How many People Does it Take to Count One Whale???

On Saturday, January 26, 2011, I was one of several people to participate in the official Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale Count .

For the first year they have a count site in our development!  I recognized several neighbors, but was apaired up with David who was visiting from Alaska!  Unfortunately, during the official count hours (8am-12noon), the weather was poor and we only saw one whale!  And not all of the members saw that one whale!  The next counts are in February and March hopefully the weather and the count will be better!

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Whales and Stars!

We were sitting outside last night admiring the clear skies and stars and we heard them!  We are beginning to see more activity.  Last Thursday we saw a pair of juveniles whales fin slapping, tail slapping and breaching.  You could see them with your eyes, but it was better using the binoculars!

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First Night Time Whale Sounds

Scott heard the whales last night and was sure they were near our cliffs.  Unfortunately, I slept through the event!

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First Whale Sightings of 2010 - 2011 Season

On October 20th 2010 the first humpback whale was spotted off of Maui.
http://www.pacificwhale.org/content/first-humpback-whale-season-sighted-maui

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The Whales Are Still Mixing It Up!

Around 3PM today (Monday 4/12/2010) we heard what sounded like a whale breach!  We ran to the ocean and sure enough it was a whale breaching.  But not one, not two, but three!  Two adults and one calf were taking tunes.  In all they must have breached over ten time each!  The adults were outstanding often breaching at the same time.  We have never seen this type of breaching activity!  Wish I had picked up the movie camera!!!

This photo I found on the internet (I did not take it!!!), but what we saw was similar.  

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Whales Tails

On Feb 26, 2010 while watching a movie we heard some splashing in the ocean. Upon a closer look we saw two whales playing in the moonlight, a mother and calf. I ran inside to get the video camera and came back to shoot this video!

PS Next time I will have to remember to keep from talking!

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First Synchronized Breach

We just saw our first synchronized breach! We were watching what we thought was one whale breach several times.  Then there were two breachs within seconds of one another and thought, OMG, there are two whales!  Finally, they breached together.

Photo by Nancy Black

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Adult Whale Breaching

Believe it or not there is a whale on the right side of the photo above! We saw an adult whale breach over 10 times.  By the time I got the camera it was moving further and further out to sea. By the time I got it in focus, it was even further out! It was quite close to the sea cliffs when it first started the arial show! Dang, wish I had had the camera ready before we started to watch for whales!!!


This second picture is the same photo, but zoomed in (but not touched up) using photo software.   

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Young'n Breach

Just saw a young humpback breach 2X only 5 yards off our sea cliffs.  First activity today!

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Noisey Night - The Whales were Active

After a noisy whale night, Scott and I got our cups of coffee and sat out on the lawn chairs to see what whale activity we could see at 6AM.  It was a chilly 67degrees and I had my hoodie on and a lap blanket.  We did see some blows from about 4 different whales.  There were aways out, but their bodies were visible without binoculars.  We will try again at lunchtime.

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Largest Whale of the Season

With only seconds to go in the first half of the 44th Super Bowl, we thought we heard a door slam next door.  Turned out to be a whale breach.  We went outside to witness, I believe a male humpback, breach about 5 times with the last his best!  He leaped nose first high into the air turned almost 360 degrees with fins flapping in the air!  Scott had turned his back to go into the house and missed it.  This was by far the largest whale I have seen off the sea cliffs!  Cool!

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Big Breach

Although we did not see much whale activity today, we saw a single adult breach not too far off the cliffs.  It was a treat!

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The Energizer Baby Humpback

Most of the morning and early afternoon we have been seeing a pod of three whales, mother, baby and escort.  They would surface, blow and maybe dive.  They stayed in the area.  Got close to cliffs many times.  Well, oh my goodness if that little baby didn't just start breaching as it moved away from the cliffs.  First one, then another and another and another and another...  I lost count,, but it must have been in excess of 25 times!!!

Scott got the camera, but it was hard to focus and the little guy was moving fast away from the cliffs.   This is the best shot we got.  the baby is on it's way up into the air!

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Humpback whales thriving in Hawaii

Todays local newspaper, the Hawaii Tribune Herald has an article stating that the humpback whale population in Hawaii is up 6% a year.  At that rate, they estimate that as many as 12,000 humpback whales come to Hawaii in the winter.  Maui is still the best island for whale watching.  However, they are around all of the major Hawaiian Islands.  We have seen lots of activity from our sea cliffs this year and the peak is yet to come!

Although I did not take this picture, we have recently seen two whales swimming in unison like these two!

February is Humpback Whale Awareness Month - do you think there is a greeting card for that???

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What was That?

Last night we went outside to listen to the whales.  We heard the typical blow and grunts.  However, in addition we heard a new sound - it was a grrrrrrrr or brrrrrrrrrrr.  Kind of like a motor running.  We know it came from the whales because the sound moved in the ocean.  Hmmmmmmm?

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Early Morning Whale Sightings

We heard the sound and by the time we looked at the ocean, we only saw the surface water markings of breach, dang!   Then we spotted two small pods of 2-3 were only 50-100 yds off our cliff.  We saw backs and flukes as they seemed to glide away...  Hopefully they will back!

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Whales, Whales, Whales...

Yesterday in the late afternoon, we saw our first whales of the day.  I spotted them from the guest shower.  We watched three pods until it was time to make dinner.  One was very close to the cliffs and we could hear the blows.  The other two pods were further out so binoculars were needed. Scott watched a baby breach and tails slap.  Then in the night, we heard the most amount of whale sounds we have heard this season.

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Night Time Whale Activity

Last night I heard whales breaching and tail slapping.

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Westward Bound Today

We took a road trip to the west side today, with the goal of hitting COSTCO!  Instead of going over the saddle road we went up the Hamakua Coast through cowboy country to Hawi and down the coast to COSTCO!

We hadn't been to Hawi in about 4 years and nothing has changed, except that we saw a wind farm for the first time!  We continued south and stopped at two State Parks to watch the whales.  Lots of whale activity, but they were quite a ways from the shoreline and binoculars were need if you wanted to see more than water splashing.  We saw two breaches in unison and one whale must have body rolled and slapped it's tale for 10 minutes.  We finally had to move on...

We stopped in at Hualalai Resort to get a look at the Champions Tournament.  We were not allowed into the resort because of the golf tournament, but we did ask for a beach pass.  So we walked to the beach and headed along the path to the 17th tee box.  No one stopped us.  We saw Loren Roberts and Tom Watson tee off.

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Lunchtime Entertainment

Scott and I were kept entertained during lunch watching a mother and calf off our sea cliffs.  the young calf seems to have learned the "tail slap" technique!

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