There have been hundreds of birds in the sky of late and reports of whales in close. I’ve been driving down to the beach, checking out my favorite locations. Spouts have been frequently in sight, closer experiences less often. But in the last few days I’ve had some great views.
After seeing some distant blows out on the water, since the whales were not close, we decided to take a nice stroll along the beach south of the Pacifica Pier. It wasn’t long before we noticed breaching whales out toward the horizon. It was clear they were Humpback Whales. They were not close, but jumping out of the water with what we could only think of as playful enthusiasm.
It was soon clear there were two, and they kept jumping. These were not full breaches, last only about 3 seconds, but about half of their massive forms were lifting out of the water. Over and over again. It was a magical experience.
The next morning I was out again at cliffs further north watching the Pelicans and three gray whales came up to the cliffs leisurely swimming along. They were not as active as the Humpbacks but did treat me to some white surfing views.
My standard wildlife kit these days, the Canon R5 and the RF800mm lens came in very handy, although I still had to crop the photos.
Stephen Johnson Photography Blog 