Augusta Southern Rights are counting down the days until the first day of spring and enjoying every moment in the picturesque waters in Flinders Bay, Augusta. The female Southern Right Whales are watching over their ever growing calves and it has been an absolute pleasure to observe them growing and maturing each and everyday. Our morning began with the hustle and bustle of busy Bottlenose as over fifteen individuals all surfaced at once after a feeding dive. Carrying fish in their mouths and a huge plume of poo indicated that it had been a successful morning feeding for these beautiful dolphins. The mothers and calves frolicked in the shallows as we recognised the mother/calf/sub-adult pod from yesterday still all hanging out together. The calm conditions provided the perfect chance to observe every little movement as the calves would bob below mum and with the shadow of their body below the surface and hanging horizontal to mum indicating some delicious 48% fat milk was being enjoyed by the hungry calf.
The beautiful conditions continued into the afternoon and we met one of the older calves in the nursery grounds who is really starting to get big! Seeming very happy to see us, mother and calf were enjoying the deeper water and stretching out with flukes being lifted high. The female patiently allowed her calf to climb all over her as she gently lifted his entire body above the waters surface to have a peak at us. The young calf was looking boisterous after a feed of milk and began to launch into some breaching and head lunging as we excitedly watched on. A special opportunity to watch as this young calf practiced some surface activity and built up some strength and coordination. We were also very excited to learn that this was a little boy, by breaching so high out of the water we were able to capture some images of his lower belly and confirm 100% that this cheeky fellow was a gorgeous boy, congratulations mumma whale! Augusta Southern Rights are precious to spend time with and as mother and calf rested peacefully next to our bow we though to ourselves, how fortunate are we♥️