November whale watching in Perth is a great time to meet the mother Humpback Whales and their darling new calves as they migrate south past the Perth coastline. Today a warm easterly breeze settled in but made for enjoyable conditions with the offshore winds flattening things out. Our first mum and calf were a very interesting pod as mum was only young, perhaps in her mid teens and her calf was extremely confident. The little one swam over to us for a closer look as mum lagged behind, almost seeming to be half asleep. She was relaxed as her boisterous calf wiggled and rolled just below the surface before coming in for another good look at everyone onboard. It is always interesting to meet each Humpback as they all have unique personalities with some of the mums being very easy going just like this lovely female today.
Wishing them well we moved up to a gathering of mums and calves who were practicing the Language of the Whales together. It was lovely to see them all enjoying their morning with one cheeky calf practicing some tail lobs as they approached our bow. Mum joined in and showed the spectacular difference between a calf and an adults version of the tail lob! One of the ships started motors and we watched as the nearby pods responded with the calves breaching, pec slapping and tail lobbing in response. One of the calves had a beautiful jet black fluke and was very focused on perfecting the inverted tail lob. A tricky part of the language to master as it takes a lot of core strength and balance which such a young calf is still building on each and every day. November whale watching in Perth is much fun as we meet the curious, playful and enthusiastic calves making the most of their time in the resting grounds.
