Blue Whales and Fin Whales off San Diego

On the May 12th pelagic birding trip we encountered two Fin Whales together, followed an hour or so later by two Blue Whales.

The Fin Whale is the second longest whale (up to 80 feet), but first in speed. They move right along!

Fin Whale. Mylar balloons are a common form of "garbage" at sea.

These whales are named for their obvious dorsal fins. The third largest whale is the Sei Whale, which has a slightly smaller dorsal fin that is more strongly falcate (curved). The dorsal fin is set back far on the Fin Whale, so you don't see the spout and fin at the same time. The dorsal fin on Sei Whale is not set so far back, so you may see a spout and dorsal fin at the same time.

The left ("dark") side of a Fin Whale.

The right ("white") side of a Fin Whale.

Fin Whale coloration is asymmetrical. The right jaw and baleen is white; the left side is dark. This color difference is readily seen when the whale spouts. I missed a photo of it though.

When it dives, the flukes rarely come out of the water as they do on many other whales.

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Next, the Blue Whale. The largest animal to have ever lived. At 100 feet, they are as long as the longest dinosaur, Argentinosaurus, but twice as heavy. They weigh as much as 40 elephants... or 30 T-Rexes. [The Blue Whale on the BBC page, "Anatomy of a Blue Whale."]

The spout is very tall and thin. By the time you see it, it is too late to photograph it. So you get the following series of views...

Immediate after a blow. Only the blow hole on the top of the head is above water.

The rest of the long head is under water on the right.

The head of a blue whale is very long and pointed, but usually stays under the water except for the blow hole on the top back of the head. The head of the Blue Whale is a little less than 1/4 of the entire length.

Blue Whale swimming to the right. Top of head (right) and upper back visible.

The middle half of a Blue Whale facing right. Small back fin on left, head under water on right.
Once you see the long straight back and small dorsal triangle, you know it's a Blue Whale.

The view above is the middle "half" of the Blue Whale. The head is almost 1/4, from blow hole to snout. The hind 1/4 of the whale is from dorsal fin to the flukes.

Diving Blue Whale. The flukes will follow the back fin as the whale dives to the right.

Forget seeing it again for 20 minutes....

Humpback Whale off San Diego

On January 1st I participated in a pelagic birding trip from San Diego Bay traveling about 15 miles offshore from La Jolla, and back.

We spotted a couple of whales--both Gray and Humpback. Here is a series of photos of one of the Humpback Whales.

Upon surfacing the whale blows immediately with not much body visible above the water. This is a moment later. Blowholes visible on the top of the head (right), and the upper back to the dorsal fin (hump).

The rather sharp triangular peak of the dorsal fin on the back of Humpback Whale. Diagnostic.

Strongly curved end of the flukes also identify Humpback Whales. It's not a tail... whales don't have tails. The underside of the flukes (not visible in this photo) are patterned white and dark, each individualized as a fingerprint. The flukes only rise above the water like this when the whale dives. It will remain down for 10 minutes or so after this view.

It's just not a pelagic trip without albatrosses

Here is my trip report for the May 21, 2016 pelagic trip from San Diego. This was a 12 hour trip. Usually this trip is aboard Grande, but it is in dry dock for annual maintenance. So about 35 of us birders were aboard Ocean Odyssey. Due to the change and having to move the boat, we got a late start.

Ocean Odyssey backing into the dock to pick us up.

Before even boarding we were being watched by this Black-crowned Night-Heron in another boat's rigging.

Black-crowned Night-Heron.

Overhead flew Caspian and Elegant Terns.

Caspian Tern

Another common bird in the marina, and throughout the rest of the day--even far offshore, was Brown Pelican.

Brown Pelican

As we made our way down the bay toward the ocean, we were accompanied by Western Gulls, and one Heermann's Gull.

Heermann's Gull

Soon we reached the mouth of San Diego Bay and passed by Point Loma and entered the ocean.

New Point Loma Lighthouse

We check all the buoys for roosting Brown Boobies. Instead, we found a couple of California Sea Lions. We found boobies later.

California Sea Lion

The San Diego Bay faces south. We continue about 5 more miles in that direction, heading to the Mexican border. We trailed gulls, terns, and pelicans.

Brown Pelican, adult (left) and immature (right)

Brown Pelican

Soon we reached the border with Mexico and turned westward. From here the Coronado Islands, I mean, Islas Coronados, offshore 9 miles from Tijuana, were also only about 9 miles away to our south.

Islas Coronados

We picked up our first Northern Fulmar in this section. They were in heavy molt and can be flightless this time of year. Remembering that fulmars are more aggressively attracted to human food than gulls (if you can believe that) it occurred to me that I had been up since 4 am and hadn't had anything to eat. So I ordered a huge breakfast burrito from the galley. Pelagic birding trips from San Diego are the only ones I know of that regularly bring a cook!

Northern Fulmar

We also picked up our first Scripps's Murrelets. Spring is the best time for this species in San Diego County. Soon we reached the south end of the Nine Mile Bank and turned northward to follow it.

