Whale Watching

Posted on August 1, 2013August 1, 2013 by Dusty Roads

A friend asked me what whale watching was like. The question caught me off guard. I was on my way to Plymouth to do exactly that, take a Whale Watch trip with Capt’n John.

As we pulled out of Plymouth Harbor I looked around at all the people on the boat and thought about the question. It’s a lot like fishing. You go out with your bait , toss in your line and …wait and wait…and wait and if you’re lucky you get a bite and if you’re really lucky you get a fish.

Well when you go whale watching you get on a boat and ride, and ride and ride some more. Finally someone spots a spout or blow and the boat slows down. Now you wait in one spot while everyone looks around the boat to see if the whale is going to surface any place close. If your lucky you’ll see another blow and maybe a back.

The jackpot or whale watching’s equivalent of landing the fish is having the huge mammal cruise along side the boat giving you a real good look. To borrow a phrase from Animal Planet’s show Call of the Wildman; “That’s live action , Baby!”

Just off the tip of Cape Cod we got we got our first blow with the Pilgrim Tower of Provincetown in the background. Several Minke Whales were passing through. Minke whales are one of the smallest of the baleen whales, growing to only 24-26 ft. Baleen whales are filter feeders. They strain water though the baleen hairs and Krill and other small marine creatures are captured there. Hard to believe feeding this way can result in such a large animal.

They were small and kept their distance (kind of like a nibble in fishing). It was enough to get everyone excited but not close enough for pictures. So we motored on.

It didn’t take too much longer before we got another blow. This time it was a Fin Back Whale and there was more than one. The naturalist kept telling us that the fin backs were the greyhounds of whales around here (Massachusetts) but they didn’t seem to be in a big rush. They cruised along near the surface doing shallow dives and short blows.

At one point one of them cruised right next to the boat . You could actually see it as it began to come to the surface which made timing the picture for when it surfaced pretty easy.

The naturalist was using the size of our boat to estimate the length of the whales. She said they were all around 80 ft. long.

I don’t know how many different whales we saw. I lost track.

I checked Capt. John’s web sites but they didn’t post our trip. 🙁 No humpbacks today. They are my favorite. When they dive you get the classic tail flukes but when Fin Backs dive there’s no tail. It makes me think of a submarine.

There might be a little hump and fin and then it’s gone. In a shallow dive they just seem to sink away.

There was enough action so that everyone came away happy even without the appearance of any humpbacks.

I may just have to try to squeeze in another trip just to try for the humpbacks.

Perishing Puffins

Posted on July 27, 2013July 27, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Ah Puffins, those cute, colorful and comical sea birds , full of character and playfully known as “sea parrots” or even “clowns of the sea”.

I chased them last year in Maine on 2 different occasions. It was an educational experience. Before Maine my exposure to these funny little birds had been National Geographic photos, close ups of the colorful beaks loaded with herring or eels.

With their bright colored beak, white breast and black back, these birds look like a cross between a parrot and a penguin. They are a major tourist attraction since being brought back to the northern Maine Islands about 40 years ago.

I was surprised about how small they are. It makes getting an iconic photo like Nat Geo’s almost impossible. You need access to the islands, not a rolling deck on a tour boat. You need a large telephoto lens and a tripod but I don’t think you need a lot of luck. I saw many puffins and many had the fish hanging from their beaks but they were tiny and distance made capturing that “money shot” a long shot.

Fast forward to this year and a cruise to Alaska. On the maps showing our cruise route were places marked with Puffins. I was hoping that I’d get to see some of the little birds here, maybe sitting on an iceberg or two but if any were in the area they got by without fanfare and I missed them.

Puffins have been on my mind lately. I still want to find a way to get that special photo. The Mass Audubon Society (of which I am a member) had an overnight excursion with special access to the Puffin Colony but the cost was too rich for me at the moment so I let the idea pass so it was with some concern that I watched a news clip today on the state of the Puffins in Maine.

According to the release young puffins died at an alarming rate last season because of a shortage of herring, leaving adults to try to feed them another type of fish that was too big to swallow. Some chicks died surrounded by piles of uneaten fish.

I didn’t hear any of this last year. Maybe it wasn’t shared with the tourists as we tried to line up the perfect shot.

