Western Australia Winter Whale tours were exciting today as we observed a brand new calf and spectacular surface language from a lone traveller. A beautiful winters day escorted us out to the sighting grounds and on our arrival we observed a young juvenile migrating south and very focused. It is that interesting time of the season where we start to observe the very start of a momentum change from northbound to southbound. The first Humpback Whales in the population to begin heading south are generally yearlings, newly pregnant females or females who have recently separated from their calf and juveniles.
It is still early days but over the next few weeks we will start to see a few more of these individuals starting to head south and begin the journey back towards the feeding grounds in Antarctica. Northbound whales are still aplenty though and today the rest of the pods observed were all northbound whales including a mother whale and her brand new baby who were travelling with a protective male escort. It was encouraging to see this male travelling with them as it will be an extra adult to help protect the young calf on the long journey north. The calf was tiny but very strong as the little one kept up with mum and as pods began to converge one of the adults decided ti make a statement. Launching into a spectacular full body breach, head lunges followed before further breaches making for a beautiful display of the Language of the Whales.