Scripps's Murrelet

There were many small flocks of Sooty Shearwaters throughout the day.

Sooty Shearwater

As we left the north end of Nine Mile Bank and headed northwest across the San Diego Trough, we spied a mixed flock of birds that included a Brown Booby.

Brown Pelican (left), Western Gull (center), Brown Booby (right)

Both Sooty Shearwaters and Pink-footed Shearwaters were in heavy molt. The lack of normal wing surface made them flap more than typically, with less gliding. It also gave them odd wing and tail shapes and odd exposed wing patches normally covered by feathers.

Sooty Shearwater (left) and Pink-footed Shearwater (right)

A relaxed moment

Ahead we spotted the tall blow of one of the great whales. We headed toward the animal on the surface. As we neared it dove. We decided to wait around 10 minutes or so for it to resurface. When it did, we got great views (as previously posted here).

Blue Whale

Blue Whale

As we waited for the whale to resurface and get those photos above, a Black-footed Albatross came in, curious to see what we were doing. I organized and attended over 175 pelagic trips from Oregon from 1994 to 2014. Albatrosses were always the draw and crowd-pleaser. Somehow, a pelagic trip just isn't the same without the friendly albatrosses. They are much rarer in San Diego County waters, but spring--especially May--is the time to see them.

Black-footed Albatross. No white on rump or vent, and no flight feather molt, so probably only 1 year old.

The albatross circled once and landed in the stern for the popcorn chum we were throwing out continuously on this trip. I had one person in the past express disappointment that albatrosses came in to popcorn and cheese puffs like a city park goose. Somehow it spoiled the regal majesty of the bird in his eyes. I guess he had never read Loye Miller's 1940 description of the Black-footed Albatross as a "feathered pig" when it came time to choose food to eat, but a 'gentleman in table manners.'

Black-footed Albatrosses

As we reached waters at the edge of the Thirty Mile Bank we had more flocks of Black Storm-Petrels. Waters were a little roughed up, but we glimpsed a few smaller storm-petrels, of which we were able to identify a couple as Ashy Storm-Petrels and a couple as Leach's Storm-Petrels (a county-first for me!). My attempts at photographing the storm-petrels were unsuccessful. Most were out-of-focus. Over the years I have taken thousands of photos of beautiful waves with out-of-focus birds flying in front. Therefor, I find it most successful to take a picture of the water under where I think the bird is flying, as odd as it sounds. The camera wants to focus as far back as it can on all those ripples, not the little bird in the frame. Here's my "best" storm-petrel shot for the day...

Camera-shy Black Storm-Petrel darting behind a wave.

After we turned around and headed back southeast to travel back across the "less birdy" (but not totally birdless) San Diego Trough, I decided to take a break, eat lunch, and re-hydrate myself. The galley was open and the cook made me a huge burger. Unlike most people, pelagic trips make me hungry!

Sooty Shearwater

Most birds on the return trip were the same. But the lighting and the return with the wind and waves made spotting Cassin's Auklets ahead much easier and we saw scores. Most flushed several hundred feet in front of the boat, so photos were out of the question. In fact, for those who had never seen them before, they really still haven't had a good look. We did get a close look at a few Red-necked Phalaropes on a tidal rip.

Red-necked Phalarope

We encountered more flocks of Sooty Shearwaters. We tried and tried to find some rarity hidden within, but no.

Sooty Shearwaters

Because we didn't get Grande this day, this was a new skipper and crew to bird watching. They did a pretty good job. But sometimes they put the birds on the wrong side of the boat so we were looking into the sun at them. And sometimes they didn't come up stealthily on an arc, but pointed the boat directly at the birds, causing this (below), instead of good photo opportunities. The rough water splashing against the side of the boat didn't help allay the birds' fears either.

Sooty Shearwaters taking flight

Finally, at the south end of the Nine Mile Bank, we turned due east, and a cry of "Jaeger!" went up that quickly changed to "Skua!" I was a bit slow to remember that I had a 10 pound camera around my neck for the past 10 hours, so I was a bit late getting this shot off. It's sufficient for documentation purposes, I guess. Late May is about the earliest you can expect a skua off the West Coast. This is primarily a fall bird that peaks (in this case meaning more than one individual) in early October and is immediately not seen after that. It is rather rare in San Diego waters, even so. My second first-county-record of the trip.

South Polar Skua

Finally I got a decent shot of a shearwater.

Pink-footed Shearwater

This next photo was more an experiment to see if I could anything in focus on flying murrelets. These didn't take off until the boat was quite close, so that helped. The camera focused on the water, but the bright sun aided in keeping a high shutter speed so the wings weren't a blur. The "sweet spot" (settings where I get the most good pictures) on my camera/lens combination is f7.1 and ISO400. So I always shoot aperture priority with these settings and let the shutter speed vary with the light. The left hand bird is back a ways toward those in-focus waves behind. So the right hand bird is a bit soft in focus. If you don't blow up the photo too large it looks pretty good.