This summer, the chicks are getting plenty of hake and herring, said Steve Kress, director of the National Audubon Society’s seabird restoration program and professor at Cornell University but the report went on to say that researchers are still concerned because occupancy rates in the nest burrows are down this year. Puffins were nearly wiped out in Maine about a century ago. Reintroduction was begun only about 40 years ago.

Puffins raise only 1 chick, known as a Puffling, in an underground burrow. Puffins are less adaptable than many other seabirds so the health of a puffin colony is a good indication of the health of the sea and certain fish stocks.

I hope the colonies recover fully and continue to grow. After all, like so many tourists to Maine, I haven’t got my perfect photo yet!

(The wonderful close ups came from the web. I can’t offer credit for them as the photographer wasn’t Identified nor were the photos watermarked. But these are exactly what I want to take!)

A Bad Day for Southwest

Posted on July 23, 2013July 23, 2013 by Dusty Roads

A Southwest airlines plane landed at LaGuardia airport yesterday without the landing gear locked in place. 12 people suffered minor injuries when the nose gear collapsed on landing.

That’s a lot worse than soggy luggage! I’m glad the injuries were minor!

Dear Southwest Airlines~The letter I wish I’d Written

Posted on July 20, 2013July 20, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Dear Southwest Airlines

I’ve heard so many good things about you. You have fun cabin attendants, open seating, Early Bird Check-In, Priority boarding and BAGS FLY FREE!

Recently I had the opportunity to fly across the country with you round trip. Yup all the way from Providence, Rhode Island aka T.F. Green to Seattle and back again. Everyone was very pleasant, smiling and nice.

I changed planes in Baltimore on the way to Seattle. While I was waiting for boarding I happened to look out and it was pouring. Torrential rains were coming down. I commented to one of my fellow passengers “Wow, look at the rain!” We stood at the window watching the uncovered baggage carts wheel out onto the tarmac and bags get loaded into the plane. Neither of us thought anything of it at the time but when we arrived at Seattle we were greeted by our luggage that was so wet that each bag left a puddle on the baggage carousel. I heard a lot of grumbling.

When the cabby loaded my bag into his trunk he gave me a look and pulled out a newspaper to line the trunk before he put the bag in. I was very embarrassed.

All of my clothing was soaked and had to be dried at my hotel! Maybe the rain surprised your baggage handlers as much as it had surprised us but here’s the thing, on my return trip I had a change of planes in Baltimore again.

You won’t believe what happened…another torrential rain storm swept through.

I wasn’t concerned. I was sure the soaked bags from the outbound trip was just a fluke. I fly often and have never had a problem like this before in spite of rain or snow storms.

Nope. When I arrived at T.F. Green once again the bags, and not just mine, were soaked to the point of having water drip and run out onto the baggage carousel. As if that wasn’t bad enough my bag had the bottom stabilizer broken off so you could no longer stand the bag upright and there were 2 holes were the stabilizer had been anchored. The holes did a fine job of draining the water.

I can only say I am not sure I saved any baggage fees by flying Southwest. I may not have paid the $25- $35 baggage fee of the other airlines but it cost me $89.00 to replace the damaged suitcase as well as the aggravation of drying my clothing in the room and having to wash even clean, but soaked, clothes when I got home.

Clearly bags fly free on Southwest but in the words of Rodney Dangerfield they “Don’t Get No Respect”.

Regards

A Dissatisfied Customer

(Photos courtesy of the internet)

Lets Hear it for Seattle…one more time

Posted on July 19, 2013July 19, 2013 by Dusty Roads

It was the last day of “Boot Camp” (the company’s term for this week of training.) We covered things like benefits, expense accounts and had our pictures taken for the company web site. We also had our “Graduation Celebration”.

I carried my camera to work this time. I wanted one last chance to document this little corner of Seattle.

I wanted to see the “Great Wheel”, a gigantic Ferris wheel on the Waterfront and visit the Public Market aka Pike Place Market known for it’s “flying fish” but didn’t get there.

All this walking had brought on a good case of blisters again and it was a different pair of shoes this time. No idea why I am suddenly plagued with blisters. The best I could manage was a hobble to the drug store for first aid supplies. But the building that housed the drug store was eye catching with decorative trim around the top.