, other watchers came and went. Apparently it just gets busier from here on in, as more and more whales come in:

For a while we were parked at that shelf below the two houses

And got shots like these. You can just see a whale spout left of center

 

You can just barely see vehicles on the right above. That's where we were parked most of the day. The real challenge for pictures was being in the right spot at the right time.

 

A big flipper. Trying to swat that bird?

This is the most common type of whale shot

This pair hunted together a lot. Mother and calf likely.

 

Two whales leapt here, almost together

For a while two whales were synchronizing tail slaps, likely to scare caplin (fish) into tighter schools, easier to catch. This went on for 10 minutes or more. They'd raise their tails, maybe 15 seconds between slaps, and bring them down flat on the water. It often sounded like gunshots to us, and must have put pressure on the caplin schools:

Both tails raised together

This sequence shows one slap

These next 2 show the end of a synchronized slap:

The slapping action was close to shore sometimes:

I did catch the odd breach too, where the whales are mostly out of the water. There is usually no warning, like a spout, so are hard to catch. These are pretty exciting be be close to:

We got to St Vincent's about 10 am, and have been here all day. We've been on several whale-watching cruises on other trips, and none have shown us views like we're getting here today. 

We're going to camp here overnight, and see what the morning brings. Hopefully not fog and cloud! This has been a gorgeous day.