The fog
smothering our coastline for the last few days finally lifted yesterday morning
to reveal Whale #2503, Boomerang, and her calf just off the shoreline of Crescent Beach. Diane Lane spotted them from her condo
balcony around 10:00 AM and called her husband, David, who was surveying with
Team 1. Confirming the sighting from the Lane’s balcony, the team called it in
around 10:30 AM. Joy and Becki were making final preparations for an Air Cam
survey and arrived to photograph the pair an hour later.
In the
photo to the right, there is almost a body length separating the two and we saw
this behavior several times while circling overhead. In past seasons, this
separation has been observed with older calves, more toward the end of the
season, as they begin to gain a bit of independence from the mother. The first
sighing of Boomerang was on 20 January with the calf, so the calf’s age cannot
be pinpointed, yet it appears to be fairly young and would be expected to
remain closer to its mother. Did the close proximity to shore provide a safer
environment for greater separation? Do right whales have different mothering
styles? Ah, the questions…they never end!
