Tag Archives: Gray Whale Calf

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Paul Brewer recently photographed this Gray Whale calf spyhopping.

You can see the calf's mother on the left side of Paul's photo. Spyhopping is when a whale comes out of the water vertically, seemingly taking a look around. Maybe the calf was taking at look at the Brewers! These Grays are headed northward to their feeding grounds in the Arctic.

Thanks to Paul for allowing me to share his photo with you here. To see much more of Paul's nature photography, here is his website: http://www.capturingnatureswonders.com/

We are having cool weather with a high fog today. Warmer weather is to return next week.

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Frank Coster was at Jenner with his camera when he noticed a Gray Whale calf and its mother, quite close in. Here is the calf, taking a good look around!

And here is the calf with its mom.

In the last photo you can see how close they were to the crashing waves - that's pretty darn close!

The vast majority of the mother/calf Gray Whale pairs are still making their way out of the birthing lagoons off Baja California. Only a few have made it to the Mendonoma coast, so we have many days and weeks ahead to see them pass by. As for me, it never gets old seeing them. Knowing that they are passing by on their oh-so-long migration northward warms my heart.

Thanks to Frank for allowing me to share his photos with you here. You can find Frank and see his wonderful nature photos on Facebook at this link: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100013869702560&fref=search

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Richard Kuehn has been enjoying the mother/calf pairs now passing by the Mendonoma Coast. He caught this great photo showing the baleen of a juvenile Gray Whale. The calf's mother is close behind.

A Gray Whale calf shows its baleen with mom close behind by Richard Kuehn

The baleen is a filter-feeder system where the whale takes in water. The whale then pushes the water out and the animals in the water, such as krill, are filtered by the baleen and become food for the whale. However, this calf is still nursing.

Rich saw this calf breach twelve times! Earlier in the day a Gray Whale calf  spyhopped and Rich got that photo too.

CA Gray Whale calf spyhopping by Richard Kuehn

Thanks to Rich for allowing me to share these photos with you here.

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Gray Whales, mostly mothers with their calves, have been spotted every day this week. On Thursday Rick and I saw spouts from Highway One.

This is what you look for - two spouts seen on the calm ocean.

 As we drove into Gualala we saw more spouts just off the mouth of the Gualala River. Here is a big spout (behind the rock) of the mother and a little spout of the calf.

 Below the calf has spouted again and you can see the back of the mother Gray Whale

 And here is the tail of the calf.

Clouds may obscure our view for a while as several storms are headed towards the Mendonoma Coast. But we know the whales continue on their long journey, the longest migration of any creature on Earth.