Recent Sightings

After a full day of rain and wind yesterday, today brought sunny skies, light wind, and excellent viewing conditions.
We had the great pleasure of observering whales in the afternoon with two Marine Science Technology classes taught by Melissa Jenkins at Point Arena High School.
The students very quickly became quite good at spotting the blows of migrating gray whales.

We observed:

* 12 northbound gray whales – one group of three and 9 singles; backs were often visible and several whales also fluked much to everyone’s delight!

TOTAL GRAY WHALES SEEN TO DATE (as of November 1, 2024) =

🐋 ❇️ 391 southbound

🐋 ❇️ 123 northbound

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* 46 harbor seals

* 4 brown pelicans

* 1 great blue heron

* 3 American kestrels

Today was a bit windier than yesterday with winds at 10 mph from the south and gusts of 15 mph. Visibility was good.

At the Point Arena Lighthouse peninsula, we observed:

* 13 northbound gray whales – one loose group of three, 3 duos, and 4 singles

TOTAL GRAY WHALES SEEN TO DATE (as of November 1, 2024) =

🔆 111 northbound

🔆 391 southbound

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* 64 harbor seals

* 2 black oystercatchers

* 1 osprey

* 2 great blue herons

* 2 American kestrels

* 1 gopher

At the Point Arena Lighthouse peninsula, winds were NW at 6 mph with gusts of 9 mph. It was partly sunny and visibility was quite good.

We observed:

* 14 northbound gray whales -one group of three, two duos, and seven singles;
One member of the group of three breached twice; as we watched this group, we did observe minor courtship behavior (some rolling about) as they slowly drifted north, then one member swam ahead

TOTAL GRAY WHALES SEEN TO DATE (as of November 1, 2024) =

🔆 98 northbound

🔆 391 southbound

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* 64 harbor seals

* 3 brown pelicans

* 3 American kestrels

* 1 great blue heron

* 1 Northern harrier

* 2 spyhopping gophers

We observed at Gerstle Cove today. The morning clouds gave way to bright sunshine and excellent visibility. It was windy and blows were often batted down quickly.

* 15 northbound gray whales – two groups of two and eleven singles

TOTAL GRAY WHALES SEEN TO DATE (since November 1, 2024) =

🔆 84 northbound

🔆 391 southbound

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* 27 harbor seals

* 1 sea lion catching a fish

* 1 red-tailed hawk

* 1 great blue heron

* 2 American kestrels

* 3 black oystercatchers

* 1 flock of approximately 60 cackling geese flying north

* 1 osprey successfully hunting for a fish

Good visibilty for most of the day interrupted at times by fast moving thin waves of fog. Very little wind. Blows were easy to spot.

At the Point Arena Lighthouse peninsula we observed:

* 4 northbound gray whales – one pair and two singles

* 42 harbor seals

* 2 American kestrels

* 1 red-tailed hawk

* 1 great blue heron

* one flock of cackling geese flying north – approximately 300 geese

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AT SAUNDERS REEF, we observed:

* 7 northbound gray whales – one group of two and five singles

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TOTAL GRAY WHALES SEEN TO DATE (as of November 1, 2024) =

🔆 69 northbound

🔆 391 southbound