Birds and Other Nature Sightings

     This past week I took a road trip up to Plymouth, MA for a whale watching excursion. I’ve been wanting to expand my pelagic experiences and ever since my eldest daughter moved up to Rhode Island I’ve wanted to get out on the New England waters.  I had heard that the area known as Stellwagen Bank is a popular feeding location for several species of whales and dolphins.  I decided that if I didn’t make the trip soon I would miss the opportunity for another year.  The weather looked good for midweek so my daughter and sister joined me on the trip. Stellwagen Bank is a marine sanctuary not too far from the Massachusetts coast between Gloucester and Provincetown.  There are many operators offering whale watching excursions to the sanctuary.  Since our home base for the trip was my daughter’s apartment in Rhode Island, I chose the closest one which was in Plymouth, almost 75 miles away.  We chose the morning sail so that afterwards we could sp...

     Last week I was able to get out on the water twice.  Sunday afternoon I met my friend Jason in Keyport, Monmouth County and we took a whale watch outside of the Sandy Hook area.  Less than 12 hours later I joined my friend Captain John on a tuna fishing trip out of Barnegat Inlet, Ocean County.  During the 24-plus hour span I was treated to several up-close whale interactions, saw hundreds of shearwaters and dolphins, and even caught a few yellow fin tunas . On Sunday the whale cruise took us out of Sandy Hook Bay to just a few miles east of land.  Other than the usual inshore seabirds, there was not much marine activity.  But from inside the harbor and out to the ocean we saw many pods of Atlantic menhaden , or bunker as we call them in New Jersey, which was a good sign.  The juvenile bunker is a targeted food for much of the local recreational and commercial fish species.  It is also a favorite food of our whales.  The capt...