First Day of Winter

The very first day of winter started off chilly but full of sunshine and very quickly the sun chased the morning mist away to reveal a beautiful day for whale watching☀️

Our very first encounter was with a lovely young Humpback who was happily cruising east while staying close to the surface. This was our ID individual for the day and although we couldn’t get a nice photo of his tail flukes he did have very unique markings on his flank which we managed to capture.

There was plenty of birdlife around today with Storm Petrels, Gannets, Albatross, Pacific Gull and a few Crested Terns enjoying a bit of lunch from the few scattered bait fish balls found in Flinders Bay today. Our afternoon tour was very much a similar energy as our morning tour with a further two pods of Humpbacks cruising through the bay.

A beautiful day to be enjoying the company of these gentle giants and with so much sunshine and calm conditions it was hard to believe it was the  very first day of winter!

ID Log
Date – 1.6.16
Species – Humpback
Lat – 34 . 21 . 9 Long – 115 . 13 . 8
Notes – Very dark patch on left flank