A Killer Birthday for Cay

Cay photographing salp at the Monterey Bay Whale Watch Center

Last Saturday I sat in front of the computer and watched hours of video footage on a predation event in Monterey Bay:  A group of orca (the CA-51A group) were hunting a Gray whale calf. 

The next day, Sunday, was Cay’s birthday, and we had plans to go see Avengers: End Game and have dinner in town.  But she’d been wanting to see orca, and readily agreed to take the chance that they’d still be there in the morning.  So we ditched our birthday plans, set our alarms for 4 am (the very latest we could get up and still be on the road in time to make the 9:00 boat)

We got to the bay the morning of Cay’s birthday in good time, checked in, and photographed the huge number of tunicates that bloomed along the shore:

a number of  salp along the dock

a zoom in of a single salp

Once out on the boat, things were pretty predictable: loads of humpback. 

I spent some time playing with the settings on my new camera.  The day was pretty grey: the water was grey, the sky was grey, but there were no Gray whales (there seems to be some irony there) despite it being migration season.

Then the boat turned, and started heading out in high speed. 

Last time this happened, it was for a mixed group of dolphin:  Risso, White Sided, and Right Whale Dolphin.  I had hopes, however, and my hopes raised even more when a humpback breached off our port and the boat didn’t even slow down. 

I nudged Cay.  “Don’t get your hopes up.” I whispered as my own hopes rose, “But this looks like it’s it!”

When we got out close to the other boats that had made the spot, it was very quickly evident what “it” was.  It was exactly what we’d come down to see:

Even at this distance… we were getting really excited.  Oh, and the bird in the photo? Black footed albatross.

The whales were the CA-51A, a subgroup of the 51s, and known to be “boat friendly”.  At one point two of the orca came directly toward the boat, diving under the boat just a few feet away to emerge on the other side.  The whale was literally heading directly toward me, and dove literally a few feet away from me! It was one of the most exciting whale encounters I’ve had.

and no, I was so gobsmacked that I didn’t get a series of photos of that whole thing, but I did get these as they started the approach:

I got so many photos of killer whales on Sunday, but here are a few of my favorites:

We stayed out for some time, watching the orca, then headed back to port. On the way, the crew wished Cay a happy birthday with a silly happy birthday song recording. 

So yea, we missed the movie and dinner, but on the way home I picked up a little cake in the freezer section of Target, and I’m pretty confident that she had a truly memorable birthday.