Humpback and Southern Right Whales in Flinders Bay as our morning was spent with curious Humpback escort pods and a young Southern Right Whale surprised us all in the afternoon. It was a beautiful day with sunshine, calm seas and relaxed whales as shortly after leaving the Augusta Boat Harbour a pod of two were sighted. Making a gentle approach we could see they were focused on heading into the shallows and we followed from afar. Eventually they slowed and we could see the cheeky male trying his best to flirt with the female as he followed her around. She wasn’t all too impressed as her focus wandered towards us for a little while as both lovely adults came over for a closer look. Whales were arriving in the bay which caused these two to continue towards the reef line and away from any possible competition as we wished them well for their journey ahead. We then had the company of five different pods all moving into the bay with one pod in particular very interested in us as they surfaced right underneath our bow from the depths giving everyone a shock as the powerful exhale reached skywards.
The afternoon weather was just as lovely and a similar pattern unfolded as within a few moments of departing Bottlenose Dolphins were sighted and then an escort pod began moving past. Way out on the horizon we sighted three full body head lunges from another pod and watched carefully to see if the conversation continued but such impressive surface activity did the job and they continued on with their afternoon. Joining with this relaxed escort pod they also moved out towards the coastline as the northern migration called. They were very interested in a small dinghy fishing in the bay and as they swam past the two lovely doggies onboard were extremely interested in these enormous mammals swimming straight towards them! The second pod we joined with were moving calmly when all of a sudden they took off quickly and something seemed wrong… what had startled these two whales? Then we sighted that all too distinctive beautiful face of a young Southern Right Whale surfacing and staring straight back towards us curiously. This lovely little whale was giving a fright to every Humpback that swam past as she was quietly watching the world go by and the Humpbacks didn’t notice this young whale before they had almost swam straight into her! A beautiful surprise to complete a beautiful day with the Humpback and Southern Right Whales of Augusta as they continue to bring much joy to each and every day spent with them.
