Whale Redux

I've been tracking the daily stats posted by the LA Cetacean Society folks, and the number of gray whale sightings increased quite a bit this past week, which suggests that the bulk of the migrating whales are starting to pass by the LA area. So I decided to visit Palos Verdes again this weekend. After about 1-1.5 hrs of waiting, I got lucky and was treated to the sight of a cow/calf pair! They were remarkably close to shore and swam around for a long time right in front of the observer area. They circled a lot, and at times you could clearly see the calf surfacing right next to mom. Really cool. At one point, the cow dove down and fluked (i.e., flipped her tail straight up in the air for all to see and admire). I'm still learning the key features that distinguish one type of whale from another, so this fluke was very helpful to me -- it was a perfect display of the heart-shaped tail that is the hallmark of the gray whale. The calf never seemed to leave mom's side -- the observers said that it appeared to be very young. [According to them, the whales are giving birth en route to Mexico more and more frequently, due to changes in the oceans. Which is not good, because the young whales are much safer in the relatively sheltered Mexican lagoons than they are in the open ocean.]

This whale-watching stuff is addictive! When I leave, all I can think about is when I can come back...