The Southern Right Whale season is well underway in Augusta as on another beautiful winters afternoon we watched playful calves breach, wriggle and roll next to their mums. One of the youngest calves currently in the nursery grounds is looking that little bit bigger every time we see him/her and today was stretching out in the afternoon sunshine along with mum. Mum gently rolled and lifted her enormous fluke and pectoral fins into the sunshine and her calf quickly followed. Calves will regularly repeat anything that they see mum doing and trying to mimic mums movements is not easy to do at such a young age with limited coordination!
The Bottlenose Dolphins were busy feeding once again and we watched as their silvery bodies raced millimetres below the surface, belly pointing to the sky as they chased down their fast moving meal. It seemed to be a successful afternoon hunting as over fifteen little speedy Bottlenose came over to say hello in and amongst some social activities, celebrating the very good hunting they had achieved. Our older calves and their mums were very relaxed this afternoon and we watched on as breaching from one of the calves displayed that someone had just had a big feed and was feeling very good about themselves! The two adult Southern Rights we met a couple of days ago had now joined with the breaching calves mum. All three adult and little one were hanging out together as they enjoyed the busy times of the Southern Right Whale season. One of the mothers gently swam towards us and it was a privilege to be welcomed into the pod and have her show off her precious calf only meters from our bow.
