Tag Archives: barnacles

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It's always exciting to spot a Gray Whale. They are migrating northward now. Ken Bailey photographed the distinctive tail.

And a barnacle-encrusted head.

The mother/calf pairs aren't too far behind. In the weeks to come, we should be seeing them off our coast. The calves have to get strong enough while in the lagoons off of Baja before they begin their 5,000 mile journey with their mother.

Thanks to Ken for allowing me to share his photos with you here. To see much more of Ken's nature photography, especially his beautiful underwater photography, here is his website: http://www.seadreams.org/

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Ken Bailey spotted this young, pre-adult, Gray Whale feeding off the Mendonoma Coast. It has quite a load of barnacles on its head.

Pre-adult Gray Whale with a load of barnacles by Ken Bailey A Pre-adult Gray Whale spouts by Ken Bailey The barnacled head of a pre-adult Gray Whale by Ken Bailey

Whale expert Scott Mercer took a look at these photos. He said the size of the whale's head tells him it is around three years old.

It's great to see this young whale. Gray whales don't become mature - sexually active - until they are at least eight years old.

Thanks to Ken for allowing me to share his photos with you here. To see much more of Ken's wildlife photography, in particular his underwater photography, here is a link to his website: http://www.seadreams.org/

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Humpback Whales can be seen off the Mendonoma Coast in the summer and fall, though not in great numbers. Ron LeValley went out on a boat from Noyo Harbor in Fort Bragg and came across two Humpbacks. And they came very close to the boat, obviously curious about the boat filled with people. Ron says they were spouted on several times and he had to clean his camera lens three times!

 Below is the tail of a diving Humpback.

 And below the Humpback is about to spout. I have a feeling this is one of the times Ron had to clean his camera lens.

And here is a Humpback's barnacle-encrusted tail fins.  Ron says there are two species of barnacles on this whale - the acorn barnacle, Coronula diadema, which is unique to the humpback and the rabbit-eared barnacle, Conchoderma, a kind of stalked or goose-necked barnacle that settles on Coronula.

Below you will see this Humpback Whale is taking a good look at Ron!

Thanks to Ron for allowing me to share his fabulous photos with you here. To see much more of Ron's photography, here is his website: http://www.levalleyphoto.com/home/

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Lately the Mendonoma Coast has had so much wind that we wouldn't be able to see a whale even if it were just offshore. The Pacific Ocean is filled with whitecaps. But several weeks ago Kathy Bishop spotted a mother Gray Whale with her calf quite close in. As she was photographing them, the calf breached.

Kathy said she knew it was the young calf because the mother was covered with barnacles. What a great photo! Thanks to Kathy for allowing me to share it with you here.