Augusta whales are spectacular indeed and today we watched the communication in full display as breaching and pec slapping rumbled through Flinders Bay with the acoustic thud of surface active whales. Beginning our first interaction with a yearling who was cruising through the bay while listening out to the other whales also sighted in the area, she must have anticipated what was happening next. Another juvenile launched skywards and after a few amazing breaches he then decided to swim our way and we quickly recognised this whale from our previous encounter a couple of days ago. Responding further down the bay was yet more surface active Augusta whales as breaching sent messages to all of the other whales around, “I’m over here!”. One individual in particular was slightly larger than the others and we could see that after joining this whale that she is officially the first of the young adults sighted for our season 2019. Showing the typical flirty behaviour of a female Humpback calling out for some company she continued to breach and pec slap enthusiastically. Looking for a mate can be hard at this time of the season as many of the juveniles are not so interested in courtship behaviour and tend not to take too much notice of these flirty displays. Thankfully for this lovely young female she only has a short amount of time to wait before the mature males arrive off the WA coastline to fill the bay with their energetic displays in pursuit of the girls. It is a good idea for this young female to get some practice in to make sure she is looking and sounding her best for the arrival of the males, we are sure her beautiful breaching and pec slaps will certainly stand out from the migration crowd!
