CRESLI Whalewatch off Montauk - 19 July 2009

This morning I joined the whalewatch run by Artie Kopelman and his team of CRESLI volunteers. We ran south of Montauk Point through good seas and quickly found some extremely cooperative whales. A mother/calf pair of Humpbacks and at least seven Fin Whales. The whales were actively feeding in surface water and performed admirably. There were fewer seabirds that I expected based on reason tallies from the previous CRESLI trips and from shore-based observations, but still the trip produced a nice tally and again with excellent views.

Cory's Shearwater - 113
Great Shearwater - 270
Sooty Shearwater - 13
shearwater sp. - 1
Manx Shearwater - 1 (on return, less than 1 mile from Point)
Wilson's Storm-Petrel - 410
Northern Gannet - 4
Monarch butterfly - 4 (offshore migrants)