Flukes in California Part 1

Well it is summertime and indeed time for a much needed holiday. So leaving the delights of Malibu, Rodeo Drive, Hollywood & Universal Studios behind for a while I managed to get out on a boat into the Pacific Ocean (sort of) and indulge in my other great passion - cetaceans. Long Beach, California was the starting point and the pretty harbour held a surprise (for me at least) in the shape of this Elegant Tern. A white trailing edge, long, droopy bill and splodge of black on the nape all didn't add up to a Royal Tern, so I was quite happy with this, as have done zero homework on the birds here and not seen anything this elegant for many years!

Elegant Tern

Brown Pelican

Other birds around here included lots of Brown Pelicans, they maybe very abundant but I love seeing them flying overhead in small flocks. Great! Lots of Heermann's Gulls, California Gulls and a few Western Gulls were around, 5 Black Oystercatchers flew past and some Pelagic Cormorants were also here.

We left the harbour and made it out into the bay and steamed out towards the open ocean for maybe 40 minutes and it was quite choppy with lots of white water around. Not ideal viewing conditions and it was more like a fairground ride for a while but it calmed down a bit and we were able to pick up several huge blows straight out in front of us.

There were two Blue Whales feeding quite close to each other and we had distant views to begin with.... Before getting closer....

And closer....

And then much closer with the full monty of spouts, visible blow holes and that huge long, pale grey back...

And then we had the classic tail fluke action as these two huge beasts dived...

To be continued......