Scripps's Murrelets. White underwings and even white chins visible for ID confirmation.

Well, we're just about back, only another hour to go. I saw 7 Brown Boobies in this trip segment. One white-headed adult male approached closely. None of the photos were really good. So I present an artistic mood photo below (that just means it isn't very close).

A Brown Booby soars off toward the Coronado Island, a few miles away in Mexico, where there is a breeding colony.

I had basically tired out by this point. I was still looking for new birds but not counting anymore after we reached a mile offshore. We entered the bay and then slowly motored past the bait docks. They were crowded with cormorants and herons.

Bait dock buddies. Snowy Egret and California Sea Lion.

San Diego skyline and waterline.

Selected seabird trip totals (my sightings only, not entire boat):
Black Storm-Petrel: 316
Brown Booby: 10
Scripps's Murrelet: 19
Elegant Tern: 755
South Polar Skua: 1
Black-footed Albatross: 1
Cassin's Auklet: 35
Sooty Shearwater: 593
Pink-footed Shearwater: 31
Northern Fulmar: 4
Ashy Storm-Petrel: 1
Leach's Storm-Petrel: 2

Apparently, the only species seen by others that I missed was that 2 people saw a Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel (fairly rare here) for a second or two (literally) before it disappeared behind a wave, never to reappear. On the other hand, I was one of less than half the boat that identified the Ashy and Leach's Storm-Petrels. In this case my experience with shape and flight style helps in picking out birds from a flock that are just a bit different.

Blue Whale

The May 21 pelagic birding trip out of San Diego was a great success. I'll be writing about it soon. One of the highlights about 30 miles offshore was a rather close Blue Whale. It dove as we first approached and we decided to wait 10-15 minutes for it to resurface. Even though this was not a bird, it was a great decision. A Black-foooted Albatross flew up to investigate what we were doing! As soon as the albatross landed to eat popcorn and pose for some photos, the whale surfaced.

It has been 10 years since I saw my first Blue Whale. It left a lasting impression on me. I wrote at the time:

"The huge geyser of a spout hung in the air. The dual blow-holes were like washtubs. The smooth, almost translucent blue back kept rolling and rolling until the small dorsal fin finally arose. And then, during the dive, the huge flukes lifted up like a rising apparition, water pouring off every surface. My knees are still weak from being so close to this huge, gentle, monster."

The spout of Blue Whale is typically 30 feet tall.

Information from Wikipedia follows.

Whaling
Blue Whales are fairly fast. Thus, it wasn't until special whale hunting steamships were invented (primarily from the 1890's) that significant numbers of Blue Whales were killed. Peak hunting was from 1930 to 1946.

Worldwide, whale hunting into the 1970's plummeted Blue Whale numbers to the point of extinction (650-2,000 animals). Though Blue Whale populations in Antarctica are recovering at about a 7% per year clip, they remain at only 1% of their original numbers there. The world wide total number of Blue Whales today (5,000-12,000 animals estimated in 2002) is less than 5% of the pre-steamship whale hunting numbers of 275,000. Blue Whale populations in the western Pacific (Japan) have not recovered.

The California population of Blue Whales was never very high. The population today has returned to pre-hunt numbers (2,200 animals).

The blow hole is on the top of the head.

The biggest animal to have ever lived on earth
Everything about the Blue Whale is B-I-G. The creature grows regularly to 80 feet in length, sometimes close to 100 feet. They weigh 80-150 tons. The tongue weighs 3 tons. The heart weighs 400 pounds. The penis is 8-10 feet long. At birth the calves weigh 6,000 pounds, drink 100 gallons of milk every day, and gain weight at the rate of about 200 pounds per day.

75% of the whale is in front of the dorsal fin, which is typically only 9-11 inches tall.

On the other hand, the food that Blue Whales eat--krill--is T-I-N-Y. Krill are shrimp-like swimming crustaceans only 1-2 centimeters (1/16th of an inch is in the middle of this range).

No dieting allowed
While an average adult human may require 2000 calories per day, an adult Blue Whale requires a daily intake of 1.5 million calories! That means straining out of the water up to 40 million krill, equal to 7,900 pounds of krill, every day.

Trivia bonus box: Food calories are actually kilocalories, or 1000 calories. A calorie is the heat necessary to raise one gram of water 1 degree Celsius. The food calorie, or kilocalorie, is the heat required to raise a kilogram (1 liter or a bit more than a quart) of water 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit).

The back is so long that the spout and dorsal fin are not seen above the water at the same time.

Here is the final dive sequence...

Arching the long blue-gray back in preparation for a deep dive...

The last 25% of the whale...

A waterfall pours off the flukes...

Typical Blue Whale fluke shape.

For more information on at-sea identification of the 3 largest whales: Blue, Fin, and Sei, check out the Wild Whales website sponsored by the Vancouver Aquarium.